The mission trip to Central and South America (March 17—April 15) went really well and is considered a success! God blessed this whole trip in ways sometimes unexpected by me.

In Costa Rica, before our 1^st Deaf Camp of 2008, my partner, Pablo Ramirez, and I lead 1 Deaf and 3 Hearing people to the Lord and at Camp we had 8 Deaf and 1 Hearing saved – total saved in Costa Rica was 13! While in Costa Rica, the first 2 weeks, I had the opportunity to preach to the Deaf in church. The whole church was also celebrating its seven year anniversary. At Camp, one Deaf young man broke his knee while on the climbing wall! We moved the last day of Camp to Pablo’s church, adding a few extra people that could not go to the Camp during the week.

The Argentina part of the trip was totally different than we expected. First, even though we had looked at some stats before we went, we were “blown away” by the sheer size of the country. It is the size of all of Europe or the size of the United States East of the Mississippi! The biggest shock was learning there is only ONE Deaf Ministry in the whole country (in a Jehovah’s Witness church)! We were able to visit 10 churches in the province of Buenos Aries (1 of the 23 provinces). In each church, we were given the opportunity to share our burden for Deaf people,
 and in a few churches we did this several times. One Sunday we were in 3 different churches during the day. We were able to conduct 6 workshops, taught in 1 Seminary, attend a major Pastors’ meeting and we were interviewed for a ½ hour International radio program. Although we were constantly looking and trying to find Deaf, we actually only met 1 Deaf man. Wow! Their Sign Language is really different from any I have ever learned. Every time we were in a church, we would ask who knows a Deaf person and the response was an average of 10 people raising their hands. We really need to get back there again in 2008, as well as again in 2009, to teach potential interpreters and how to begin Deaf Ministries. Would you please pray about helping us go again? In the picture below, the girl on the left had been praying for 3 years for God to bring someone to teach about Deaf Ministry!

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Soon, the second Deaf Camp will take place in Western NY (June 13-15). This month, Lois Dungan and I will be visiting 4 churches in that area to try to encourage more Deaf to come to Camp. The third Deaf Camp will be in Eastern
 NY (September 19-21). I am still searching for a speaker for our 3^nd Camp, so please pray about that with me. This summer, I will continue searching for a 4^th Camp place to be located in New England. D.E.A.F. subsidizes about $26 per camper to be able to offer Camps at a low $60 per person – would you be willing to help us with Camp expenses? Maybe you would also be willing to help with Camper scholarships for our 3 Camps in 2008 (we usually have around 35 campers in each camp).

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In August, we will be celebrating 25 years of Deaf Ministry (Picture below) at North Syracuse Baptist Church! Beginning with 1 Deaf person, we now minister to over 30 throughout the year!

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On October 31st, we will be participating in the Deaf Nation Expo at Secaucus, NJ again. Last year we had an opportunity to meet 3000+ Deaf there and you may recall we gave out over 400 Bibles and about 2,000 tracts! Would you like to help us go this year? The cost is around $1,200. We also need more Bibles and tracts as we used up all the tracts and most of the Bibles.
       

Travel Experiences

· No food on airline & 17 hours traveling to Costa Rica – and I am diabetic.

· Traveling to Argentina: nearly arrested for security violations: 1st in Costa Rica airport because Iforgot I had my

pocket knife in my briefcase (they confiscated it until myreturn back from Argentina); 2nd in Lima, Peru airport because

I was insisting(as per my Joslin Center Doctor) that I be hand scanned due to wearing myinsulin pump. The issue was

resolved by me walking through the security checkgate.

· Thick, big Black Angus steaks in Argentina—morning, noon and night! Restaurants don’t open until8PM. After 3 days,

our system was rebelling and we began to drink our “special”tea (2 bags at a time). Oh ... no fish there & very little chicken!

· I got caught up in the Airline situation coming home. American Airlines to Miami, then was sold to USAirways. I got

home the day after I was scheduled—early in the morning—withoutfood the whole way. Sherry waited at the airport from 9:45 until after midnight!

In Christ, Steve and Sherry – God bless you and your family!

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING? ** All 2008 Projects ** More Missionaries ** Project opportunities ** Family health **

** Please pray for opportunities to do more of these types of projects. You can designate on your check memo line “Account 435.1” for projects (this fund is NOT used for our personal support, but for projects such as these). Your designated gift/s will be used 100% for these projects. You can designate on your check memo line “Account 490.2” for personal support. If you want your donation to be split between both account numbers, please indicate that on your check or enclose a note stating how you would like your donation split.

                                                                                                                                                            

                 This woman had also been                                                                                                                                 We were able to meet

                     praying many years                                                                                                                                           many pastors at a

                for God to send someone                                                                                                                                    Buenos AriesProvince

           to teach about Deaf Ministry!                                                                                                                                      Pastors’ Meeting!

 

   · Donations to: D.E.A.F., P.O. Box 32, North Syracuse, NY  13212-0032

Deaf Evangelism And Fellowship, Inc

6044 Pine Grove Rd., Cicero, New York 13039-9370

(315) 458-7038 · e-mail address: deafinc@deafinc.com

D.E.A.F. Web site: www.deafinc.com