The miracle of Pentecost - Maryknoll Lay Missioners
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A Deaf Development Programme (DDP) staff member, who worked as a cleaner, leads a tour group, explaining the mission and vision of DDP to visitors

“Can I come and visit your center? I want to meet other Deaf people. I am Deaf and visiting from …” started many of the emails I received while working at the Deaf Development Programme in Cambodia. As a naturally anxious person, I would sometimes think, “Oh no! I don’t think we have anyone who knows the sign language from that country.” But I quickly realized that my deaf colleagues had been endowed with the Holy Spirit and could communicate with anyone who walked into the room.

I first discovered this one day when we had a deaf visitor from a small country — I can’t even remember the name — who had come for a tour led by my deaf colleagues who were still in training as tour guides. My job was to tag along on the tours in case a question came up that our staff did not feel comfortable answering, but my primary role was as a cheerleader supporting their burgeoning skills. I happened to step away for a moment, leaving my deaf colleagues to chat with the newcomer before the tour began.

When I rejoined the group a few minutes later, one of the staff members began telling me all about the family of our new visitor, the number of siblings he has, their ages, and many other details of this stranger’s life. I said, “Wow! I didn’t realize our visitor knew a shared sign language with all of you.” The staff member responded, “Oh, we don’t have a shared language. We just figure it out.”

I witnessed this same dedication to communication time and time again with every visitor, intern, or new staff member, hearing or deaf. Our deaf staff would simply approach the new person and start figuring out how to communicate. They wouldn’t shy away, try to find someone to interpret or not even engage because they didn’t see a similarity. They would figure it out. A deaf friend from the United States told me that this is the “deaf superpower” — the ability to connect with anyone, especially other deaf people.

The first reading for Pentecost, Acts 2:1-11, reminds me of this lesson that my deaf friends taught me. “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?” They found a shared “native language.” It did not matter if they were addressing a hearing or deaf individual. It did not matter if they had never met that person or they came from a different place; they learned to speak in a new way and built connections — building the Kingdom of God on earth.

In today’s world, where we see conflicts over language and cultural issues, wars started because we can’t find common ground, or families being torn apart, we can learn from the experience of my deaf colleagues who saw the dignity of every human person and seemed to make it their mission to encounter each person in a meaningful way.

I pray that all of us may follow their example when we encounter someone on the margins, who speaks a different language, has different perspectives or comes from a different walk of life. May we see that, in the end, we do have a shared language if we just open our hearts to that encounter.

Karen Bortvedt is the recruitment and relationship manager of Maryknoll Lay Missioners. She served as a missioner with the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 2014 to 2017.

Scripture reflection for Pentecost Sunday, June 9, 2019, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Photo courtesy of Karen Bortvedt.

Karen Bortvedt Estrada
Karen Bortvedt Estrada is the recruitment and relationship manager of Maryknoll Lay Missioners. She served as a Maryknoll lay missioner with the Deaf Development Programme in Cambodia from 2014 to 2017.