My sister is a leader in a small Deaf church in Riverside, California (home to the California School for the Deaf in Riverside). I asked her to do an interview for my blog to give information about their ministry and I am excited for their upcoming trip to Thailand to work with the Deaf there. My sister is going on the trip along with other students from CBU, church leaders and Dr. Daniel Blair is heading the team. Here is the interview enjoy!
What is your role at DCF?
I am currently doing administrative duties such as organizing events, keeping updated on contact information of members, opening and closing the building. I am also the director of children's ministry (although I currently don't have any children so idk if you want to include that or not)
Who are the other leaders?
Dr Daniel Blair is a leader he teaches when we don't have guest speakers, he also handles administrative duties. Randi is a deaf student here at CBU she brings refreshments each week. Rachel Bates is also a leader. She leads worship and interpreting needs.
What is the style of a typical service?
It can change depending on the audience. Because we can sometimes have many deaf or a few deaf people we can be flexible in atmospheric setting. Last week we had many deaf people show up. We usually chat for a while, then we open in prayer and an interpreter leads worship. Then we may have Dr Blair or a guest speaker give a message which is followed by prayer and more fellowship. We usually follow DST or deaf standard time. This is our joking way of saying that we can just hang around and chat for quite a while.
Another service when there were less people present, consisited of sharing our stories of how we met Jesus with one another. One deaf man wanted to share a story of how he has been searching for a meaning to life and hasn't yet found it. He is seeking after God and we were able to help him along in this process, present the gospel to him and be a good friend. That week was truely lead by the Holy Spirit in flexibilty.
What are your goals in the recent and long term? What is DCF’s mission statement?
Our main goal is to reach the world's largest unreached people group for the glory of God. We are reaching out through prayer and outreach in the deaf community locally in Riverside, and across borders. We are currently seeking out highly commited people who can lead us into a more developed church. "Missions exists because worship doesn't" Jon Piper This means that we will continue to reach deaf community until it worships God and then can reach even further. There are thousand of deaf in our area but very little in the way of deaf churches or interpretted hearing services available to them. Many deaf people have had poor expreiences in the church so we seek to show them who Jesus really is. In their language and culture.
What are your favorite memories with DCF?
Some of my favorite memories are working with the kids. Some children are deaf and others are hearing children with deaf parents. Some children sign and some use english so the classroom can be a very diverse place which makes it very interesting and fun. I loved hosting a screening of the film, Hearing Evertte the story behind the founders of Rancho Sordo Mudo a deaf school in mexico where some of our members and I served. Many people made decisions to allow God to use them openly in their lives that night.
Does DCF work closely with CBU? Any other churches ministries?
DCF Deaf Christian Fellowship is a division of the Center for Deaf Studies at CBU Californina Baptist University. We meet on campus and host many events here. Many of our members support International Service Projects that CBU uses to send out students to deaf ministries on a global scale. Many of our members also attend local hearing churches but use deaf church as a subsidation for full understanding in their own cultural setting and language. We also have guest speakers come out from Rancho(Sordo Mudo a school for the deaf in Mexico) and from Laurel Glen Bible Church in Bakersfield and a church in the high desert.
What kinds of out reaches does DCF do?
Some of our members recently went to work at a school for deaf children in Mexico. Some members are going this year to reach out to deaf people in Thailand. We also recently met a young woman from Norway. She is the only deaf christian in her area. We would love to start a tutoring service for deaf children in the Riverside area.
Any upcoming events?
In april we will be having a weekend of activities for family fun and fellowship. These will include a cultural Night of Nations where interpreters will be provided for a silent auction and cultural presentations of the various countries CBU will be serving this summer for deaf and hearing people. We will also be having a picnic, and another screening of the film Hearing Everette with guest speaker and star of the film, Luke Everette. We will have a workshop about interpreting worship, a brunch and guest speakers for DCF that Sunday. I will update you with times and dates and locations around campus once all speakers and dates are confirmed.
We meet on Sunday evenings 6pm at 8432 Magnolia Ave Riverside Ca 92504 in the Wallace Theatre.
Thanks so much for taking time to read this interview! I am really excited to announce the WOW (weekend of worship) that the Church is participating in at CBU! I went last year and was amazed to see all that they are doing, it was entertaining and fun as well as insightful into what life is like for the Deaf in Mexico. So I hope you go and enjoy! More details about the different events happening that weeked are in the Events page so check it out!
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