Funeral for a Deaf Lady

This past Friday I preached a funeral for a deaf lady named Rosemond. She died of typhoid fever at the age of 29 years. It was sad to hear that her mother took her to the hospital 3 times and the doctors gave her medicine without really understanding her condition. The mother failed to get an interpreter to explain the symptoms to the doctor. She was already dead before they found she had typhoid fever.

In Ghana many of the deaf suffer great hardships because their parents do not care enough to learn sign language. Most families are poor and have many children, so the deaf are pushed aside and the hearing children are encouraged. I am thankful for the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the deaf in Ghana and to show them about a Saviour who cares for them.

Early on Sunday morning before our church services, I preached to a group of deaf adults at the association for the deaf. They had come for the funeral and on Sunday had a traditional "thanksgiving" service for the life of the departed. There were about 45 deaf people who heard me preach a strong gospel message from Luke 23:32-43. After the service many of them wanted to ask questions about the message, but we had to leave for our church services.

In the past two years of our work here in Cape Coast, we have had about 60 deaf people who have visited our services. There have been 38 public professions of faith among the deaf in our services, including our camp this last December. We have 3 deaf students in the Bible Institute along with our hearing students. We thank God for giving us this ministry to the deaf who are a neglected and forgotten people. Pray that God will raise up more laborers to sign the Gospel to the deaf.