Signs of New Life Among the Least Reached
Gospel ministry in Central Asian Deaf communities
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n 2020, the International Mission Board (IMB) estimated the global population of Deaf people to be 70 million with as many as 1,444 Deaf people dying each day without eternal life in Christ (imb.org/asr). Of the 182 known Deaf people groups in the world, 180 of them are considered unreached, meaning that the majority of the world’s Deaf population is less than 2 percent evangelical with little to no sustained gospel witness. For Sam and Lydia, these statistics were intolerable.* Sam, a hearing man, and Lydia, a Deaf woman, met in 2003 and stayed in touch even while serving on different continents as Journeymen with the IMB. Although Lydia was serving in Central Europe from 2003–2005 and Sam was serving in South America from 2004–2006, God was working to knit their hearts 38
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Story by Chad Burchett
together. “We were both independently called to a life of missions,” Sam recounted, “but during our time as Journeymen we both realized we would do this a lot better with a partner we could trust.” Before returning from the field, they began discussing how best to prepare for redeployment. “Southeastern was known to us as the sending seminary,” Sam recalled. So, Lydia returned in 2005 and enrolled in the MA in Intercultural Studies program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). Sam returned in 2006 and started an MDiv in International Church Planting. While students at SEBTS, Sam and Lydia married and continued praying about how God would use them for his mission. It became increasingly clear that God was preparing them to reach underserved communities with the
Photos courtesy of IMB
*Names changed for security reasons
gospel. “My call was to the least reached peoples,” shared Sam. “It was offensive to me that we had an entire world of people with pockets who had never ever been touched by the gospel because they never had the opportunity. Seeing the need among geographically and culturally isolated people only further fueled this driving passion.” When Sam and Lydia interviewed with the IMB, they were challenged to consider ministry among Deaf people in Central Asia since Lydia was Deaf and had experience with Deaf ministry. While Sam was processing this challenge, God quickly reminded him that Deaf communities were among the least reached to whom he had been called. They accepted the assignment, and later the next year they moved to Central Asia as gospel witnesses among the Deaf.
Spring 2022
