25 Years and Still Going Strong: Deaf Ministry in Japan

By Bill Petite

"I praise the Lord I was born deaf," Mr. Hamayumiba, father of three and an advertising director of the largest department store in Kagoshima, told us. "If I hadn't been born deaf, I may have never heard the gospel or would have been too proud to listen."

Mr. Hamayumiba is among the 20 deaf adults who make up a third of those attending the Living Hope Baptist Church in Aira, just north of Kagoshima, Japan. At Living Hope the deaf in the church are not an isolated group, but serve in positions of leadership just as the hearing do. Nearly every second Sunday, the worship leader is deaf. Often everyone in the church signs the songs and verses. The deaf are seen as a group with special language needs but with God-given gifts and abilities that He can use.

Beginnings

When Paul and Vada Shook joined ABWE in 1953, they had no plan to work with the deaf. Their twin sons seemed healthy at birth, but over the months it became clear that while Phil was captivated by noise, Steve paid no attention. Tests showed Steve was profoundly deaf. At first Paul and Vada questioned if they could raise him on the mission field, but after prayer and counsel, God re-affirmed their call to Japan. During their first furlough Vada took special training to be able to teach Steve adequately. After their return to Japan, a high school boy named Takeshi from the Kagoshima School for the Deaf came to visit. He had put his faith in Christ and was looking for Christian fellowship. When he learned that Steve was deaf, he felt an immediate bond with the Shooks. Takeshi went on to Bible school and began a deaf church in Kagoshima City. Paul Shook worked with and helped train deaf pastors. From this start, a group of 13 churches and evangelistic outreaches (that still exist) spread into many parts of Japan. The association is now independent and under deaf leadership.

The Shooks' daughter, Becky Petite, learned Japanese Sign Language as a teen. Japanese Sign Language is different from American Sign Language, so working with the deaf in Japan presents a double language barrier: Japanese and Japanese Sign Language. Becky interprets at Living Hope Baptist Church in Aira where the following people attend.

Mrs. Yamashita, a mother of two, made a profession of faith as a child when the Shooks were in Kagoshima, but had not read her Bible or attended church in years. Because of serious family problems, she was considering suicide when her Buddhist mom, on her deathbed, urged her to start reading her Bible again and go back to church. The Lord led her to Living Hope Baptist Church. There both her children were saved and baptized, and she is one of the leaders among the women of the church.

Mrs. Tomiura, though deaf herself, was shocked when both her sons were also born deaf. (Usually deafness is not hereditary.) She was concerned that some sin she had committed caused her sons' deafness, but received peace when reading Christ's words about the blind man in John 9:3, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

Mr. Ata had been witnessed to many times before but never fully understood that Christ died for him. He received Christ as Savior at the Petites' kitchen table.

Mr. Taniguchi, a deaf man in his early thirties, stated God's call to become a pastor. He is now juggling his work responsibilities, correspondence school courses, and Bible School classes taught by Bill Petite.

Every person is an individual with unique needs and hurts. Each needs to learn of God's love. Having deaf people in the congregation has proven not to be a burden, but a blessing to the church.

Bill and Becky Petite were both professional interpreters in America and are grateful the Lord has allowed them to work with the deaf in Japan as well.

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