Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 2:7 (NIV)
Talking to God comes quite naturally for me as I ramble on about all manner of topics – both important and trivial. On the other hand, hearing God’s voice is a daily challenge – mostly because I am easily distracted and I do not always take intentional time to tune in and really listen.
Thankfully, I am coming to understand how silence can be a gift. Perhaps the still, small voice of God can only truly be heard within the realm of silence – and maybe even more so in times of ‘painful silence’.
Jesus challenged people around him about the importance of spiritual hearing. Through teachings and parables, he warned his audience to listen with ‘ears to hear’. This admonishment continues to echo throughout history to all people, across all cultures and generations: Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear! Let them listen to me, understand and obey!’
While it is true that most people are born with the privilege of physical ears to hear, having the spiritual ears to hear is another matter. It is when we intentionally attune our ears to the voice of Jesus that we begin to hear him speak to us in ways that change us and positively affect the world around us.
Friends, it is vital in these challenging days to offer our obedient attention to Jesus’ life-giving words, and to listen like our lives depend upon it – because they really do!
For reflection: Is there a way you could make more space in your schedule to silently attune your spiritual ears to listen to the voice of Jesus?
Be transformed by the Word as you engage with: John 10:1-18 and Psalm 85
Prayer: Father, I confess I don’t always look after my spiritual ears to hear your eternal words of life. Please help me make any necessary changes so I can understand more fully, and experience the joy of obeying your voice. Amen.
My family are all hearing people but I am Deaf. So it was really difficult when I was growing up. They were all talking but there was no signing. My mother would communicate with me through my sister as she couldn’t communicate well with me. Schooling was also really difficult. I missed a lot because I was trying to follow orally. I was bullied at school, which got me feeling down and depressed.
When I was younger, I went to the synagogue (I came from a Jewish family). We’d learn to write in Hebrew but there were no other Deaf people there, and no interpreter. When I learnt stories in Auslan about famous characters from the Old Testament, it helped me understand the pictures I had been shown as a child. Then when I was about 15 or 16, I had thoughts about God. Who is God? Where is he?
When I was 19, I had a Deaf boyfriend who was an amazing signer. He introduced my family to simple finger spelling and basic communication. He was also the Christian who led me to Jesus. I learnt more about the Bible from him and I was struck by the words in Revelation 3:20 – that Jesus invites everyone to join him. Everyone. Including Deaf.
I learnt how to teach Auslan at Latrobe University. Then I taught it at my old church for 20 years and many people’s skills improved. I’ve been at my current church for five years now and teaching some Auslan there too. There are plenty of Deaf people in the area but I don’t know how to encourage them to come to church.
I used to lead Bible studies where we would watch some Auslan Bible translations together. I really like to have written text alongside the Auslan translation but written English is very different from Auslan. Having Auslan interpretations in church makes the message so much easier to understand. — Susan Shannon
If you’re looking for a sign language project to support people like Susan with resources in sign language, the Solomon Islands Deaf Community Assistance is developing educational resources such as training videos, printed materials and a mobile phone application to be used to support the delivery of sign language education. Visit https://wrdf.org.au/pacific/solomons-deaf-community-assistance/
An exciting project is about to be launched to provide Deaf Christians with tools to grow in their faith and reach other Deaf people with the gospel. Wycliffe Australia, Bible Society of Australia and Alpha Australia have been close partners in creating a translation of the Alpha course into Auslan – Australian Sign Language.
Rebecca Thurrowgood (right) signing for the Alpha videos in Auslan.
Rebecca Thurrowgood is a Wycliffe Australia member who has been coordinating the Auslan translation. The collaboration with Alpha and Bible Society was especially meaningful to her as it enabled various skills, experience, connections and resources to come together to fulfil a growing need within the Deaf Church.
Rebecca’s parents are both committed followers of Christ, yet they have found that, as Deaf people, their ability to fully engage in the life of the Church has always been a struggle. Although work is underway for a translation of the Bible into Auslan, the translation of Scripture is only in its early stages and there is currently a lack of Scripture engagement and outreach tools to reach the Deaf in Australia. Rebecca shares:
At the end of 2023, Bible Society was chatting to me about what things we could do for the Deaf community in regards to translation. I mentioned that my dad had said he’d really love a translation of the Alpha series. Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia, Bible Society Australia and Alpha Australia met to discuss how this could work and, after just 45 minutes, we were all keen to get started.
