Andrew Miller is the International Director for DMI. When he’s not eating chicken Twisties in Sydney, he’s travelling around the world raising funds and DMI’s profile in developed countries or visiting the fields we support to see what’s needed and how our funds are being managed. Either way, he works tirelessly to avoid unidentifiable food and meets lots of weird and wonderful people who he just can’t resist interviewing…

#20 Alita

Alita (not her real name) has been working with DMI amongst the Deaf of China for over 20 years. Through personal challenges, hardships and persecution, she is formidable, labouring with little support to see the Deaf come to faith in Christ. (All personal and place names have been changed or initialised.)

Andrew: What is life like in China right now?

Alita: It’s very complicated. It’s difficult because of the weak economy. Our government has such a bad relationship with our neighbouring countries, it makes our life miserable.

Which countries in particular, can I ask?

America, Japan and Israel, mainly. As a result, people here always complain that anything bad is either America’s fault or Japan’s fault. 

It’s never China’s fault?

Never! Our history is all about other countries copying us and ripping us off.

Is that your opinion, too?

No, of course not! 

What is your opinion?

God allows different opinions. I love my country and I respect others. If others are better than us then we should learn from them and fix our problems. We shouldn’t always complain about others.

What work are you doing for DMI right now?

I do a lot of work! 

I know you do!

Teaching, preaching, interpreting, connecting the Deaf to each other and to hearing churches.

Can you tell me more? Where and how are you teaching and preaching etc.

In leadership training, preaching in our church or others that I visit.

How many Deaf churches does DMI support in China?

Four churches in all. D, T, K and G.

How did your first get involved with the Deaf community?

I’m a CODA*, so I was born into a Deaf family and grew up in the Deaf community. In 2003, I went to a Deaf church for the first time. I was struck by the gospel message and became a Christian and was baptised. I felt the Holy Spirit pressing me to tell my parents about Jesus. I kept resisting because my father was a very strong idol worshipper. Eventually I worked up the courage to play a DVD for them. When we watch TV, I always sign for them but at that time I didn’t know how to sign ‘Jesus’ or any Biblical words – I had never learned them – so I just made them up! And it worked! After playing the DVD, I asked my parents if they would like to follow Jesus with me. My father nodded his head. I was so surprised I said, “Hold on, do you understand what I’m saying?” He said, “Yes”. I said, “No, do you really understand? I had to ask three times, and he said ‘yes’ three times. He said he would stop worshipping idols and wanted to follow Jesus. So then we prayed. But I didn’t know how to pray! So I just made up a very short but heartfelt prayer of submission.

* Child of Deaf Adults

What a beautiful testimony!

Then I took them to a hearing church but after two visits my father said he wouldn’t go anymore because he couldn’t understand anything. One year later, Ps C came from Korea. I took my parents to that church and my father was shocked and said, “Wow! Jesus can sign!” My parents became very strong believers. My father immediately quit smoking and transformed his life.

How and when did you first get involved with DMI? When did you first meet Neville?

When he first visited D in 2004. He had such a big impact on me, my parents and the other Deaf.

You have faced and continued to face many challenges. Can you share a couple of those with us?

Our government is really persecuting us because of our faith – they are persecuting all people of faith. I’m always watched by the police. It’s hard but I’m not afraid.

Why aren’t you afraid?

Because the one inside of me is more powerful than those on the outside. And I know what the truth is. I will never quit.

Amen! Good for you.

There are other challenges. We are kind of at a crosspoint. We need to move on from the past into new fields. Since Ps C passed away, we have been stuck in a rut. We have a lack of leadership and training. We need to rebuild and strengthen our churches.

For a long time I have felt so alone. I feel really lonely in leadership. I can’t share how I feel with our Deaf believers. There is no one else to lead or accompany me. A long time ago I had E and other people in China and we could always pray together and encourage one another, but now I feel stuck – the only one in leadership within the Deaf church.

I’m sorry to hear that. That must be so hard for you. How can we help?

Yes, but you know, things are getting better and better as we work to fix things. I was so encouraged by what you shared in the online training this month – about King David hitting rock-bottom and all his friends wanting to kill him. But it says that even then – especially then – David found his strength in the Lord. We started to think about that and that affected us in a really good way. We started to see with eyes of faith and encourage one another in this.

What are some of the greatest blessings you’ve seen in your work with the Deaf and DMI?

Whoa! A lot! But they are borne out of hardship. As you know, I was born into a Deaf family. I had a half-brother who drowned at the age of 11. My mum was so sad about that. Shortly after marrying my father, she fell pregnant again but lost the baby. I was her second child. After having me, my mum fell pregnant once again but it was a boy and because of the government’s one-child policy, they forced my mum to kill the baby. After all that, my parents treasured me so much. I was so loved, growing up in love right up till I found the Deaf church. So you see, when I joined the church, I knew I had been chosen by God for this purpose. Life in China is not easy but I’m so proud of my family’s response to the gospel. God loves them so much. I’m really glad that DMI has opened my mind to the gospel. When I go to DMI conferences and trainings and I meet others in the DMI family, I know that God loves the Deaf so much and I know that I am a part of his plan for them.

How would you like to see the ministry grow in China?

In K, the whole church is over 80 years old! What will happen when they die? We must reach the younger generation. But in China it’s not easy to do that! Not only because of government policy but because of social structures. The older generation and the middle generation and the younger generation don’t communicate very much or very well. But we need the next generation of Deaf Christians to rise up. In T, it’s better because we have young Christians in the Deaf church. In D, it’s getting better, too. I’m able to interpret there and young Deaf can hear the gospel and they are responding to it. I’m really involved in their lives – interpreting for them at school, in court, hospital etc. So the church is growing there. We need to keep telling them about the good news of Jesus. Holding activities like camping to encourage life skills and community and DMI is an important part of this.

How can we support you more?

Of course, we need financing but that’s so that we can become self-sufficient. We need to have more trainings for our leaders. My vision is that for the next 3 years, money and prayer support will provide a foundation upon which we can achieve self sustainability as a network of Deaf churches in China.

Thank you, Alita.

~

If you would like to sponsor Alita and/or our work in China please click on the button below, go to https://deafmin.org/donate/ or mail me here to find out if your country can send support to China.