Begun some time in the 1960s we know the church as a group was meeting formally by 1966. The church building was purchased 40 years ago (1986) and today we celebrated with them.
Begun some time in the 1960s we know the church as a group was meeting formally by 1966. The church building was purchased 40 years ago (1986) and today we celebrated with them.
The Deaf Bible Translation team has achieved 2 passages! You can check it out at https://deafbible.com/PRBBB/MRK.1.1 The struggle has been real – and I have to constantly remember “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” though in some of our meeting times, it sure feels like wrestling! Our enemy would love to see us pack our equipment and send it to the home office in Texas and call it quits. Our team is down to 5 workers but we are producing solid Biblically accurate translations. Now that we have the process learned, it is getting easier.
The exegesis team meets on Thursday mornings to study the focus Scripture chunk. They work out the signs and how they think is best to sign each concept. Fridays, we meet and do a draft recording, then we review and see how it is looking. Each passage gets as many repetitions as needed until we see no glaring issues. Then, the video is prepared for Community Check. If the Deaf community passes the draft as acceptable, we can then publish. Well, almost, we also have to have our local pastors review the videos and have their seal of approval. THEN we can upload for publishing. Then the Deaf Bible Headquarters Team will review and if they see any quality issues, they can send us back to do another editing or drafting.
In sign languages, every little head tilt or shoulder adjustment can change the meaning of a word so our on-screen video-signers have to not blink at the wrong time!
The work among the Deaf is still plentiful and we are, as always, praying for teachers who sign or signers who can teach. We have contact with 4 Deaf children under the age of 5 all who live DISTANCES from Luquillo. They could only be in daily classes if there were dorm counselors and parents willing to have their tiny children living in the dorms. We do not foresee the latter happening. At this time, we carry out home visits and parent sign language classes at the schedule of the parents. This means lots of nighttime Zoom meetings. Pray with us for the next generation of teachers and missionaries to the Deaf.
Well, I forgot to add anything to this blog for 6 months! 
We continue to do the same things – game and craft times, tutoring dates, movie time. God has blessed us with a peaceful year – no hurricanes, no crises. The picture above is from our Movie Afternoon on November 22, 2025. We had 17 people enjoying the Jesus : Deaf Film . It is a great outreach tool and also good for our older Christians to remember Jesus’ sacrifice and love.
The three ladies at the nearest front table are all new ASL students. One is from my church here in Fajardo. The other two just came and asked about a class. One is not a Christian so I thank God for the opportunity to witness to her.
Mondays and Fridays we are working with the Deaf Bible Translation program. Pray for our translation of Mark to bear fruit.
Tutoring Tuesdays finds Betsy busy with actual in person teaching.
ASL classes are taught remotely by Betsy on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Valie is teaching on Tuesday evenings.
Definitely staying busy in the work of the Lord – though in a different way than we previously did. Thanks for your prayers!
Sometime in the Spring, we received an e-mail asking about a family coming for a missions’ trip. We just never know these days what will happen.
The Auman family arrived on June 16 and Robbie (the dad) immediately saw things to do. Betsy, our school director, was not feeling well and had to leave the family to figure things out on their own. They sure did! (With Valie’s help.)
Stephanie (the mom) was so helpful with Betsy’s mother – sitting with her, making sure she had lunch and companionship. The kids were working with their dad doing this and that – creating a new user-friendly playground! And Robbie was able to entertain Mikael (6 years old and deaf) with some science projects like bottle rockets and kites.
We invited some of the Saturday Deaf Fellowship friends to come on FRIDAY June 27th to help with the final touches – hanging chains and swings and a rope climbing spiderweb! We all had a good time together and were SO BLESSED by this family’s visit.
Thank you for coming!
If you think YOUR FAMILY or your church group would be interested in a missions’ trip, send an email to cscdluquillo@gmail.com and let’s start the conversation. We may not know exactly what the plans will be but God always leads our groups through the unknown into a time of service and blessing. 
Yes we are still here and still serving our great Lord and Saviour!
The beginning of the year (January) we hosted a student group from University of Connecticut. It was an amazing time of learning for all of us.
This month, we met a new family – the father is CODA and the mom is not. Their baby is 7-months old and Deaf. Pray for us as we work with them for the next 20 years. The family came to our Monday parent ASL class on Feb 4 and had a good time with the variety of hearing and Deaf persons present. We look forward to seeing them at our Saturday activities also:
The pictures above are from two separate Deaf Fellowship events held in our chapel. We have such sweet times with the Deaf who come together to share life’s moments and fellowship in God’s Word. I have so much to say on this but not here and now. Just know that God is working.
The picture in the center shows a couple (first time visitors) who presented a Bible object lesson. They prayed and prepared and we reviewed and worked together. I ran the PowerPoint – finally got to sit back and not DO something! The Deaf adult audience that day were excited to have people who cared enough to work on how to present and how to sign clearly. They blessed all of us with their visit. Pray for God’s guidance on them as they consider future ministry opportunities in missions.
The two pictures to the right show one of the classes I am working with this school year. Natalia (deaf) is in a mainstream classroom in a private school. I have been going there for the past two years to teach ASL to various grades. This year, they needed an English teacher. I accepted the position for 2 days each week 2.5 hours both days in addition to the ASL classes once a week. How exciting to be teaching Natalia and her friends! It’s different than teaching my Deaf students but I am learning how to work with groups of 12 and more kids. The program is Montessori and they kids are accustomed to working in small groups. Using games (left picture) and videos (on the tablets and laptop in the right picture) allows me to talk to each student individually while the other continue to (hopefully) learn.
Pray for these opportunities above highlighted as well as the other weekly events that keep my fingers moving. Each opportunity provides another relationship through which we can share God’s love and mercy and grace with another person – Deaf or related to the Deaf. Thank you for your part in serving our Deaf community here.
Thank you for praying for our ministries!
Today I was preparing to teach a class at the local “hearing” school when a storm came by and everything was cancelled. It has been a day of waiting and preparing – putting outdoor tables and chairs inside, putting potted plants into protected areas, updating the website, balancing the checkbook, making some calls to friends.
Dave has been doing the bigger work – putting up hurricane shutters today. Last week he put up a new support cable for our infra-net/internet cable. Planning ahead!
Pray for our school year – again this year we do not have students in the classrooms but we have them in Zoom Classrooms and in tutoring sessions (mostly in the library with the a.c. on). Betsy will also be teaching part-time at a local school where there is a Deaf child mainstreamed in a classroom. Pray for opportunities for Betsy to shine the light of Christ in the classrooms there and for the Deaf child in the mainstream to be able to develop friendships with her hearing peers.
A group of workers from the Emmanuel United Methodist Church of Laurel MD has blessed us this week with some really good work on some really HOT days.
They weeded the front garden, replaced fencing and painted in the dorms. THANK YOU, Donna and the crew from Emmanuel United Methodist!
While we do not have any full-time traditional K-12 students, we do have a lot going on around here. Call before you come or text to make sure someone will be here to meet you. Our “office hours” are by appointment only.
Two things you can depend on are the second and fourth Saturdays of each month – we have fellowship days. Stop by and join us in games, chat, crafts, a movie, food, a Bible study, a literacy class… all kinds of options to challenge your brain!
Check out our Bible Memory Verse page also! We are working to improve our minds and literacy skills by memorizing Bible verses.
