A Deaf Worshipper in A Megachurch's Band (Rev 19-22)

"The voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure'" -Rev 19

With a missing sense, a Deaf person increased other remaining senses. Therefore sight, touch, smell, and taste increased. In fact, there's a study where it was seen that the auditory pathways in the brain rewired to the visual. In the same way, it was seen that the blind people's visual pathways were rewired to the auditory and the remaining senses. Thus, our brains were rewired to worship God in an unique way! Unique voice within a great multitude. Of many waters or of might peals of thunder.

As a deaf worshipper in a megachurch, I found it hilarious that some people might think that my lipreading skills have been improving! It's partly true. However most of them overlooked the fact that my brain were rewired to other senses to absorb the cultivating worshipping environment and experiences. Without the auditory, I had to look at several details within the environments such as:

-Lead worshippers' lips
-Other few singers' lips (whenever the leader stopped singing), I often messed up when the leader stopped to sing. It took me a long time to realized that I have to survey other singers' lips to be sure that the song had ceased.
-Slideshows on the television screen, I can only lipread few words or whenever the singer will move their lips clearly and big. I hugely depend on the screen to provide me the correct words. Sometimes I will sign the several words before I realized that the production team clicked on the wrong slideshow, forcing me to throw a glance over my shoulder at an interpreter to see where I had sidetracked. Then I will finish the wrong line before jumping back into the band.
-Platform floor's vibration, it's where my sense of touch had increased. The size of my signing and the space of my movement paralleled to how much I felt the vibration. The more I feel it, the more I sway my body and sign bigger naturally without thinking. To dance along with the music.
-The volume of the music, I have some auditory. Whenever they turned their volume up, I could hear some words and music instruments. Sometimes I learned to distinguish the difference between some sounds such as hearing "Glory to God" three times, my favorite! Knowing that they will repeat the phase, I could let my sight and touch senses to relax as I rely on my hearing.
-ASL interpreter, I sometimes lost my focus after my brain have been rewiring to different sense according to different needs within the worshipping experience at the moment. My last choice was to relax my eyes on ASL interpreter in front of me to retrace my focus. After that, I get back up and strive again! Once a while, our lead worshipper would add something so I shifted my body to face the interpreter, stopping my swaying, to copy the interpreter or reinterpret.

Whoa! There are several details that a Deaf worshipper will need to look into for a 15-30 minutes of worshipping! Just like how God heard a great multitude of voice like the roar of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder. All of those details weaved into an image of His bride made herself ready.