Note: This Wednesday we’re taking a break from publishing a winning entry from the Do Hard Things Story Contest to share a time-sensitive project from Leah Good. Read about Louise’s story and prayerfully consider helping her hear.
Imagine Being Deaf. Imagine Being a Missionary.
Imagine what it would be like to be deaf.
Imagine dancing your way through life, but not being able to hear.
Imagine communicating with sign language instead of talking and listening. Take a minute to try to wrap your mind around that.
Done? Okay, now imagine uprooting yourself from your family, your country, and everything you’ve considered “normal” in order to move overseas to serve God and love that person who is deaf.
A little girl named Louise lives in India.
Louise doesn’t have to imagine what it’s like to not be able to hear because she is profoundly deaf.
Louise is cared for by two young women who don’t have to imagine what it’s like to uproot and move to the other side of the world. Nikki grew up in Canada. Tori grew up in the United States. They took Louise and her foster siblings out of institutionalized state orphanages and are doing their best to give these precious kiddos a taste of family.
Louise: An Indian Shirley Temple
Let me tell you, it’s hard not to fall in love with Louise. I’ve been following Nikki and Tori’s blogs for almost a year now, and Louise is definitely the performer of the household.
She’s silly and spunky and always wants the camera pointed in her direction. She has a mop of curly black hair.
In many ways, Louise is like an Indian version of Shirley Temple!
Right before I found out about this cobbled together family in India, Louise got her first cochlear implant. According to Wikipedia, a cochlear implant is “a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.”
Louise’s cochlear implant has been a huge blessing to her. In the past year she has learned to hear and speak for the first time! These newfound abilities have also helped her to excel in other areas of learning.
A Birthday Present for Louise
Now Louise is approaching her fourth birthday (November 25!) and her foster mamas want to give her a second cochlear implant to celebrate. The first CI is on her right ear. The second would be for her left ear and would improve her hearing even more.
Being able to hear better will help Louise throughout her life.
But here’s the catch. The procedure, implant, and processor will ring up a $14,700 bill. Yikes! Nikki and Tori, young missionaries living in India, don’t have that kind of money lying around waiting for a good cause to spend it on. Neither do I, and I’m guessing you don’t either.
Joining Forces
The good news is, we Rebelutionaries have seen time and time again what can happen when we join forces.
I’ve experienced it personally for the launch of my book, Counted Worthy, and observed it for other projects, like the wildly successful Valentine’s Card Project for kids in Uganda.
God didn’t build us to operate as independent units. We’re a body. As sisters in Christ, Nikki and Tori are part of our body, and because of their testimony and example, Louise may grow to be part of it as well.
So here’s my question to you. Will you join Nikki, Tori, and me in showing God’s love to Louise?
How to Help
There are a lot of ways to help with this project, so let me give you a quick overview.
I deeply believe in helping orphans and fatherless children, and I also believe in the enthusiastic, generous hearts of the Rebelutionary community. I can’t wait to see the two colliding on Louise’s behalf.
Share Your Thoughts in the Comment Section!
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First one to comment! Living in the world without full hearing is awful. I will definitely be praying. I know with God’s help we can all come together and bless this little girl.
Thanks, Hannah! 🙂
Honestly, I don’t totally agree with your statement about not being able to hear being awful. The Deaf community has its own language (actually, in different countries the deaf people have different sign languages), and they share stories and history and traditions like any other culture. I take an ASL class, and my teacher is completely deaf. But she doesn’t think it’s awful–that’s just the way God made her, and a lot of good has come out of it! If she had the opportunity to hear again, she wouldn’t take it. She said so herself!
Now, I’m not discrediting what Leah said here. This little girl is in a different country, and I’m guessing she wasn’t born deaf–a lot of people on other countries lose hearing due to disease and things like that. Obviously this person is trying to recover from her hearing loss and be able to hear and speak, and that’s all good.
I don’t want to sound mean or anything, and I know the situation is different for everyone, but I’d be careful about saying a broad statement like that. A lot of Deaf and HOH people don’t it’s awful to be deaf or HOH.
I agree. My mom is a deaf interpreter for our Church and she has spent lots of time learning about the deaf. One of the aspects in the deaf community is they don’t want to be pitied. They don’t want to be treated different. They just want to be normal, so they try to live without the help of hearing people, and many of them do very well at that and can lead normal lives without having to hear or depend on others. I know a woman who could have surgery done to get her hearing back, but because of the fact that her deaf friends would reject her because she “accepted help from the hearing”, she refuses. Deaf people need the Gospel, but it’s hard to reach them because they try to shut the world out. I’m learning ASL too, and I want to reach deaf people.
Exactly. I’ve heard that the Deaf are one of the biggest unreached people groups in the world. I know some people who work with Door Ministries–have you heard of that? They work with Deaf people around the world and help them translate the Bible into their different sign languages. It’s really cool!
I really can’t imagine what it would be like to be deaf.
We can’t help everybody, but we can help some. That’s what we need to do.
Agreed. It can be hard to chose too! There are so many needs. But we can pray that God will guide us to the needs He wants us to fill.
Yes. I guess that often God does guide us by placing us in contact with specific people.
I can’t give any money, but I will be praying for Louise and her family! Thank you for telling is about this, Leah!
Thank you! 🙂
Heyyyyyyy Leahs unite! 😀
And published on MY birthday…. 😉
happy birthday! Haha i’m only like, three weeks late 😉
So excited to learn about this project!! I would love to help Louise. Is it too late??
Leah, I was wondering about that too… Is it too late??????