{"id":3012,"date":"2012-08-22T11:08:54","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T15:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2012-08-22T11:10:27","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T15:10:27","slug":"american-sign-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/american-sign-language.html","title":{"rendered":"American Sign Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a part of the Edgewood United Methodist Church News. \u00a0Think you will enjoy it.<\/em><\/p>\n

American Sign Language<\/h1>\n

Written<\/strong>\u00a0By Herb \u201cPadre\u201d Agee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Engle\u00adwood United Methodist Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Herb “Padre” Agee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was 40 years old, I was pas\u00adtor at a small, strug\u00adgling, inner city church in Lake\u00adland. I\u2019m not sure where I got the idea, but I took a sign lan\u00adguage class. The teacher was a deaf woman who was also an ordained Assem\u00adbly of God min\u00adis\u00adter. She had attended South\u00adeast\u00adern Col\u00adlege in Lake\u00adland, which is an Assem\u00adbly of God school. I took sev\u00aderal classes from her and started learn\u00ading to sign. I even took some classes at the com\u00admu\u00adnity college.<\/p>\n

The next year I moved to Rock\u00adledge to become the chap\u00adlain at Wuesthoff Hos\u00adpi\u00adtal. After a while, some\u00adone dis\u00adcov\u00adered that I could sign a lit\u00adtle bit. They started call\u00ading me when a deaf per\u00adson came into the hos\u00adpi\u00adtal to reg\u00adis\u00adter as a patient.<\/p>\n

I quickly informed those who needed to know that the hos\u00adpi\u00adtal was required by law to pro\u00advide \u201creal\u201d inter\u00adpreters for deaf patients and to have\u00a0TTY\u2019s avail\u00adable so they could use the hos\u00adpi\u00adtal phone in their room. The\u00a0TTY\u00a0or\u00a0TDDallows the phone to become a type\u00adwriter of sorts so the deaf patient can com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate with fam\u00adily and friends who also have a\u00a0TTY. Cell phones, tex\u00adting, the inter\u00adnet and emails have almost made the\u00a0TTY\u00a0sys\u00adtem obso\u00adlete, but at the time, it was the only way for the deaf to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate by\u00a0phone.<\/p>\n

We bought sev\u00aderal to have avail\u00adable and I made con\u00adtact with some inter\u00adpreters to have on call if we needed them. This kept me from hav\u00ading to take the legal respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity of sign\u00ading impor\u00adtant med\u00adical infor\u00adma\u00adtion between doc\u00adtors, nurses and deaf patients. I wasn\u2019t that\u00a0good!<\/p>\n

One day, a deaf patient came in to reg\u00adis\u00adter for a test with\u00adout us know\u00ading he was com\u00ading. We usu\u00adally had an inter\u00adpreter there wait\u00ading for them. Not this time, so\u2026 \u201cWho do you call?\u201d You guessed it! The chaplain!<\/p>\n

I went down to help with the reg\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion process, think\u00ading that was all that was needed \u2013 but, no, he was hav\u00ading an ultra\u00adsound of his kid\u00adney right after he reg\u00adis\u00adtered. There was no time to get an inter\u00adpreter and he did not want to have to come back later, so with his under\u00adstand\u00ading of my lim\u00adited abil\u00adity to sign and read his sign\u00ading (oh, did he under\u00adstand), we went into the\u00a0test.<\/p>\n

I tried to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate every\u00adthing that was hap\u00adpen\u00ading, but as they were doing the ultra\u00adsound of the kid\u00adney, I was watch\u00ading the screen, which he could not see. He signed, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d I responded, \u201cI think you\u2019re pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think all ultra\u00adsounds look like a\u00a0baby.<\/p>\n

He laughed and laughed, and the tech\u00adni\u00adcian looked at me, won\u00adder\u00ading why he was laugh\u00ading dur\u00ading the test. I just shrugged as if I didn\u2019t know. We made it through the test, though.<\/p>\n

