According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:20-21

Year 2022 Report:
As we arrive the end of year 2022, I looked back and counted many blessings; my church’s deaf ministry members grew from three to twenty-seven. Two salvations, four baptisms, and ten church memberships. God blessed us by increasing the number of interpreters from one to four. Deaf started being faithful to services and giving tithes/love offerings to the Lord. We are discussing about moving to a bigger classroom because our current classroom is now small as we continue receiving new deaf visitors. Currently I am training a few deaf helpers to be servants for Christ so they can assist me with the deaf ministry. Please pray that they will be fishers of men in near future. We must reach more Deaf in our area, they must know about Christ and we must tell them.

God is good to us as my wife and I are busy with the Lord’s work reaching deaf folks, deaf ministry leaders, and deaf workers around the world and I published three issues of Gospel Hands that is intended to assist pastors, leaders and workers dedicated to reaching the Deaf. Brother Kevin Maki contributes a perspective from the hearing, Sister Marta Galdamez contributes a perspective from being hard of hearing and I contributed my deaf perspective so the readers can understand multiple perspectives on the deaf ministries. I had Gospel Hands translated in Spanish and French for our IPM missionaries around the world. If you haven’t received Gospel Hands in email, please let me know so I can email it to you.

I am learning Spanish and French since last summer so I can work with national pastors and their churches. I enjoy to learn languages and I pray that hearing folks will take time to learn sign language. It is every person’s responsibility to share Gospel to anyone in spite of language barrier.

Fields Reports:
Ivory Coast: IPM Deaf Ministries director, Brother Kevin Maki led Deaf Ministry Leaders training with 16 Deaf Ivorians, 8 hearing Ivorians, and 4 hearing Liberians. They had many blessings and fellowships. I am looking for blessings coming out of this training in near future. I’m so excited.
Kenya: I was scheduled to go to Kenya and visit several churches on the summer of 2022. I was asked by our national worker to reschedule to April 2023 due to election related unrest. I am looking forward for this.

Health Report:
I did not plan to announce my illness because everybody has an illness/disease at some points. Whether it is high blood pressure, diabetes, or migraines they do not advertise theirs so why should I? I only informed my mission board, International Partnership Ministries and my church, Arlington Baptist of my illness. I thought to myself, ok, that’s it. My wife, Joy pointed out that I need prayers to help me to continue working for the Lord and to keep my sanity. I realized that she is right that I can’t do it without the Lord and your prayers. I humbly request your prayers as I was diagnosed of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) last September. It is a condition that doesn’t require a treatment. I expect that over the course of many months to years that I may need a treatment. Pray that my illness remains under good control for many years and for me to tolerate of side effects of this illness which are fatigue, hot flashes, fevers, night sweats, and nodes pain. My role model/mentor who is now 85 years old who has three stents, had cancer (in remission), and many ongoing health issues, yet he is still serving the Lord, traveling hundreds of miles across the USA and goes internationally to reach the Deaf. He is not stopping; so, I do not plan on stopping either. I may lose a foot or an arm, nothing will prevent me from the Lord’s work. I will keep going till Lord calls me home. That’s what the Lord wants me to do.

Prayer Requests:

• For new Deaf who recently got saved. For those Deaf who are sitting on the fence.
• For my health and my family.
• For increased support, new meetings, new opportunities.
• Encourage churches to start a deaf ministry.

Please select International Partnership Ministries Inc. as your supported charity if you are shopping at the smile.amazon.com, AmazonSmile will make a donation to IPM. Thank you.

Thank you so much for all your support, whether financial, or through prayer and encouragement. Without you, this would not be possible. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing.

Would you consider partnering with me to reach the Deaf for Christ?

Your partner in the Gospel,
James and Joy Campbell
https://gospelnowseen.com/

Dear Prayer Partners and Supporters,

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Community Calls
1 Thessalonians 5:14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

When we hear the Lord’s voice in our heart and we respond to Him, God is not only calling us to Him. God is also calling us into the Church. God is calling us into community. Once we accept Christ, it is important that we join in with a community of believers. A community of believers comprise a full spectrum people of ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, education, and disabilities.

Acts 2:42–47 says that discipleship, fellowship, worship, ministry, and evangelism all are to take place within the context of community. We are called together so we can do the things God wants us to do together. Every one of us is part of this community to minister to one another.

This message urges you to encourage, strengthen, comfort, instruct, teach, and admonish Deaf in your community. Don’t stay silent and feel sorry for them. Don’t say that there is a communication barrier and there is nothing you can do. The communication barrier exists because folks are not willing to find alternatives to communicate. Deaf have been known for using many alternatives including lipreading, writing notes, gestures, unclear speaking, and using interpreters to communicate because they want to overcome the barrier. A Deaf person is very eager to communicate with you and wants to be involved in a ministry within your church.

My local church has a deaf church employee who serves as an administration assistant and does janitorial work. It is a blessing to give opportunities to the Deaf so they can be a part of the community rather than being an outcast. Matthew 25:35-40 tells us to help one another regardless of their backgrounds and cultures.

We should be trying to motivate everyone in our church to take that next step forward in the faith. This means working with deaf members. We need to encourage Deaf members to grow in the faith by being close enough to notice when they got discouraged. As a community of faith, we should be there, just to offer a shoulder, or just to listen. We should cheer up and comfort those who need it.

Every one of us have real problems, spiritually and emotionally. Deaf need to know that there are people who will help them through these times of difficulties. The community of faith should be a place where Deaf know people love them and will help them.

Working with the deaf ministry requires a lot of patience. Not everyone moves at the same pace. Everybody, every single person, will do things different than the way they should, or we think that they should. We need to be patient and calmly minister to each other, wherever we are.

Fields Reports:

Kenya: I was scheduled to go to Kenya and visit several churches on the summer of 2022. I was asked by our national worker to reschedule to April 2023 due to election related unrest.

Ivory Coast: Our national worker, Leonce Ekeni led a deaf team to do the outreach in the rural areas and conducted a feasibility study to see if there is a need to start a new deaf ministry.

Prayer Requests:

• For my son, Luke to pass his driving test so he can get his own license.
• For Luke and Laura, they are working with their new jobs at the retirement community.
• For increased support, new meetings, new opportunities.
• Encourage churches to start a deaf ministry

Please select International Partnership Ministries Inc. your supported charity if you are shopping at the smile.amazon.com, AmazonSmile will make a donation to IPM. Thank you.

Thank you so much for all your support, whether financial, or through prayer and encouragement. Without you, this would not be possible. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing.

Would you consider partnering with me to reach the Deaf for Christ?

Your partner in the Gospel,
James and Joy Campbell