The first goal of the Auslan Alpha project was to provide resources to help Deaf Christians to grow in their faith and understanding of Scripture. A second but just as important goal was to equip Deaf people to reach out to others. Rebecca explains:
The Deaf Church hasn’t really reached the next generation. Just like a lot of [hearing] churches in Australia, we have an ageing Church. We want to ensure that we’re not starting from scratch in ten years’ time. At the moment, the Deaf community in Australia is an unreached people group, essentially. We want to change that.
A professional studio has been set up at the Wycliffe Australia National Office in Kangaroo Ground and that space was used to film the Auslan Alpha videos in September 2024. Rebecca says that all of the interpreters they brought in were Christians who had a deep affinity with Alpha and a desire to reach Deaf audiences with the gospel. One of the interpreters was on set filming when she mentioned that she had offered to run the Alpha course in her church. The Auslan Alpha resources had not yet been finished but she really wanted to test them out and see how much interest there was. Rebecca recalls:
The translator told me: ‘I only have 10 weeks this year that I can run an Alpha course. When I told some Deaf friends about it, they were happy to come along. She later messaged me, saying, ‘There are five Deaf people who don’t yet know Jesus coming to the Alpha course! I’ve got eight people turning up and a church has offered to host it for us.’
The Auslan Alpha team presented at the Australian Deaf Christian Network conference in January and Rebecca says they were given permission to start promoting the upcoming Alpha series:
Around 60 Deaf people were in the audience. When they saw the preview of the Auslan Alpha videos, they were so excited. One of the ladies got up, and she cried, ‘I have been praying for years that there would be Alpha for the Deaf. God just answered my prayers.’
Rebecca is still beaming since the project has started wrapping up. She says:
I think the biggest challenge with this project was that none of us had ever done anything like it before. But God made it happen. It is always beautiful to see organisations coming together and partnering in a vision.
That question is easy to answer for Skip Smith, Church Engagement Lead with Alpha Australia. Skip explains that the Alpha translation into Auslan is a key evangelistic resource that is intended to help equip Deaf Christians to reach others with the good news of Christ. Skip has been working with Alpha for six years and has a heart for finding ways of providing support for Deaf Christians. He shares:
We all long for connection. Deaf people are no different. My wife and I were leading a church in Brisbane when one Deaf couple started attending. Other Deaf Christians heard how they were welcomed into the church and that number started growing. Soon we ended up with 50 people in the congregation who were Deaf. We started realising how desperately ill-equipped the Church was for meeting the needs of Auslan speakers. I really felt the Lord put it on my heart to make space for the Deaf community. So we dedicated space for them in church and had interpretation services available every week. Then I started learning conversational Auslan. I would learn to sign just by being with the Deaf community. I became passionate about helping them to access the Word of God – access that so many of us take for granted.
So how does Alpha come into the picture? Skip explains:
Alpha is ‘a series of interactive sessions that explore life, faith and meaning … a resource churches use to create a space and a culture where people are excited to invite their friends into a conversation about Jesus.’ A few weeks into my role, I began speaking with my Deaf friends and going ‘Hey, there’s this thing called Alpha. Have you heard of it? How could Alpha and Auslan work together?’ I have a friend who is the pastor of a Deaf church and she seemed interested, but the more I talked with her, I realised how many complexities there were in translating the content. I had a number of conversations but nothing got off the ground. So I said, ‘God, I leave this in your hands’.
A few years later, God started opening doors when Bible Society Australia (BSA) and Wycliffe Australia approached Skip to see how they could support Deaf Christians. Skip says they selected the top eight subjects ‘that would take someone on a journey of faith’, such as ‘Who is Jesus?’ ‘Why did Jesus die?’
There are still seven more Alpha videos to be translated into Auslan, yet Skip says that he sees the partnership between Alpha Australia, BSA and Wycliffe Australia continuing well into the future:
To have these three different mission organisations come together in this way was just absolutely beautiful. We’re working together with a generous, collaborative spirit. But the work isn’t finished yet! I see this as an ongoing partnership. I would love to see Deaf ministries really use these resources for evangelism. My dream is that every single Deaf person in Australia at least be presented with the gospel.
The official launch of the Alpha in Auslan course is planned for July 2025. Please pray with us as trial courses are held and the team prepares for the July launch in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Feedback from an early trial of Alpha in Auslan:
‘I went to a Deaf church once and I couldn’t understand anything they were signing. It was all jargon! I tried to read the Bible but it was in old language and I couldn’t understand much. But this? The [Auslan translation of Alpha] is easy to follow. THIS IS CLEAR! I can understand it and it’s so INTERESTING!’
