 Who are you ? |
We are a Christian couple who have been interested in Deaf Ministries. Earl is on staff (raising his own support) with Equipping the Saints http://www.etsusa.org a ministry that accepts donations or buys needed items at auctions and then sells them at near the same price to mission organizations around the world. His main jobs are fixing old computers and picking up donated items within the state of Virginia. Both of us help when there is a container to be loaded such as clothing or medical equipment. Shirley works for an agency that is for people who have been diagnosed with severe to profound mental handicaps. We do not have children.
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| How do you fund this ministry ? |
| We finance it with our own funds. We produce a notebook - a CD-Rom and also this website. We do ask for donations for doing the notebook although we dont require it. Our goal is to get the information into the hands of people who need it. People who give us updates and send us information help us reduce the costs of mailing letters to find out if a ministry still exists.
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| Why are you doing this ? |
| Shirley had taken an Interpreter Training Program several years before we married. When she graduated she wanted to work with a Deaf Ministry or similar type organization at the same time building her skills as an Interpreter. She only knew of 4 Deaf Ministries at the time- none that needed the skills that she had. When we married we wanted to have mission project that we could work at together. Since it was difficult for Shirley to find Deaf Ministries we thought that there would be others who were in the same position. So we started with 5 addresses and began from there. Also having no idea that it couldnt be done we went ahead and did it.
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| What about Deaf in other countries ? |
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Besides doing this website we connect with many other ministries in other countries. Our hope is that people who need to start a Deaf Ministry in their area can use our List to contact a Deaf Ministry near them. Many Deaf Ministries are willing to travel to do workshops and seminars in other countries -they are just waiting for an invitation to do so.
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| Is there a way we can help your ministry? |
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The most important way to help is to pray for us. We have seen God move in ways we never expected or thought of. Since we are raising our own support we do accept donations .They can be sent direct to Equipping the Saints-just mention its for Earl Wilbers support. Another important way is to let us know about Deaf Ministries that you know about that arent on our List. We are especially interested in those that focus on areas that many people are unable or unwilling to do. those in prison ministry, ministries who work with Deaf who are experiencing abuse whether physical-sexual or emotional. ministries who work with Deaf who struggling with addictions (drugs-alcohol - homosexuality ), We are interested in connecting with Deaf Ministries who are reaching ethnic groups here in the US - Native Americans - Asians -Africans etc. By letting us know about these you can help their ministry grow and reach Deaf that you may never meet.
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| Why the name Deaf Ministries Connection ? |
| We wanted "a handle" that was easier for people to use when talking about us. Also we wanted something that would describe our ministry beyond just collecting addresses and information. More and more we are getting involved with ministries who are needing specific information beyond just " where is there a Deaf Church in Atlanta?" One of reasons for doing this is to assist Deaf Ministries in saving time and energy in searching for addresses or ministries. We can do the legwork in tracking down who moved or what ministry closed down so that people can find them easier.
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If you want a copy of this list you can email us and we can send the entire list on an attached file. We have it available in a variety of formats so simply tell us which format you use ( give one or two options ) and we will do our best to get it to you.This will get the list to you in double column print ready form. Total number of pages would amount to 70 pages one side. If you prefer to print the entire file from this website you can do so by clicking
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| In http://members.aol.com/eearl2/ we have the list in download format for |
| Word Perfect 6.0 MSWord 2 and 97 MSWorks 3 Richtext
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| Deaf Ministries List
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| http://members.aol.com/deaflist/web.html
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| Earl and Shirley Wilbers |
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