I'm here in Chattanooga, TN for a week-long candidacy school at my mission board, BIMI. It's basically a week of missionary training. A long week, I'm told, but I'm looking forward to learing a lot from multiple experienced, godly men and women. It starts this evening, after church. I've already met some missionaries-to-be, and made several friends out of the 80+ candidates that are scheduled to come.
This morning a new friend (another single missionary lady to Honduras) and I had the privilege of attending a Deaf church: Harvest Baptist Church of the Deaf in Ringgold, GA. We were first led into the teen girl's Sunday School class... Then, realizing they'd assumed we were teens, I explained we may be more appropriate for the ladies class. =) The full women's class was very welcoming.
After Sunday School we joined the main service. The preacher was Deaf, with a nearby voice interpreter for the few hearing people present. It was a blessing for me to be reminded of how a Deaf person with a language and some basic education can be saved, can grow, can lead, can preach, and can be called of God to go as a missionary to Deaf people in other countries. Looking at their wall display of Deaf and hearing missionaries that they support (aka, fund), was encouraging, too. So many have gone before me in this relatively new field, and are seeing God work in their ministries today. I look forward to joining them in the not-so-distant future.
Missionary Candidate School, here I come!