“Can you hear me now?” I felt like the old Verizon commercial where the guy keeps asking if the person on the other end of the line can hear him. The little boy sitting in front of me quickly whipped his head around and started laughing, so I took that as the sign that he did in fact hear me.
Adalid is 9 and he quickly became my little buddy, but his story broke my heart. His mother brought him for a hearing test because he wasn’t hearing well and had a hard time speaking. She cried as she told us how other kids bullied and how his teachers severely disciplined him saying that he wasn’t paying attention or following instructions. He was called dumb and told he was a bad kid. Come to find out, he just couldn’t hear.
His hearing test showed that he had some ability to hear with a much higher level of volume, so we decided to try some donated hearing aids. I couldn’t help but laugh with him as he tried to repeat words I was saying.
How Can They Hear?
After making sure the hearing aids were a good fit for him, I knelt down in front of him. “Now that you can hear me, I want you to hear this: You were made perfectly by the God who loves you. Have you ever heard about this God?” Adalid shook his head no. “There’s a God who is the one true God and he has known you and loved you from before you were even born. You’re loved. You’re intelligent. And you’re a good little boy.” Tears streamed down his little face as he jumped out of his chair and into my arms to give me a big hug. We gave him some books about Jesus appropriate for his age and sent them home with big smiles.
I thought of Romans 10:13-15: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”
Unseen and Unheard People
The deaf and hard of hearing are one of the least reached people groups in Bolivia. They’re the largest unseen people group as people can pass them by every day, not knowing if they hear or not. Many assume that they can read which isn’t always the case, especially in Potosí, Bolivia. How will these people believe if they have never “heard” physically or otherwise in sign language or pictures? How will they “hear” without someone preaching? There are so many who have never heard about Jesus.
Adalid and his mom came back for us to adjust the fit of his hearing aids. He’s doing well in school now. His whole demeanor has changed. He joked with me and showed me how he’s been working on his pronunciation. His mom asked more questions about who we are and why we’re in Bolivia--more opportunity to share the Gospel with this family.
Caitlin Lawrence, BSN, RN, is a missionary serving with SIM in Bolivia. She graduated from Quinnipiac University. Prior to Bolivia, Caitlin obtained her oncology nurse certification and worked with hematology and oncology patients for 9 years.
