International (MNN) — For Deaf people who have never been given the chance to go to school or learn a language, including sign language, reading the Bible is impossible. Or is it?
Wycliffe Associates has developed Symbolic Universal Notation (SUN), a written language available for the Deaf around the world.
Stacy Shawiak with Wycliffe Associates says, “We created a language of symbols or pictures so that we could easily communicate the Gospel in a way that could be quickly learned and we hope and pray is intuitive so that the pathway to literacy is quick.”
In 2020 Wycliffe Associates celebrated the completion of the New Testament in SUN. Four years later, the Old Testament is going through final accuracy checks.
(Graphic courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)
“We also have Our Daily Bread version in SUN. We have 50 Bible stories. We have a catechism. We’ve come a long way in getting access to ways to understand Scripture in this new language,” Shawiak says.
Click here to learn more about SUN.
A massive need
The World Federation of the Deaf says approximately 56 million of the estimated 70 million Deaf people around the world receive no education. In many ways, they are cut off from their family, their community, and the world. Tools such as SUN are providing a way for change.
Already Wycliffe Associates has introduced SUN in 30 countries, 19 of which are in Africa. Here’s how one Deaf church in Tanzania responded.
“They said, ‘This is amazing. We have so many Deaf that don’t come to church because they don’t understand sign language. But this is so easy to learn.’ It spread to the ten Deaf congregations they have throughout the entire nation..Then they started going to other countries around Africa, and teaching it to their other sister churches and other nations. They saw hundreds of people come to know Christ,” Shawiak says.
During SUN workshops, the Deaf also have the chance to more fully enter their community through language learning.
“We always partner with Deaf churches and organizations. As we teach SUN, we have the symbol and we have a picture to help connect the meaning. But we always teach it with the National sign language, so that the Deaf come in, and they learn the language of their community,” Shawiak says.
“It has so many more benefits than what we originally intended. There’s church [growth], they’re learning the language of the Deaf, they start to communicate, they get a community of people. It helps with self-confidence [and] it helps with autonomy. We’ve seen some beautiful blessings that we did not anticipate.”
(Graphic courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)
Find your place in the story
Ask God to protect those who have come to know Christ through SUN so that they would grow in the knowledge of Him. “Many of them come from Muslim families and are scared that their family will see that they’ve come to Christ,” Shawiak says.
Pray for Wycliffe Associates as they translate SUN training materials. Pray also for their ongoing work in creating tactile, 3D symbols to reach those who are both Deaf and blind.
“It is a huge task with many challenges. Every step of the way, we ask God to guide us, to provide, to let us not miss anything that He wants us to do.”
Header image courtesy of Wycliffe Associates
