First day of videotaping our ASL project at Liberty University went very, very well!
For any who don't know, we have just begun putting together a new video edition of my book, "Growing in Grace," in American Sign Language.
Hoping this will be just the start of making sound Bible based materials as available as possible to the Deaf (certainly there are other Christian organizations already doing this, but as even the president of one of these groups personally assured me, it is only a drop in the bucket compared to the present need).
To be perfectly honest, I was stressing a bit over whether or not it would all come together this past Friday. 1) I've never done anything quite like this before 2) We had been working towards this day for months, and have had a mind boggling series of glitches, setbacks and fall-throughs along the way 3) We had our three deaf ASL signers, the hearing video crew from LU's Digital Media and Journalism Department, and two teams of LU seniors majoring in ASL who came to act as interpreters, facilitating communication between deaf signers and hearing tech people. Three diverse groups, and I felt it was all on little ol' me to coordinate.
My stress (which caught up with me in the exhaustion I felt later) proved so unnecessary that I ended up feeling downright foolish. In the middle of it, I could not help but just smile in amused appreciation at how the Lord orchestrated it all like a Divine choreographer of a grand Musical production. There had been several communication issues, which left me terribly unsure exactly how it was all going to wash out until it happened right before our eyes. I was envisioning problems that weren't there; so afraid it all depended on my lame efforts, when actually, Someone very powerful in a far better position for overseeing this project clearly had my back. And He wasn’t the least bit stressed.
The signers all did amazingly; even beyond my expectations. I couldn't be more pleased with the three skilled and engaging individuals the Lord has provided! It was such a thrill to literally see the words God put on my heart come to life as my words were signed beautifully by others for the Deaf community. Of course, there are problems to work out as we go forward; some of which were just impossible to foresee until we actually got into the thick of things. Thank you SO much for praying! Please continue on, as we certainly can use it! Our next videotaping session is scheduled for Friday, October 26th, beginning at 9:00 a.m.