October 14, 2002

Deaf campus ministry blossoms among 'least evangelized'
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___BIG SPRING--Kelli Ballard can hear, but she does not have to use her ears to hear the needs of her campus.
___Ballard is director of Baptist Student Ministries at the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf.
___Since she came to the school, the Christian presence on campus has grow from three known believers to about 25 who now attend nightly BSM events.
___Growth has not come easily, however. Many of the students' parents struggled to communicate with their deaf or hard-of-hearing-children, causing them to feel unloved, Ballard said. Other students had problems in school because their disability was not discovered soon enough.
___So, some deaf students were apprehensive about building a relationship with Ballard, a hearing person, she said.
___"Their biggest challenge with the hearing world is they feel like the hearing are trying to dominate them," she said. "There is a deaf pride and a deaf culture."
___This restraint, combined with the lack of interpreters in churches, has made the deaf the "least evangelized" group in the world, said Bob Parrish, who has worked with Ballard for several years. Less than 3 percent of deaf people are Christians, according to Ballard.
___Resistance began to fall, however, when several students were killed and another died, Parrish said. The BSM is the only religious organization on campus, and it became the spiritual center for the students, holding memorial services and consoling the traumatized.
___"Students became more aware of spiritual matters," said Parrish, who worked with the deaf through the Baptist General Convention of Texas for 21 years.
___Once social barriers were broken, the BSM began to grow. The program now includes lunches and "Power Hour" that includes praise and worship where students feel the beat of the music through the vibrations of the sound waves and sing by signing. The students hunger for Scripture, Ballard said, as evidenced by the way they will examine two verses of the Bible for hours before ending the study.
___"The most important thing is to show them that they are accepted and loved," she said. "I can love them in spite of our differences. It's not me loving them. It's Christ working through me."
___The students have accepted Ballard and formed a community of believers at the BSM. The group not only ministers internally but sent its first missionary to Michigan last summer.
___"We hope we've built a desire to share the gospel with others because the deaf have a network like no other," Ballard said.
___While the outreach of the BSM is important, the transformation of the campus amazes Ballard.
___"The overall atmosphere is more positive," she said. "It was like an oppression full of spiritual warfare here. Through prayer and volunteers, we have seen a positive change."

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