I later met his wife and went out to din\u00adner with them and some of their deaf friends one night. Grad\u00adu\u00adally my con\u00adnec\u00adtion with the deaf and my sign\u00ading slowed until I lost touch and, as with any lan\u00adguage, \u201cuse it or lose\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently I\u2019ve been drawn back to sign lan\u00adguage. I\u2019m not sure why. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m 60 years old and many peo\u00adple I try to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate with are strug\u00adgling with their hear\u00ading. Some of them have admit\u00adted to it and are try\u00ading to get use to hear\u00ading aids and some of them are liv\u00ading in denial and try\u00ading to get by with a lit\u00adtle sound and a lit\u00adtle lip reading.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My niece has a child who\u2019s a lit\u00adtle over a year old. She and many other peo\u00adple are teach\u00ading their chil\u00addren some signs because babies can learn to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate with sign much ear\u00adlier than they can\u00a0talk.<\/p>\n

Candy and I were dis\u00adcussing this the other night and I said, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if every\u00adone was taught sign lan\u00adguage as a child and as every\u00adone talked they would also be sign\u00ading what they were say\u00ading? Then, if some\u00adone started los\u00ading their hear\u00ading, they would always know what was being said because of the sign lan\u00adguage.\u201d No one would ever be kept out of the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion, even the deaf. They would be able to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate with any\u00adone and not feel iso\u00adlated from the hear\u00ading community.<\/p>\n

Richard Stim\u00adson, who leads The Spe\u00adcial Gath\u00ader\u00ading, which is a church for the men\u00adtally chal\u00adlenged, once told me a story. It was about a man whose whole min\u00adistry as a pas\u00adtor had been in the deaf com\u00admu\u00adnity. As he sat beside the bed of a deaf saint who was dying, he asked her, \u201cWhat do you look for\u00adward to most about heaven?\u201d Her reply was, \u201cThat every\u00adone will know how to sign.\u201d She had no con\u00adcept of want\u00ading to \u201chear,\u201d but she wanted to be able to \u201ccom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate\u201d with everyone.<\/p>\n

Guess what? God knows sign language!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m study\u00ading\u00a0ASL\u00a0again. I\u2019m not sure why. If I lose my hear\u00ading com\u00adpletely; none of my friends or fam\u00adily will know sign lan\u00adguage. But, maybe I will be able to slip into the deaf com\u00admu\u00adnity for friend\u00adship and communication.<\/p>\n

Any\u00adway, if any of you are inter\u00adested in learn\u00ading\u00a0ASL, which is Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Sign Lan\u00adguage, be sure to check out the web\u00adsite:\u00a0www.lifeprint.com<\/a>. It is a great learn\u00ading site, and it\u2019s\u00a0free.<\/p>\n

Maybe God has a new min\u00adistry for me down the road \u2014 deaf motor\u00adcy\u00adcle rid\u00aders. Who knew? But with the loud pipes and road noise, it could hap\u00adpen. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, most of the bik\u00aders only know one sign. You\u2019ve prob\u00ada\u00adbly seen it used in traffic.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This is a part of the Edgewood United Methodist Church News. \u00a0Think you will enjoy it. American Sign Language Written\u00a0By Herb \u201cPadre\u201d Agee Engle\u00adwood United Methodist Church When I was 40 years old, I was pas\u00adtor at a small, strug\u00adgling, inner city church in Lake\u00adland. I\u2019m not sure where I got the idea, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,9,5,477,3,182,40,186,49,16],"tags":[748,478,21,688,696,479,699,480,715,701,694,689,6,700],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-sign-language","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-deaf-ministry","category-developmental-disabilities","category-disability","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","tag-american-sign-language","tag-asl","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-deaf-ministry-2","tag-faith","tag-herb-agee","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Sign Language - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/american-sign-language.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Sign Language - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  This is a part of the Edgewood United Methodist Church News. \u00a0Think you will enjoy it. American Sign Language Written\u00a0By Herb \u201cPadre\u201d Agee Engle\u00adwood United Methodist Church When I was 40 years old, I was pas\u00adtor at a small, strug\u00adgling, inner city church in Lake\u00adland. I\u2019m not sure where I got the idea, but…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/08\/american-sign-language.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-22T15:08:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-22T15:10:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/08\/signing.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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