International (MNN) — In 2 Timothy 2:2, the apostle Paul laid out a model for discipleship, where Christians teach others who can then teach others, and so forth.
Rob Myers with DOOR International shares the good news that this kind of generational multiplication happens among the Deaf around the world.
(Graphic courtesy DOOR International)
In 2000, a leader Myers calls Sanji came to know the Lord through the ministry of Deaf missionaries who came to India.
“Sanji began to share the gospel with his local community. Another person came to faith and Sanji began to disciple him. Then that person ended up moving to a different part of India. As he shared his faith with a number of people, another brother came to know the Lord,” Myers tells us.
Four or five “generations” down this line, a leader Myers calls Matthew felt the Lord leading him to travel beyond his community.
“He moved to another country in South Asia, where there at the time were only about 20 believers out of a population of maybe 300,000 Deaf people. He, alongside another brother, began to share the gospel in this new community, and more leaders came to faith,” Myers says.
Praise God for how He is moving among Deaf communities worldwide!
Myers says that DOOR hopes to see local churches not only established and strengthened by disciple-making, but also carrying on a vision for disciple-making and church-planting beyond their region.
“What you’ll often see as the outgrowth of this kind of thing is that disciples becoming missionaries into new communities,” Myers says, adding that there are Deaf missionaries from Kenya now serving in Mozambique, South Sudan and Angola.
(Photo courtesy DOOR International via Facebook)
DOOR is beginning to plan what they call “outposts” in strategic areas of the world.
“One of the things we recognize is that there are still major regions of the world where Deaf communities are cut off from the gospel,” says Myers.
These outposts would be launching points into key areas where the gospel isn’t present yet. Missionaries would enter the region to share the gospel and raise up indigenous leaders — “with the hope not just that the gospel would come to those specific Deaf communities,” Myers says, “but that through them sending missionaries out, it would flood into the surrounding communities.”
Would you come alongside DOOR in prayer for these bold, missional efforts by the Deaf to the Deaf? Visit doorinternational.org and find their monthly prayer calendar as well as learn about Deaf leaders who you could specifically partner with.
Finally, would you share this story with someone today?
“This might be the first time that you’re hearing about Deaf ministry and others may not be aware of it at all. So it would be a great opportunity for you to spread the word and let others know that they can be praying, that they can be supporting the work that God’s doing in these Deaf communities,” Myers says.
Header photo is a representative photo courtesy of Dikaseva/Unsplash.
