A sign-language visit, and a goodbye

I had SUCH a great day yesterday!  Let me tell you about it!

The highlight was a morning in the ministry with my friend Laura.  She has learned Mexican sign language when she lived in Mexico for a few years, and has started to help the deaf here in Guatemala. Yesterday, I got to go with her to Sololá, a town up the mountain from us.

She studies with a woman named Maria, perhaps 35 years old, who seems to have been deaf since birth.  She also has never learned to read anything, and does not know any 'official' sign language.  Her mother just died a few days ago, the apparent result of a fall and bad medical care. She is bereft - but knows that when Laura comes, she will learn things that make her happy.

When they first started, she didn't even have a concept of there being an invisible God.

Laura uses videos that use both sign language and imagery to communicate Bible themes.  Though Maria doesn't know any actual sign language, its descriptive nature and the background images help her to get the idea. This one talks about the hope for those who have died, that she can see her beloved mother again in a paradise earth.  It refers to Revelation 21:3, 4.  So Laura showed her the video, and then also used rudimentary signs to help her to understand the concept of resurrection.

Laura also has compiled a scrapbook (seen above) with images on various themes, and she points to them as she teaches. 

Just minutes before this, she was crying over the death of
her mother. She is now happy after talking about the hope of
a resurrection for her mother.  

Another very clever thing Laura does is to draw a hand doing a sign, into Maria's booklet Listen to God. For instance, the sign for Jesus is to alternate using the middle finger of each hand to tap the palm of the other hand.  So next to a drawing of Jesus, Laura draws two hands with dots in the palms to show the name of Jesus.  (Since she doesn't read, even the brief Spanish text is meaningless to her.)

Laura and Maria

As I sat there watching and listening, I was moved to tears to imagine the joy that Jehovah was feeling upon watching this extremely humble woman react so warmly to a conversation about Him and his son Jesus.  She had such joy and relief.  Jehovah must yearn for the day when he will unstop her ears, as Jesus demonstrated in his time on earth, and as it promises in Isaiah 35:5.

I found these statistics when I was looking something up:  As of a few years ago, Jehovah's Witnesses publish DVD programs in 43 sign languages, and have 1,200 sign-language congregations around the world!

Before she left, she insisted on knowing when Laura would come back.  She pounded the table and put up one finger (for one day), and shook her hand to say "no"; she pounded a second time and held up two fingers, and indicated no... until they got to fourth day, and she pointed and pounded the table to say "YES you will be here on the fourth day!"  

Saying goodbye. 

We also have to soon say goodbye to our new friends, Ugo and Tiziana La Spina.  They have been staying here for a month or more already, from Italy!  They had planned to stay a number of months, but she just got news that her father is not well, and they will likely need to go back to help take care of his needs. We will miss them so much!

We are truly a "great crowd" from all nations and languages!  We have come to know people from all over the world here in Panajachel.  We truly feel like family, and it is such a joy.