Deaf community meets at Shocco

A deaf community of 199 Alabamians gathered for worship and training at the Alabama Baptist Conference of the Deaf (ABCD), held March 2–4 at Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talladega.
   
More than 80 deaf ministries, as well as two churches — the Birmingham Community Deaf Church (BCDC) and the Faith Baptist Deaf Mission Church (FBDMC) in Talladega — were represented. ABCD interim president and FBDMC pastor Ricky Milford said the conference is meant to “re-energize the deaf church as well as to train church leaders and teachers.”
   
Throughout the weekend, ABCD held worship sessions and assemblies. Job Ayantola, a deaf pastor (part time) of Deaf Christian Chapel in Bridgeport, Conn., was the guest pastor. Ayantola is a native of Nigeria who grew up in a Muslim family. He became a Christian at a camp in Nigeria in 1969, and moved to the United States in 1976. At the first assembly, Ayantola’s messages were based on Proverbs 29:18 and the vision God has for His church. “It was His (God’s) vision and His desire to be in relation with man,” Ayantola signed.
   
Workshops were also available. Paul William Ellis, founder of the International Institute of Deaf Services, an interpreter with the federal government and an elder at the BCDC, led the interpretation workshop; Kelvin Jackson, a full-time music minister at Paramount Baptist Deaf Church in Amarillo, Texas, led the song workshop. Jackson also led worship for the conference; Ben Cox, who has been a missionary in Hawaii and Russia, taught the basic Bible study workshop and Danny Blair, interim pastor of BCDC, instructed the leadership workshop.
   
“This is the only time in the year when training is provided for the deaf in their language and culture,” said Richard Alford Jr., associate in  the associational and cooperative missions department of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
   
The Deaf Youth Advance also took place at Shocco that weekend. Approximately 70 youth, ages 13–19, came from the Alabama School for the Deaf as well as from Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana March 2–6.