United Methodist Committee on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Ministries

or the United Methodist Congress of the Deaf. 

Giving Tuesday is November 30! Support our ministry, especially our grant and scholarship program, by making a donation to The Advance. With The Advance, 100% of your gift goes to DHM and funds our programs.

Our grants are one program supported by Giving Tuesday. Emmanuel United Methodist Church of Laurel, MD is very grateful for receiving a grant from the committee. They have used the funds to support accessibility during the pandemic and have partnered with Arundel Lodge, Inc., a human service agency, to extend its faith community to Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons with chronic mental illness. This is made possible by your contributions of Advance dollars, now at work to witness the love of Christ in creative ways, such as this pre-Thanksgiving dinner.

Continue reading to learn about some Advent events and a report from a project in Tanzania, also assisted by the DHM grant program. Or read more about our Grant Program online.

Deaf Advent Bible Study on Thu, Dec 2, 9, & 16 at 6:30pm Eastern

Hope - Peace - Love - Joy

Hosted by the BWC & Pen-Del AC Deaf Ministries

Co-leaders Bishop Peggy Johnson and Rev. Leo Yates jr.

Questions: lyates@bwcumc.org

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcufuyrrzMoHtEeXd1yq745Sw1EnfZJfWXF

Signing For the Holidays on Sun, Dec 5th at 1pm Eastern

Learn holiday signs and a Christmas hymn

Hosted by UMCD & BWC Deaf Ministries

Questions: lyates@bwcumc.org

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlfuuoqTojG9f4K0MChBRWK4js-qRFHHQ7

Start the new year with the Adjusting to Hearing Loss Together group, beginning on January 7.

It will meet the first Friday of the month at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Sponsored by Baltimore-Washington Conference. Questions: lyates@bwcumc.org

By Tom Hudspeth, Consultant

One of the exciting developments in our grant program is funding the Yatosha (Swahili for “enough”) Deaf Ministry in Tanzania. Several years ago, our UM-DHM committee was contacted by Rev. Nyasinde Levi, a graduate of Africa University who had seen Deaf ministry work in Zimbabwe. Rev. Levi had a vision for a Deaf ministry in his home annual conference of Tanzania. Unfortunately, Levi died before his vision became a reality. In 2019, Levi’s son, Nyasinde Pablo, began corresponding with our UM-DHM committee, to propose a project to benefit and empower Deaf people. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans were put on hold, yet which allowed a providential assistance from a Tanzanian national living in Texas, Uwezo Mwanjala, who effectively edited the grant's application in English. A seminary student at Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a part time pastor for the African Fellowship at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, Uwezo, fluent in English and Swahili, helped Pablo submit a grant application that would provide training in farming, animal husbandry, personal hygiene, Gospel education and entrepreneurial skills among Deaf people in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. In October 2021 $4000 was released to the Tanzania bishop’s office.

Since then, the Yatosha project has reached out to forty-six Deaf and two Blind persons in the farm/husbandry project and thirty-six Deaf young women, ages 12-19, receiving instructions on personal hygiene instruction in Tanzanian Sign Language. With gifts added from the local community, 25 goats, 2 cows, and 20 chickens have been purchased, along with five acres of land, which awaits the rainy season to commence planting. The Yatosha team has received various government permits to meet Deaf students in schools and communities throughout Tanzania. Recently, Nyasinde and members of the Yatosha team, along with the District Superintendent Rev. Isaka Ibrahim, have met with Carol Stevens, Uwezo Mwanjala and Rev. Tom Hudspeth on ZOOM meetings to pray and discuss progress and direction on empowerment of Deaf people. Please join us in prayer for the Yatosha project, that through this ministry, Deaf persons will experience the “enough” of God’s blessings of work, community, and worship in Tanzanian Sign Language.