“Meditate upon these things; READING…

give thyself wholly to them; EXHORTING…

that thy profiting may appear to all.” DOCTRINE…

1 Tim. 4:15 (see v.13, 1 Tim. 4)

“How do you know that you are not just wasting your life?”    Seth, deaf student at CSDF

“How does someone get faith when God doesn’t show himself?” Joshua, friend of Seth

An unusual opportunity was presented to us this month in the form of a basketball tournament with 9 deaf schools from around the nation competing in N. CA.  Our church was able to secure a table for 3 days (8 AM to 8 PM each day) and freely give out the gospel to students, staff, and community members visiting the event.

Not everyone was open to ask questions like the two teenagers who approached our table at separate times; we found some of our literature scattered on tables or the ground after placing it into the hands of deaf souls.  After handing out 40 copies of the gospel of John to team members exiting the cafeteria and having a good discussion with a deaf believer from a sister church in WI, I found a single ripped up copy of God’s word in the trash can outside the cafeteria!  When I told one of my colaborers, he shook his head and signed: “his blood is on his own hands on judgment day…he rejects the blood of Jesus for him.”

Probably the most exciting thing to see was the response of children bored of basketball whom regularly converged on our table and would point at the pictures from the Old and New Testament asking “What is that?” or “Is that a story or REAL?”  One 7 year-old girl collected up tracts to give to her friends who did not want to lose their seat at the game while another girl brought a group of about 8 friends to watch one deaf drama that we played on DVD.  A deaf man who turned his head away (that means “shut-up” in sign language) when I tried to talk to him twice about God’s impending judgment of the world even told one of my colaborers that the DVD was “very good quality” after watching the children sit down on the floor to watch the 15 minute clip through twice!

Outreach often does not have immediate results; one deaf administrator mockingly asked me as I walked through the halls during the day “How many souls did you save?  How many?”  I responded that only Jesus saves but I was sowing many seeds!  Two seeds that were planted years ago have started to yield fruit and for the preparation of the soil (to be good and produce fruit) we ask that you pray for Emerald and Megan.  We met Emerald on the BART train during the summer of 2006 and her mom allowed her to visit our church for the first time a week before this outreach at the deaf school.  We indirectly met Megan through a call from a hearing mother in fall of 2008 that seemed not to result in a visit.  Indeed, it was a friend of Megan’s that brought her to Bible study a month ago and only after we visited her home did we realize that we already knew her hearing mother!

While Seth and Joshua allowed me to show them a verse, Emerald and Megan have now come under the regular preaching and teaching ministry of our church.  Indirectly, these two young women’s testimonies answer the questions of the two young men:

“Faith comes by hearing (understanding), and hearing by the word of God…” Rom. 10:17

“…my word…will not return unto me void but will accomplish that which I please…” Is. 55:11