Zambia Hunt

In Africa alone there are 90 million people who are deaf. That’s 1/4 of the deaf population in the entire world. Tragically, cultural stigmas and grinding poverty leave the deaf in a silent, isolated world, limiting relationships, language, and education. All of these things have made the deaf in Africa, the continent’s largest unreached people group. If the Gospel of Jesus is to effectively penetrate this Silent Realm, the African church must intentionally take the gospel’s Hope across its borders and make members of this neglected Community an integral part of healthy reproducing churches.

Pastor Simon Banda from Nkana East Chapel in Kitwe explains, “Generally, in Africa, when somebody has a disability, perhaps you are deaf, people will be suspicious, and they’ll think that it is a result of something wrong that the parents did. That has caused many parents and families actually to be ashamed of their deaf children, and so they’ll hide them away. The deaf are neglected, actually neglected. Of course, this is a disability, but when you learn their language, you’re able to interact with them as normal human beings. They’re just like us; they’re not different from us. Local churches need deaf ministry to be included in their programs so that the deaf people can be reached out to in the community.”

To address this need, Central Africa Baptist University prepares African leaders for deaf ministry. The Director of the Deaf Studies program at CABU explains, “The Great Commission commands everyone to take the gospel to all people. It doesn’t include exceptions. As a church, it’s dangerous to add ‘except’ to this command. Central Africa Baptist University trains servant leaders committed to the Great Commission. At its core, this commitment develops a heart for the least reached—and on our continent, the deaf represent the largest unreached group.”

Central Africa Baptist University is the only known university in Zambia that has a sign language and deaf studies program. Through this program, Central Africa Baptist University provides hearing students with powerful practical tools to engage the deaf Community with the gospel. Students in the program take a series of classes to make them competent in Sign Language, give them a thorough cultural framework, and provide the biblical worldview necessary to effectively cross over into the world of the deaf. Reflecting the success of this program, an increasing number of current students and program graduates are serving in deaf ministries within their communities in Zambia and all across Africa.

Cherith again comments, “When our churches see our deaf friends as valuable members of the body, we are going to see completely revolutionized churches. You’re going to walk in and it’ll be like Paul says: there’s not going to be Jew or Greek, there’s not going to be hearing or deaf; it’s going to be one body serving and loving together.”

A second strategy is to theologically equip deaf Christians for gospel ministry within their deaf communities. Through qualified sign language interpreters, CABU provides deaf students full access to its on-campus training programs. You can have a program, but it’s only as good as your end product, and we are seeing an end product where students and graduates are going out and using what they have gotten in the classroom for Great Commission Living, for gospel advancement among the deaf community.

Africa’s largest unreached people group desperately needs the hope found in the gospel. To help reach them, Central Africa Baptist University is on a mission to train this generation and coming generations of hearing and deaf church leaders to be theologically equipped and practically prepared to engage and reach the vast community of the deaf in Africa.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hearing church with a deaf ministry or a deaf church reaching the deaf,” Cherith said. “The outcome is the same: healthy churches with hearing or deaf members who are actively obeying the Great Commission and honoring Christ until he returns.”