Robert opened his grandmother’s bible and read the first sentence, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  As he looked out the window, Robert realized that Someone had made the grass, the water, the trees; everything he could see. 

 

But Robert, who was born deaf, was not only alienated from a hearing world, he was alienated from God as well.  

Although he prayed and tried to read the bible, many questions remained unanswered for him until he started attending a deaf bible study at a little Baptist church in central Pennsylvania in 2003.  For the first time in his life, someone explained the scriptures to Robert in an understandable way through American Sign Language.  Although unable to hear the Gospel physically, Robert’s heart heard the call of God.  He understood Jesus was the One put to death on the cross as a substitute for his sins.  God granted him faith to believe as he repented of his sins and he was adopted into God’s family.
 

Robert’s newfound love for the Lord and zeal for His Word prompted him to share the Gospel with both deaf and hearing people alike.  His pastor encouraged him to go on a missions trip to Mexico.  After a week in Reynosa, Robert was convinced God had called him to minister to the deaf in Mexico.  With eagerness, he started to learn Mexican Sign Language and prepared to go wherever God led.  A second missions trip to Reynosa in 2007  confirmed God’s plan for Robert to share the Gospel in Mexico with those who had never heard it, nor could they.

 

Robert currently lives in south Texas, making frequent trips into Mexico to establish contacts and share the good news of salvation in the only language the Deaf really understand.  An estimated 600,000 Mexicans have serious hearing loss.  The Mexican government offers little aid and only 12 elementary schools for the deaf exist in the entire country.  They are in many ways an “unreached people group” that has been largely ignored.  One day Robert hopes to live in Mexico and teach others to study God’s Word for themselves.

 

Instead of resenting his deafness like many in the deaf community do, Robert knows that God has used it for good, for the sake of the Gospel.  One of his favorite verses is found in Exodus 4:11.  After Moses objects to becoming God’s messenger, the Lord responds by saying, “Who has made man’s mouth?  Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?”

 

When asked how he became deaf, Robert doesn’t respond with a typical answer.  Doctors say that his deafness was the result of his mother contracting German Measles during pregnancy, but Robert knows better.  With a confident smile, he signs, “God created me deaf!”

Matthew 28:16-20
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.  And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

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