“Your Missions Offering at Work in Iowa District East!”
Word of God Lutheran Church
Cedar Rapids, IA
Rev. Mark Anderson, Pastor
When I first accepted the call a little more than a year ago as a pastor to the deaf in the western part of Iowa District East, the first thing I did was to get acquainted with Deaf members, one at a time, at three locations - Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Mason City - to adequately assess their overall spiritual health so that I could better serve them.
The more time I spent with the deaf members the more need there was to (1) administer the Word and Sacrament in their own language, which is the American Sign Language; and (2) provide biblical insights into crucial issues, such as living together without marital benefits, accepting and forgiving one another as brethren in Christ and abortion.
Also, I discovered that the deaf population at large has been scattered throughout Iowa District East. This has isolated them, not only from the general population but also within the Deaf community, especially with Deaf-Blind individuals who are even more isolated in terms of visible modes of communication. There always is a great opportunity to proclaim the Good News to such people at distant locations.
At the moment there are about five deaf members who had expressed a strong interest in being
actively involved in sharing the love of God in Christ and have since taken pre-seminary courses via Deaf Pah, the nationwide Deaf LCMS website by which they would study at home through the use of DVDs.
Evidently the deaf members have been truly blessed by the fact that they could finally receive
the Word of God in their own native language, especially from the pastor who happens to be
profoundly deaf himself. This certainly makes a huge difference when the Word of God is
effectively and effectually played out in signs and expressions from a deaf person to another deaf person.
It is my sincerest prayers that within a short time deaf members would gain an excellent
understanding of the main Lutheran cornerstone of “justification by grace through faith” and eventually become more effective and more earnest witnesses to their deaf friends of the amazing grace of the Lord God
