39. Rodel

I’m sitting in front of a man who is wearing an old T-shirt, jeans and a visor. He has short hair, a slight frame and a kind face. The room is light and breezy. I hear a chair being dragged across the floor as the interpreter takes a seat. I hear the soft sound of hands signing, overcome by bursts of birdsong and dogs barking. I see the trees swaying gently outside, their shadows moving across the wall, the kind face of the interpreter sitting nearby. But this man cannot see or hear any of this. He is deaf blind. His name is Rodel.

As I sit before him and watch him fumble, I size him up. I try to read him. I make assumptions. My mind flashes back to meeting Hugh (Blog #6) and Dennis (Blogs #25 & 26) – some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people I have ever met – and a question rises uncomfortably out of the dark, murky depths of my heart: “Why bother?” I’m ashamed of the question but it’s there. What can we possibly do for a deaf blind man? Is there anything can we do that would make him in any way a productive member of society? Wouldn’t we do better to invest in someone with more potential? Why bother?

His story sets me straight.

Rodel was born 44 years ago in San Pablo city in Laguna Philippines. He has been deaf from birth but his loss of vision has been a gradual process, the result of retinal optic nerve degeneration (not Usher syndrome). He hears nothing, and has extremely limited vision (a metre or two directly in front).

When he was 10 years old, he went to church for the first time. It was a Deaf church, part of a network of 21 Deaf churches each led by a Deaf pastor. Some of those pastors were supported by DMI, so this was Rodel’s first introduction to the DMI family. He gave his life to Christ two years later and was baptised two years after that. From that point on, Rodel had a heart for the gospel and was keen to see it taken to the Deaf all around his province.

In 2003, Rodel began to study at a remote Bible college. This time was equally enriching and challenging for him. The study uplifted him and the fellowship of students strengthened him, but it was the deceptive ways of people that tested his resolve. 

This depravity in people only increased Rodel’s resolve to work in ministry. He wanted the Deaf to be free from the oppression of this world and embrace the light of another Kingdom. He went out to find the Deaf in the province of Samar and began to share with them the gospel. At that time, he was staying with a local family while being financially supported by a man in Japan. Yet the family kept all the money and refused to even acknowledge that any had been sent. So Rodel raised a small income for himself by farming. After a year, he had a congregation of 10 and in time, more would come. Mostly young people, they were the poorest of the poor, the most desolate among a desolate people. Few had received any education. Fewer still could sign. He mainly used rudimentary gestures and images with them.

Shortly after beginning this ministry, Pastor Rodel found support in Pastor Albert, who is Deaf and leading a DMI church in Bacolod, and in Doug who is hearing and was running a service for the Deaf in Zamboanguita. (Doug is translating for us now.) He also began to receive financial support from DMI – and this time, no-one was stealing it from him! And so the churches grew.

God used this man. 

God used this deaf blind man to take the gospel to the Deaf.

God used this deaf blind man to grow churches in Borongon (Samar) and in Zamboanguita (Negros Oriental), and in time Pastor Rodel found himself discipling 40 church members.

He married Dina, also Deaf, and they now minister together.

But COVID has really hurt them. Some live too far away and are restricted from travelling to church, others are kept from attending by their parents. There are currently only a dozen or so members across the churches. But there is potential here. Restrictions are lifting and there are many Deaf who have not yet heard the gospel. Many who remain neglected and ostracised. Yet there also remains one unlikely man with the passion to reach them.

I ask Pastor Rodel what we can do to help him in his ministry. He says many years ago he was given an old computer which he used to present sermons. But it’s so old now it barely works. With his very limited eyesight, he would love a large screen computer with a touch screen since he cannot follow the cursor. This would enable him to continue ministering to the poorly educated Deaf who rely on visuals for understanding. Doug tells me the computer that would best suit Pastor Rodel costs US1,700.

In the meantime, this quiet achiever, this faithful servant of God, sells chicken eggs to supplement the small support he receives from DMI. He currently has about 50 productive hens and soon will buy another 50 chicks to raise. But what he really wants to raise is churches for the Deaf in his local area. This is the passion of his heart. Who will bother to help him do this?

If you would like to support Pastor Rodel and help finance his computer, please give here: https://deafmin.org/donate/