16. Rhean

The DMI blog aims to let people know about the deaf kids, teachers, pastors, schools and churches that DMI supports in developing countries, and encourage support for them by telling their amazing stories. Please share this blog with your friends.

This Corona virus is turning the world upside down. As devastating as it is on livelihoods and lives, it is also having a sobering effect on our priorities. Suddenly luxury items are not that essential, and relationships are treasured more than ever before. Social distancing (a term unknown to us just a few weeks ago) has made us long for our friendships and to express our affection in them through a handshake, a hug or a kiss. 

We’ve long found comfort in the routines and familiarity of Christian fellowship (as well as its spontaneity) but find ourselves longing for it all the more as we resort to connecting with each other through screens and over the phone. 

Things we rarely think of – light, rain, sound, able feet, food, phones, toilet paper(!) become a source of wonder and praise when we think of life without them. The Psalmists words appear as a warning as much as an encouragement:

Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits. (Psalm 103:2)

These uncountable benefits in life are illuminated in my interview with Rhean Celestial, a grade 7 student in the DMI dormitory in Bacolod on the island of Negros in the Philippines. Here, there is a government-run school for the Deaf, but there is nowhere for out-of-town students to stay, and this is where DMI and its supporters have lovingly provided. 

Rhean lives with a dozen or so other Deaf students at the dorm, overseen by Pastor Albert Mercado and his wife Kim who are also both Deaf. Rhean is 17 years old, and many of those 17 years have been without the benefits that we have been told not to forget.

Rhean’s mother suffers from severe mental health issues and as a young girl Rhean endured the brunt of that. It got to a point where her mother was simply incapable of raising her and her sister, and they were taken off to be raised by her grandparents. At the age of 8, Rhean was brought to the dorm – scarred and scared – and began a new life with the Deaf community.

This was a life-saving move.

At the dorm, Rhean has few possessions. She only has a couple of sets of clothes. She bunks in a small, very simple room with half a dozen other girls. But in this environment she has also found the loving care that she had craved all her life. She has built friendships that she can rely on and enjoyed fellowship that has brought meaning to her life. Through Albert and Kim’s care, Rhean has also found faith in Christ. 

I observe Rhean as she goes about her duties. She wakes long before the dawn to clean her room and prepare for the day. She helps prepare breakfast, feed the dogs and clean up after the cats. After school, she clears away the dishes and washes her clothes. She tells me she enjoys all these duties. She seems amazingly content, and not an electronic gadget in sight.

Rhean (black T-shirt) in her dorm room. Around the table for study and devotions.

The kids all study together around a big table in Albert and Kim’s house (adjoining the dorm) for about 3 hours in the evening after dinner. Around that table they also have daily devotions. Rhean loves these because they each get to share their concerns and pray for one another. Fellowship in action. They also get to hear the gospel and grow in Christ. Rhean loves to worship. She loves to pray. She loves to see God working in her life. She prays for her needs, and for those of the others in her dorm. She also prays daily for Neville and his health.

Rhean’s simple life and sincere faith move me very deeply. I wonder where she would be without the provision of this dorm and without the care it provides, and I’m thankful for the generosity of DMI’s supporters. I’m also challenged in my own priorities.

Rhean is not completely deaf. She can hear loud noises which Neville and I are profoundly grateful for because the four dogs Albert and Kim keep often bark long and loud through the night, driving us crazy. (I can’t imagine what the neighbours think!) It’s only Rhean who can hear them and she gets up several times a night to shush them. But she tells me she loves the dogs so she doesn’t mind this.

I ask Rhean about her future. Where would she like to go and what would she like to be? Her answer is immediate. She wants to be a missionary/evangelist and take the gospel to the Deaf throughout the Philippines.

Rhean seems to have her priorities right: she is truly content with her lot, she lives to worship, and she is grateful for Albert and Kim and her Deaf family around her. She is no longer interested in trying to improve her hearing. The world is probably too noisy anyway, she signs with a smile. Her worldview amazes me and once again I find myself inspired by those who I came to inspire.

If you would like to know how you can support Rhean, any of the kids or teachers, or help meet any of DMI’s needs, please click on the donate button on the top right of the page, or mail to info@deafmin.org 

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