CEE Story From The Mission Field
The Deaf "Mixing It Up" in the Czech Republic
March 14, 2005
The deaf of the Czech Republic are responding to God's word. Last November 35-40 deaf Czechs attended a church planting conference. It was cold outside and inside the building, but the Spirit of the Lord kept the group on fire for the Savior.
Wow! These (mostly) young, deaf believers are "mixing it up" with the lost of their communities. They are leading their friends and families to the Lord, looking to start new groups, and making a serious impact for the cause of Christ. They baptized two new believers in a bathtub at the camp (the swimming pool had some ice so it was out of the question) during the conference . It was hot, muggy, and a bit smelly as 10-15 people gathered in that little bathroom to watch each baptism. The rest of the group stood outside the door and struggled for a quick peek at what was going on.
One of the new believers is a father of two who lives in a small city where we are going to start a new work (in his home). He asked me to baptize him since I had maintained contact with him, witnessed to him, and just loved him, his wife, and his two girls (both hearing). I would have liked to do that--I mean, we are missionaries and we try to point people to Christ and then baptize them--but I asked him to choose one of the deaf leaders to do it instead. We are striving to do nothing that cannot be reproduced and I wanted the deaf leaders to be fully empowered to baptize him, know that they were fully responsible to carry out the Great Commission, and not feel dependant on the missionary(ies) for the official tasks. I am certain that the new deaf Christian, Zdenek, will baptize his wife and two girls sometime soon. His wife has already said she wants to follow Christ and both girls, Lenka (14) and Zuzanna (11), are being exposed to the Christian faith for the first time.
Still, the most exciting thing is to see these new Christians, the majority of them are in their 20's, with a real passion to lead friends and family to Christ. We have no way of making specific predictions but I believe that by the time we return to the states for furlough in June, there will be well over 100 deaf Christians around the country. I don't think it is inconceivable to think that 3% of the deaf population of the Czech Republic will be Evangelical Christians by the time we would be ready for the next furlough. Since they are doing it themselves, we can just "coach" them and stand in awe of all God is doing through them. It is exciting to see God at work.