Amy Cruickshanks is a linguistics consultant with Bible Society Australia who played an integral role in creating the Auslan Alpha translation videos. Along with her desire to see Deaf communities equipped with resources to grow and share their faith, Amy has been part of the team translating the Bible into Auslan. Amy says that, prior to joining the project, she did not have connections with the Deaf community. Yet that all changed once she began learning the language and meeting the people with whom she would come to develop close relationships:
Since I joined the team and started learning Auslan, I feel like my life has changed quite a bit. Now, some of my closest friends are Deaf people and others I have met through the Deaf community. It is also because of Auslan that I joined the church I am currently attending. The church has Auslan interpreting, so I thought I would visit to say hello and see what was happening there. I was really only intending to visit the church once, but the welcome I received that first Sunday was so warm and I was so readily embraced into the group of signers (made up of both Deaf and hearing) that I just kept going back. I’ve been there a year and a half now, and feel I have truly found my church family.
Amy has been with the Auslan translation team for two years now, but notes that the Auslan Bible Project has been underway for almost 30 years. So what are some of the biggest challenges in a signed translation compared to a written or oral translation? Amy shares:
There are a few differences. I think the biggest one is that in Auslan, as in all signed languages, the visual details of objects and events are important and communicated, so these always need to be brought into consideration in translation work. For example, our team was recently translating Psalm 23, and we had a few discussions around the section ‘you anoint my head with oil’. What did that anointing actually look like? Was it just a dab of oil on the forehead or was the oil liberally poured out and running down the face? These sorts of details aren’t something you typically have to consider in spoken language translations.
Along with the challenges, Amy says she finds the Auslan translation work incredibly rewarding:
Being involved in this project has been the biggest gift from God to me. Not only is working with my teammates a joy, but together we have the opportunity to make the Bible more accessible to people who use Auslan as their first language – what could be better than that?
There are currently two full books of the Bible translated into Auslan (John and Acts) and portions of a number of other New and Old Testament books. While there is still a long way to go, Bible Society Australia recently launched a new, updated website for the Auslan Bible so that the Deaf community in Australia can better access what has already been translated. To see the Auslan Bible, visit https://auslan.bible/
Please pray:
that God would continue to guide the Auslan Bible Project committee and the translation team
for those who engage with the Auslan Bible and Alpha in Auslan – that they would grow in their understanding of how great God’s love for them is.
Participating in family life for the first time: Mary Anna’s story
Mary Anna is a happy 11-year-old girl living with her family in Papua New Guinea. She loves talking and playing with her parents, but she has not always been able to communicate with them so easily. Growing up Deaf, Mary Anna experienced isolation from her family. Unable to fully communicate beyond basic gestures, her parents felt desperate about how to talk with their daughter.
At the age of four, they sent Mary Anna to the Red Cross Inclusive Education Resource Centre (RCIERC) where she started to learn Papua New Guinea Sign Language (PNGSL) from her Deaf teacher, Noah. Mary Anna picked up PNGSL easily, yet her family struggled to learn it, despite years of Noah’s dedicated home visits.
A tangible shift in the family’s ability to communicate with Mary Anna occurred earlier this year when 26 new PNGSL Bloom books, and the related Luksave app, were launched. These were developed by the PNG Deaf Association, supported by SIL, and funded by the Wycliffe Relief and Development Foundation. These resources have been a huge blessing to Mary Anna and her family to learn PNGSL in a user-friendly way and at their own pace. The Bloom books and Luksave app, with their clear illustrations, definitions, and signs, made vocabulary acquisition more intuitive and accessible for the whole family.
Mary Anna’s parents have actively embraced the opportunity to learn alongside their daughter. Their newfound shared language is fostering greater understanding, strengthening family bonds, and enhancing Mary Anna’s inclusion and sense of belonging in her family. Mary Anna is so excited about the change in her family that she is sharing the app and promoting it to her Deaf friends, other family members, teachers and neighbours.
Mary Anna’s dad, Nime, is thrilled that he can enjoy communicating with his daughter. He shares:
Thank you! We are happy with the Bloom books and Luksave app. We will be very happy if short Bible stories can also be created. That will really help us as a family to broaden [Mary Anna’s] faith.
The silence and isolation that once separated Mary Anna from her family has now been replaced by a beautiful sign language. Mary Anna’s story is a powerful reminder that when communication barriers are broken, lives can be transformed and families can be brought together.
