Fred Christiansen
Deaf children sav thank you
! : : for your offerings.
In the late 1700s a French abbot was visiting the
homes of his parish. At one home the mother of
twin deat girls, concerned for their salvation.
begged him. ">What will become of my girls”? Must
they perish for lack of knowledge?”
In response to that heart crv, the Abbé De |'Epée
formed the first school for the deaf and the first
formal sign language. And it was there that
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a young pastor,
earned how to do the same for America.
My wite and I learned how that French mother
felt when our 6-month-old baby daughter. Mo-
nique. totally lost her hearing. In technical terms.
with a hearing loss of more than 100 decibels. she
was profoundly deat. My wife and I were nearly as
deeply saddened as it there had been a death in the
family.
Not only were we sad because she had lost her
hearing: we were 1n anguish over some very impor-
tant consequences. How could we tell her about
Jesus —that He is her Friend? How could she learn
to pray? How could we tell her Bible stories? Oh!
how we wanted her to know the Bible heroes and
heroines — Esther, Joseph. and Daniel! What had
been so easy to communicate to her sister now
presented a great challenge.
Through prayer and the ministry of friends, it
became clear that our tanily must learn sign lan-
guage. We could not wait. Monique could not wait
the vears that it takes to learn to lip-read a suffi-
cient amount of what 1s spoken. She needed lan-
guage now so that she could tell us when she was
happy. sad. scared. or hurt! She needed language
now su she could understand those wonderful
words — Jesus loves me!
So it was that we began taking sign language
classes. At home we would sign simple prayers,
such as "Thank You. Jesus, for the food. Amen.”
We would tell Monique simplified Bible stories.
May 5
Sometimes it was hard for her to visualize the
story. We had to learn to be more animated. to put
more expression into our eves, faces. and bodies.
We used dolls to act out stories. We did skits.
Monique began to understand who Jesus is.
The Need
Like her hearing sister. as little Monique grew.
so did her thirst for stories. stories, and more sto-
ries. While this delighted us, the demands often
exceeded the supply of time. Unlike her hearing
sister. when storytime with Mommy and Daddy
were finished. we could not send her off to listen to
Your Story Hour tapes. A new question presented
itself: Where were books that could “speak™ to
her?
Now if all we wanted were books for Monique
to learn language by associating sign words with
written English words. Gallaudet University in
Washington. D.C., could help us. Gallaudet is the
only liberal arts university in the world for the
deaf. Gallaudet publishes a small collection of chil-
dren’s books in sign. trom simple ones (I Am «
Car) 10 the conversational level of a hearing 3-
year-old.
Because of the signs. Monique could read the
simple ones by herself when she was 3 vears old.
and by 7 she could read them atl. But where were
books just like these that told Bible stories? Must
she wait unul she can learn to read in school in
order to have the world of Bible story books
opened to her? Our big question was Don't pre-
school deaf children have access to Bible story
books?
In our search tor Bible stories with signs. we
contacted the American Bible Society and the Bap-
tist Sunday School headquarters. We talked to
Lutherans. Catholics. and Mormons. All of these
churches have developed ministries for the deaf to