Caption: Tomoko (R) and Akira (L) Sakamoto sing in sign during a church service at the Tokyo Deaf Church. Akira has been Deaf all of his life. Tomoko, who is hearing but had Deaf parents, learned to speak Japanese later in childhood. When Akira met Tomoko, he wasn’t a Christian. He started going to church with Tomoko, and there he met Pastor Minamida – the pastor of Tokyo Deaf Church. “Every time I went to church, I felt Minamida was preaching about my life. In the beginning I thought Tomoko had told him what to say! I started to think that God was watching all the time, and it scared me!” Akira says. “After a while Tomoko...explained to me how Jesus died for all of our sins, and that there’s nothing to be afraid of. After that I stopped worrying and became a Christian.” Akira and Tomoko regularly watch the videos with portions of scripture that have been translated into Japanese Sign Language often in conjunction with the written Scriptures. “If I just read, I can’t create the image in my head. When I see it on the DVD, I immediately get it,” Akira says. ViBi (Video Bible) is a ministry of Japan Deaf Evangel. They are working on a video translation of the entire Bible in JSL. "I know it’s hard, but we really need those 66 books quickly, so the Deaf can see it now,” says Akira.
Photographer: Heather Pubols
City: 
Country: 

Copyright: Wycliffe Global Alliance 
Photo Taken: 16/04/2015
Keywords: Asia Asian Deaf JPN Japanese Sign Language [jsl] female male man singing woman