"Who exactly is Jesus?"
This has been a prevalent question among around 100,000 people. These are people who are overlooked inside many churches. They may be frequent attendees who do not comprehend the messages, hymns, doctrines, or many other fundamentals of the Seventh-day Adventist faith.
It is expected that members would have the awareness to identify these searchers in their churches. Well, they have! The only issue is they don't know how to interact with them. They are the people labeled as “deaf” and can only communicate through sign language.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in every 1,000 people worldwide is deaf. While the figure may appear little, it represents millions of people worldwide who are deaf or hard of hearing.
According to the Philippine National Statistics Office (NSO), 76,875 people were deaf or hard of hearing in 2000. This was expected to rise by 200,000 in 10 years. People with disabilities (PWDs) have grown from 1.23 percent to 1.53 percent of the overall Philippine population 15 years following this census. PWDs today number over 1 million, with a sizable proportion of them being deaf.
Notwithstanding these figures, God has not turned His back on His beloved people, particularly those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The Deaf Ministry of the Adventist Church in Pasay City (PAC) was established in 2009 to cater to the needs of its deaf brothers and sisters.
Through its various programs, the ministry aims to spiritually nurture deaf brethren, provide emotional and psychological support through fellowship, and create an awareness of and sensitivity to their needs within the church. The group started with the vision of then PAC senior pastor, Aser Bacdayan, and the efforts of Lychel and Cheard Gabuco and their families. The ministry started with a meager five deaf members and three hearing volunteers. As the years went by, the ministry expanded to several churches within the domain of the Central Luzon Conference, such as Marikina and Ortigas. Furthermore, the call to reach the deaf has been brought farther south of the Philippines to different sites in Mindanao. With this expansion, the group has become a larger body called Adventist Deaf Ministries International – Philippines, operating under Adventist Possibility Ministries.
Even with all the changes, the goal remains the same: bring the message of Jesus’ love to the deaf and hard-of-hearing in any part of the world through any means necessary and available. As the Lord is leading this ministry, the programs, activities, and numbers will continue to increase.
The original version of this story was posted on the Southern Asia-Pacific Division website.