For most people, the ability to communicate is a vital aspect of relationship building. For deaf people, however, accessibility through sign language is key to bridging the gap between deaf and hearing individuals.

American Sign Language, or ASL, is a visually interactive language with hand motions, gestures, and facial expressions used by interpreters and deaf people alike to convey thoughts and ideas.

Knowing many deaf people are limited in ways they experience the world due to communication barriers, ASL interpreter Lisa Estes and parishioner Norm Collins —who is deaf — are committed to ensuring the sermons, classes, and social opportunities offered by White House’s Temple Baptist Church are accessible to deaf or hearing-impaired attendees.

Lisa, an ASL interpreter for the past 20 years, saw an opportunity to contribute to the Deaf Ministry at Temple Baptist after inviting a friend to attend a service with her.

“I asked her if she’d like to come and I offered to interpret for her,” explains Lisa. “After that, the church just fell in love with it.”

Encouraged by the warm welcome, Lisa then invited Norm and his wife, Cherilyn, to attend a service at Temple. Like Norm, Cherilyn is also deaf.

“I met Norm because he works at Kroger, and we started talking. He's just hilarious, a really great guy … positive, fun, upbeat,” says Lisa. “So many people know him, and he knows so many people through Kroger. They don't [use] sign [language] with him, yet he’s still able to engage with everyone he meets.”

As word spread about ASL-interpreted services, the number of deaf parishioners attending Temple Baptist grew to four, and Lisa began interpreting for the 10 a.m. service, both in person and online, in addition to an 8:30 a.m. Bible study class and activities on Wednesday nights.

With the increased interest in ASL-interpreted services and functions, Norm approached Lisa with the idea of reaching out to the deaf community.

“That led to the idea of accessing social media,” she says.

The resulting collaboration is a video focused on raising awareness about the ministry while communicating directly with deaf community members. In describing the project, Lisa says, “There’s no voice on the video at all. We’re only speaking in sign language, and we did not caption any of it.”

When asked to give a rundown of the video and the message relayed, Lisa is enthusiastic.

“Norm appears first,” she explains. “He introduces himself and tells viewers that he and his wife are both deaf and attend interpreted services at Temple Baptist Church. He says he’d love to meet more deaf people in the community and learn how to better serve the deaf population. Then, I talk about our services and the fact that we also teach conversational ASL at the church.”

The classes Lisa mentions are what she calls “Conversational Sign.” In other words, she has begun to teach members how to communicate basic thoughts and ideas to facilitate conversations between hearing and deaf parishioners. Recently, a group of Lisa’s students participated in a silent lunch at the church.

“Everyone sat together, and we only spoke through sign language,” says Lisa. “We played games, everyone ate, and we just had a ball. Oh my gosh, we had so much fun!”

Through community outreach, Lisa and Norm are hopeful they will raise awareness of the many ways Temple Baptist is incorporating ASL interpretation into the church community.

“We’d just like everyone to know we’re here, and we’d love to have them come out and join us,” she says.

Temple Baptist Church:

https://templetoday.com

615-672-5339

117 Marlin Road

White House, TN 37188

Email: info@templetoday.com

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