"Where did you find him?": God and ASL (Part 2)

In a previous post I talked about our difficulties finding an interpreter for church, and I mentioned some of the reasons why we think it's important to have one. Let me just say: thank God for the men in our church. Here's why.

We recently changed churches. When we moved from the 'burbs to the city we were much closer to another church in the same denomination. So it seemed to make sense to make a move. We were worried about what would happen with all the work we'd done with our session, but decided to at least visit the closer church to say 'hi, we're in the neighborhood.'

Well, let me just tell you. They were all over Ellis. We soon discovered that two members of the congregation have ASL in their background. One of them helps lead the singing, and within a few Sundays of our visiting started translating the songs as she was leading the singing. The other teaches Ellis's sunday school class, and she too immediately began using ASL wherever she could.

Completely on his own, the pastor started using what few signs he could pick up during the week in his sermon. I think he must have picked up the sign for "life" when they came for dinner one night. The next Sunday he was using the sign whenever he said the word. And he's added to his vocabulary since then.

He's also started asking the whole congregation to sign "Amen" at the end of every prayer, and he's asked us whether we would teach everyone how to sign the Lord's Prayer so we can do that together, too.

And I've noticed that as I'm translating hymns and such for Ellis in the pew, people behind me are trying to follow along. And some people are even turning around to be able to see and follow.

And the session at our old Church? They contacted the new church and offered to help out with the transition. They even had several joint meetings with our family and reps from each church's session.

So, yea. Like I said. Thank God for the men in our church.