Access (ASL) Ministry

Ever visited a church with ASL ministry without any Deaf attender for few years? If you do, then this church definitely has a well-prepared shepherd without his own sheep. I have visited one like this last week right after 9AM service at my church. And this ministry is called Access (ASL) Ministry, which meets at the Chinatown Gallery-PI theatre under Grace Covenant Church.

Long time ago, I attended a church called Metro Morning Star with a deaf friend and an interpreter-friend. It was the first church I have ever committed to as a student at Gallaudet University and it had no ASL ministry at that time. That was five-six years ago. It was until I've found Ebenezers Coffeehouse that I've heard of from Evotional that I began to transfer my commitment to National Community Church. After a long time, my deaf friend and I thought of Metro Morning Star and we couldn't find the church. We were disappointed that our interpreter-friend had disappeared and that Metro Morning Star had also disappeared. Well it appears to be at that time!

On August 3rd, I attended the first National Community Church concert ever- The God Anthology. A lady who's learning ASL met me after the concert and we swapped our emails. We later scheduled our ASL meet-up at Ebenezers' pre-service worship practice. We practiced our ASL worship and then she would either escape before the service begins or stay throughout the service to learn more ASL. She later explained me about Grace Covenant Church's Access (ASL) Ministry and the Deaf ministry leaders. I explained her about my vision for the Washington Metropolian Area Deaf ministry. She was excited about the vision and so she introduced me to her Deaf ministry leaders. We connected and hanged out.

"Our church is at Chinatown Gallery-PI," they said. "Oh I used to attend Metro Morning Star there, but that church somehow disappeared," I exclaimed. They shared this, "Yeah Grace Covenant Church was once called Metro Morning Star!" My eyes widened, "What's the name of the pastor?" "Pastor Donnell." I laughed, "Whoa! I know him and that was my first church!"

I later learned that this ministry started right after we, deaf friend, interpreter-friend, and I, changed our churches. My heart melted for this church. They didn't give up. And so I had the chance to greet and talk with some leaders there last weekend with Juanita. She laughed afterward, "Whoa, you didn't warned me. I'm black and now I know that I don't go to black (majority) church like this one!" I laughed at her spunkiness. AWESOME!