Bible Society Seeking to Reach Middle East's Deaf Community before ISIS
- Amanda Casanova ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor
- Updated Dec 29, 2015
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The Deaf Bible Society says it is trying to reach out to deaf people in the Middle East before the Islamic State can manipulate them.
"The Lord's really given us an opportunity to make an impact with the Gospel among the deaf, today unlike any other time in history," says J.R. Bucklew, president of Deaf Bible Society, in an article published by Mission Network News on Monday.
"While the hearing community is pushing the deaf aside," Bucklew added, "the deaf Church has an opportunity to grow exponentially.”
According to the Christian Post, the Islamic State has begun reaching out to deaf people to recruit them. The Islamic State promises “empowerment” and stature.
"So, we have to provide them a resource that they can look at. It's not my words. It's not your words. It's just God's words, so that they can gauge and say what is true hope. Not only hope for today, but hope for eternity," Bucklew said.
The Deaf Bible Society is working with other Bible translation organizations to give deaf people in the Middle East access to the Bible.
"We built the text based on the spoken language, based on sound. So, even for the deaf that learn to read, it's mostly just memorizing symbols that represent a sound that they have no way to identify with," Bucklew said.
"Then they are just matching symbols with things that are tangible in front of them. The spoken language in a text form is always a second language to them. They are not able to identify with them as you would a sign language."
Publication date: December 29, 2015