mission center and school on a two-acre site at 4 Cassia Park Road in the outskirts of the capi tal city, Kingston. There are now two dormitory buildings, a chap el, a dining hall, cottages for the missionary coupl es, workshops, storage space, and a school build ing in desperate need of expan sion. The Center acts as a general welfare organization for all the deaf of Jamaica, and functions wholly on faith. No financial sup port is derived from any govern ment or foundation. Contribu tions and free-will offerings from i n t e r e s t ed individuals, groups, and churches are the Center’s only source of support. Barrels and boxes of used clothing re ceived from contributors in the United States are distributed to the needy. Some students are sup ported by monthly donations of $15. Illiterate deaf adults are given basic instruction in reading, writ ing, the sign language, and trade skills. Adults at t end Sunday school and worship s erv i ce s . Many have accepted Christ and followed Him in baptism. The Center is engaged primari ly in working with children. Pres ent facilities, personnel, and fi nances can accommodate only about 50, who range from kinder garten through the sixth grade. They are accepted, whether or not parents can contribute toward their expenses. In traversing the island, the missionaries and other Christian workers find neglected bits of humanity who have no concept of self-identification; no name; no means of communica tion. Staff members win their con fidence by showing Christian love, providing for their basic needs, and establishing communication with hand signs. The meaning of hands folded in prayer, or the right hand extended upward with fingers pointing upward and for ward is quickly grasped. Here, lip reading and writing must wait. These children must sense that the blessings provided at the mission are from the Heavenly
How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? A m o n g t h e l a w s given to the Israelites around 3560 years i ago, as enumerated in Leviti cus 19, there was a precept : “Thou shalt not curse the deaf.” This seems to imply that the deaf have been rejected and harassed from the beginning of time.
b y M ild r ed V and en b u rgh
hear human speech, no matter how strongly it is amplified, ac cording to a report by the Deaf ness Research Foundation. The list of causes is long: RH blood incompatibility between mother and unborn infant, German mea sles during early months of preg nancy, brain injury during birth, inner ear or brain tumors, mea sles, mumps, meningitis, high fever, upper respiratory infec tions, head injuries, obstruction of the auditory canal, and pro longed or sudden exposure to loud noises. The high incidence in Jamaica is attributed to lack of education in health and hygiene, scarcity of doctors, poverty, heredity, inter marriage of close relatives, bac terial infection, and tropical and viral diseases. News of the situation in Jamai ca reached the international, in ter -denomina t i ona l Christian Deaf Fellowship, wh i ch was founded in 1946 by a group of evangelical ministers w i th the sole purpose of winning the deaf to Christ. CDF trains ministerial students in the sign language, aids churches in securing special ized ministry, sponsors camps for the deaf, and evangelizes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. In 1957, CDF established a
This certainly has been the trend among the illiterate and superstitious people living on the island of Jamaica in the Carib bean. Not knowing how to com municate with children who were born deaf, many adults abandon them or treat them like brutes. A few years ago a census re vealed there were close to 7000 totally deaf persons on the island. Many had been deaf since birth or early childhood. They were re garded as unteachable, so illiter acy and unemployment were al most 100%. And no one had told them of Christ. “Why are so many young chil dren deaf?” you may ask. The wonder is that the majority of us hear normally! Our hearing mechanism contains three of the smallest and most delicate bones in the human body and almost 25,000 nerve hairs which relay sound vibrations to the hearing center of the brain. How won- drously are we made! In our own country, more than a quarter million people can’t
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THE K IN G 'S BUSINESS
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