Location:
Alexandria, Egypt

Participants:
65 in total – 2 from Jordan, 1 from Palestine, and the remaining from Egypt.

Interpreter:
the interpreter Pola provided a wonderful service, signing fluently like a deaf person. When Matthijs met him for the first time, he thought he was deaf and was trying to sign in International Sign. It made deaf participants so easy to follow Gunnar or Rani. We were very blessed with him.

Most of attendees had previously viewed God as strict and judgmental, but during the week, they experienced our Father as a loving and caring Father, which was received well. The understanding of the Trinity also became clearer to them. It was important to continually relate ourselves to the teachings from the Bible and make it clear that we were sharing our own life experiences with the Bible as the guiding point.

The testimonies shared at the end of the week were touching. Gunnar, the head speaker, left a meaningful impact on many attendees with his engaging approach. Rani also made an affirmative impression on the participants about her life with her family and as a being mother, especially to the females. Matthijs quickly learned Arabic sign language, which the participants understood well (I came home very tired ha!).

For some deaf attendees, this conference was a life-changing experience as it was the first time they had left their hometowns, meeting other deaf people and enjoying the beauty of Alexandria near the coast.

Team and coordination: organization of the week can be thanked to the dedicated team behind it. Sahel, a deaf Christian leader/evangelist from Jordan, played an important role as the coordinator of the week with recruiting the people, liaising with two deaf Egyptians Samwell and Bassim. He collaborated closely with Matthijs on behalf of DMI (Deaf Ministries International). It’s noteworthy that in Egypt, there are no deaf Christian leaders, making Sahel’s involvement even more inspiring for other deaf participants (also a reason why he was chosen to coordinate the week as a Jordanian in Egypt).

The combined efforts of Rani, Gunnar, Matthijs, Sahel contributed to a blessed experience of the week for many. They were already asking when we would be coming back again.