Noah Lewis couldn’t help signing along with a worship song playing in the background as Deaf friends gathered in his home for dinner.
The International Mission Board missionary was sitting in the living room with his roommate and two friends while others prepared food nearby. As a young, single adult, simply opening the doors to his home in the Middle East has created some of his most fruitful opportunities for gospel conversations. That evening, Lewis was stirred to worship the Lord.
“I just love worshipping in sign language because it’s a full-body experience,” Lewis said.
Lewis, who is hearing, began signing the song in American Sign Language. Across the room, one of his Muslim friends watched intently. When the song ended, his friend told him it was beautiful and asked to see another.
Door of opportunity
Lewis explained that Christians use songs to worship God. His friend compared what he had seen to hearing the Islamic call to prayer. The exchange opened an opportunity for Lewis to explain Christian worship and why Christians worship Jesus. When his friend asked to see more, Lewis continued signing songs from the playlist.
“He was just really captivated by it,” Lewis said. “It really felt like in that moment the Spirit was working in his heart.”
The conversation did not end with a profession of faith. Instead, it became another step in a friendship where Lewis has watched spiritual curiosity grow over time. During Ramadan, the same friend asked about fasting. On another night, he asked how Christians pray. Each question has allowed Lewis to explain what Christians believe and why he follows Jesus.
Those conversations reflect much of Lewis’ ministry. He has served in the Middle East for nearly a year and a half, spending much of his time learning sign language and building relationships in the local Deaf community.
Learning sign language, like learning any language, requires time, practice and immersion in the community that uses it. For Lewis, that process has looked different from the experience of missionaries who can spend several hours each day in a formal language school. There are no comparable sign language centers where he serves, so much of his language learning happens through relationships with Deaf friends.
Although Lewis has not had a dedicated language tutor since arriving on the field, personal relationships help him develop a strong conversational understanding of the sign language used where he serves. The process has also drawn him more deeply into the Deaf community he came to reach.
“I want to genuinely learn about their language,” he said. “I want to be friends with them. I want to know who they are.”
As Lewis’ ability to communicate grows, relationships deepen and opportunities to share the gospel follow. Even when he doesn’t know the exact sign he needs, friends help him find ways to communicate biblical truths. Lewis has learned to faithfully use the language he has while continuing to grow in his ability to communicate the gospel clearly.
When the plan disappeared
That dependence on God came into clearer focus during a recent trip to Central Asia.
Lewis currently lives and serves in the Middle East, but he arrived on the field with a long-term desire to serve in Central Asia. His recent trip allowed him to learn more about the culture, Deaf communities and opportunities for future ministry there.
While there, he visited a Deaf fellowship and connected with people in the community. A few days after he arrived, however, increased government scrutiny made attending the gathering unsafe for local believers, and Lewis was asked not to go.
Without the connection he expected to have, Lewis began looking for another way to meet Deaf people. He searched social media, walked through the city and sent messages to people he found online. After three days without a promising connection, he told his supervisor he had run out of leads.
His supervisor suggested he walk and pray around the neighborhood.
“It was like, of course, just go and pray,” Lewis said. “Everyone can do that, but I was too caught up thinking, ‘What can I do practically?’”
The suggestion brought Lewis back to a lesson God had been teaching him since he arrived on the field: prayer is not separate from the work, it is foundational to it.
Walk and pray
Lewis went into the city to walk and pray. After 20 or 30 minutes, he reached a place where he could connect to Wi-Fi and discovered that a Deaf man had responded to one of his messages. The man eventually called Lewis and invited him to a home where he was spending the evening with friends.
Around 10 p.m., Lewis arrived unsure of what awaited him. Inside, he found about eight Deaf people gathered around a table, eating bread and drinking tea and coffee.
“I couldn’t find one person,” Lewis said, “and suddenly one person led me to a massive group of people.”
As introductions began, Lewis realized the connection reflected prayers he had been praying before he ever arrived in Central Asia. He had specifically asked God to introduce him to Deaf people from areas of the region that had been on his heart. One man was from a city Lewis had prayed about, while another came from an area connected to where Lewis hopes to serve.
“I was just blown away that all of these things were being answered all at once,” Lewis said.
‘God answered every prayer’
The evening grew into several days spent with his new friends. They traveled into the mountains, and the relationships led to introductions with more Deaf people in a village, a bazaar and a local car wash. What began with Lewis struggling to find one connection became a growing network of relationships he could not have orchestrated himself.
“God answered every prayer that I had for that trip and then more,” Lewis said. “I saw it so many times — simply stopping and saying, ‘God, put this person in my path,’ and He did.”
The trip also gave Lewis the opportunity to meet Deaf Christians and hear how God had transformed their lives. After serving in a context where there are few Deaf followers of Jesus, their testimonies renewed his confidence in the work.
“It gave me a renewed passion and fire for what we do,” he said.
A worship song in Lewis’s living room and a prayer walk through a Central Asian city might appear to have little in common. For Lewis, both experiences have reinforced the same truth: God is at work among the global Deaf, and Lewis is learning to depend on God as he joins that work wherever God places him.
Names changed for security
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jaclyn Mains and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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