IRMO, S.C. — The Beacon Church in Irmo wanted their deaf community to hear God's word.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, one in eight people in the United States aged 12-years or older has hearing loss in both ears.
That’s about 13% of Americans.
So the church began a program to bring in interpreters.
Pastor of the church, Thomas Vaughan says, “Our commission for our savior is to share the gospel with all the people groups of the world and this is one of the many ways that we can do that.”
Sarah Martin, a member of the church who helped start the program says, “We very much wanted to be apart of the deaf community and give more opportunities for our brothers and sisters who can’t hear to be able to still come to church.”
Paul May was an associate pastor at the Midlands Deaf Church before it disbanded years ago, he now attends The Beacon and his wife Holly is one of the rotating interpreters, "I’m involved with some national organizations- the South Carolina Association of Deaf- and they say about 700 deaf people die without knowing Christ in the world every day," Paul continues, "And I would say it's about 98% of deaf people don’t know Christ and they don’t have a church they can go to because there’s nowhere for them to get it directly in their language.”
Interpreters like Mackenzie Macvittie and Tia Holtzclaw sit at every service and interpret everything from the sermon to the songs.
The church even has viewers from different states online because of their commitment to the deaf community.
“It grew very organically with friendships," Vaughan says, "it became a ministry, and now through social media and other avenues, we’re able to touch people with the gospel and touch people with God’s word and form relationships we never would have had.”
“The benefits of having a church there that we can share God’s word using our natural language is very heartfelt for me," Paul adds.
The Beacon Church meets every Sunday at 4 pm off Broad River Road and streams every service online on their Facebook and Youtube pages.
