“Use Your Hands”: Hearing-Impaired Sermon Preached by Youth at Bethel AME Church, Wilmington, Delaware
By Casandra Phillips and Renée Beaman
Each fourth Sunday of the month, the Rev. Dr. Silvester Beaman, the senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, shares the pulpit with a youth of the church. This youth spends several weeks preparing their message with the Rev. Shanika Perry, the youth pastor. That message is then reviewed by Pastor Beaman and together they deliver it to the congregation.
For the past 12 years, Bethel has provided an interpreter during the worship service for those who are hearing-impaired. Two years ago, with a new team, an increase in those needing interpretation was noted, especially a family that had a young teenage daughter that was deaf. She was in church every Sunday and enthusiastic about her Christian faith. Dr. Beaman felt that this young lady had a message and she was invited to join him in the pulpit. Here is Shalin’s story.
Shalin Phillips has never heard a bird sing, the sound of music, or her mother’s voice. As a toddler, she was diagnosed as having profound bilateral neurosensorial deafness—an irreversible condition. Since Shalin has never heard English spoken, talking is a challenge for her but she hasn’t let that stop her. On Sunday, August 26, Shalin stood before the congregation at Bethel and gave her testimony using American Sign Language (ASL) while her mom interpreted for her and encouraged the congregation to “Use Your Hands!”
Shalin signed about growing up as a deaf person and the challenges that the deaf may experience as they try to navigate a hearing environment. She shared that many deaf people are shunned by most hearing people in the community, within churches, and even within their own families. She noted that many deaf people do not have family members who communicate with them and very, very few hearing family members use ASL which is the language that the deaf use to communicate. “It’s not easy to be deaf,” Shalin signed. “It’s difficult to understand language, it’s hard to learn some things, and it’s very hard knowing that people all around me are communicating with everyone else, but me because I am deaf,” she added.
As a deaf person, Shalin has found that there were limitations placed on her by doctors, teachers, and people in general; however, having a strong advocate in her corner to be there for support and guidance has made all the difference in the world. She signed about the power of a praying, Godly grandmother who taught her about God and read Bible stories to her in ASL. She also talked about the importance of having a strong mother who supported her and created a standard by which others had to comply by requiring them to try to use ASL in Shalin’s presence. Her mom respects Shalin’s need for visual access and fights for her rights to an appropriate education as well her rights for interpreting services when needed. Shalin signed that her mom fought to prove others wrong whenever they said she would never be able to do certain things. Shalin signed, “My mom would roll up her sleeves, take off her earrings, and rub Vaseline on her face. It’s on!” Shalin also signed that her mom taught her how to pray and worship God in ASL.
Shalin went on to sign that life can be hard as a deaf person; however, God can place the right people in your life to use their hands to teach the deaf about God, to teach the deaf how to pray and worship as well as how to understand the scriptures. “When that happens,” she signed, “developing a relationship with God can be an amazing experience!” Shalin had been asking her Mom about signing a solo in church for several months. On this Sunday, Shalin signed her first solo, “I Can Only Imagine,” by Tamela Mann by using her hands and signing in ASL.
Shalin considers herself to be a fisherman. She takes every opportunity to go fishing for deaf souls when she encounters them. She witnesses to the deaf by going door to door and reminding them that God loves them and that they should give their lives to Christ. She is known to sign about God and invites the deaf to visit her church. She also insists that her mom arrange transportation for the deaf to make sure that they can get to church. Shalin is an intercessor and never hesitates to lay hands on the sick and pray for them. Above all things, she loves God and is diligently working to enhance her relationship with him. “This God,” Shalin signed, “is the God of the hearing and the deaf. He loves me just the way that I am.”
In addition to giving her testimony and signing a solo, Shalin brought her signing choir, Empowered Seeds of Greatness, with her. It is a community choir that is comprised of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing members who have a strong interest in ASL and a firm commitment to helping the deaf. The deaf members of the choir not only signed songs during the service at Bethel, but they also led the service in ASL. It was an amazing experience to see the deaf and the hearing all on one accord with hands in the air signing and worshiping God!
Shalin and the Empowered Seeds of Greatness brought a heightened awareness to the Bethel congregation by underscoring the fact that there are deaf people in the community who need the body of Christ to reach out to them and embrace them in the church. The deaf community needs people to learn sign language and build deaf ministries so that they can experience inclusion which means full access to language and communication in the church. There is a tremendous opportunity for Godly service in the deaf community. As Shalin signed, “Pastor Beaman tells us at the end of every Sunday service that we come to worship, now leave to serve! There are deaf people out there who are waiting to see what you have to say through ASL, so Use Your Hands!”