Sign language: a formal language using a system of hand movements for communication (as by the Deaf)
– Merriam Webster Dictionary
It is estimated that there are around 70 million Deaf people in the world today who rely on sign language as their primary means of communication. A common misconception is that cochlear implants and hearing aids are sufficient for enabling Deaf people to understand conversations, yet these devices only help to improve the perception of some sounds. Most Deaf individuals still need sign language to fully engage with and understand conversations. Aside from gaining a clearer understanding of the information being shared, sign language forms a key part of identity, culture and belonging for many Deaf communities.
Unlike spoken languages, sign languages are unique to their geographical locations. There are 280 documented sign languages in the world and anywhere from 138 and 300 different sign languages are being used today. Despite the prevalence of sign language usage, there is still only one complete translation of the Bible in a sign language: American Sign Language (ASL).
Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
Australian sign language, or Auslan, has been in use since the 1800s, yet the Australian Government only recognised it as an official, distinct language in 1991. The first time it has ever been included as a language option in Australia-wide research was in the latest Census (2021). Information from that Census revealed that over 16,000 people use Auslan in the home, but calculations from the Australian Disability Network estimate that the total number of people who speak Auslan is closer to 30,000. Grammar, syntax and concepts are completely different to written English. You will often see a capital ‘D’ in most references to Deaf communities, as it is the preferred way to signify their cultural identity.
Auslan translation and Deaf needs in Australia
there are two completed books of the Bible that have Auslan translations: John and Acts
4% of the Old Testament and 37% of the New Testament has been translated into Auslan
the statistics for deafness increase significantly among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 2019 figures show an alarming
43% occurrence of hearing loss among people aged seven years and older from Indigenous communities.
The International Day of Sign Languages is celebrated on 23 September every year to raise awareness and support for Deaf people throughout the world. What can you do to show your support?
> Educate yourself about the needs surrounding the Deaf community
> Advocate for greater accessibility and resources in Auslan
Chameleon: changing the future of Deaf Bible translation
By Deb Fox | Wycliffe Today Spring Edition 2020 |
Saul and Rebecca Thurrowgood are Wycliffe members who have just welcomed the birth of their fifth child. They are also excited about the arrival of a program Saul and his team have spent many years perfecting in partnership with the Deaf Bible Society: Chameleon. Rebecca explains that, just like the chameleon’s ability to adapt and change in order to communicate, ‘the goal of Chameleon is bringing the gospel to the Deaf in a new way that protects the people involved by changing their appearance.’
Currently, less than two per cent of the world’s Deaf identify as followers of Jesus. Many do not have access to God’s Word in a language they understand—their own sign language. There are over twenty-five sign languages with portions of Scripture available on video but there are significant barriers to videoing real people for the translation of the remaining sign languages.
For many regions around the world, persecution is a daily occurrence. Therefore, filming a real person recording sign movements in their local sign language may be a dangerous move. Another barrier which often presents itself in small Deaf communities is denominational differences among Christians. Unlike the anonymity of a printed Bible translation, the face of the signer may become attached to the signed translation. If their character, past life or community become an issue, they risk overriding the message of the gospel. The use of animated characters eliminates these risks and also enables the translation work to be accelerated.
How does the technology work?
Chameleon is a form of motion capture technology which uses artificial intelligence which the team has trained to create neural networks1 for an avatar (an animated character) to copy.2 In order to create the neural networks, they have had to source movements from as many places as possible, including videos already available from the Deaf Bible Society and filming live recordings in a studio.
Saul says:
We need the computer to track the person, regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity and gender. We need to train the computer to recognise the various parts of the body. We have trained the computer’s neural networks to recognise different locations including the body, the hand and five different neural networks in the face. There are hundreds of thousands of images fed into the computer in order for it to recognise various shapes. Once it can remember specific movements, the avatar can be asked to perform a number of sign movements.
Rebecca explains: ‘We’re trying to get the computer to recognise the movements. Perfect copying means a better data output—the better that is, the better the outcome is.’
After many years of setbacks and trials, Chameleon 1.0 is almost ready for release. Saul says that the team was excited to discover that a team in South-East Asia had been using the pre-release version of the program and it worked better than expected.
Rebecca adds:
To know that this technology is being used for its intended purpose is a huge blessing. We are so grateful knowing that this product will be a way to get the gospel out to places where it otherwise may have been impossible to create a sign language translation safely.
1 Neural networks: A set of algorithms, modeled loosely after the human brain, that are designed to recognise patterns. 2 An avatar is an electronic image that represents—and may be manipulated by—a computer user.
Thanks for your patience...
Waiting is hard, isn't it. But imagine waiting 2000 years for Scripture in your language! Thanks for your patience. And thanks for your generous support which will help bring the long wait to an end...
Thanks for your patience...