INTERVIEW: My desire is to see a Ministry for the Deaf in C&S – JEWOR

“Deaf Ministry is beyond Sign Language or Interpreters. There must be burden bearers who must be ready to sacrifice everything to rescue souls from hell.”

Mary Olakulehin better known as JEWOR runs an online platform where she publishes daily bible reading in sign language. In this interview with SERAPH OLAMIDE FAMUWAGUN, she reveals her challenges and triumphs as a Christian with hearing loss. Excerpts:

Can we meet you?

My name is Mary Damilare Olakulehin, nee Akodu. I am a daughter of God. I came to Lagos State in the 1980s and was raised under the watch of Rev. (Dr.) S. A. O. Adeoye of C & S Progressive International Church, Ago Itunu (Aladura) in the Ikotun-Ijegun axis of the state.

What church do you attend?

I am a member of the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood. I worship wherever He plants my feet. My late biological father was a Celestial.

I was raised in C & S Progressive International Church, Ago Itunu (Aladura), and all my pre-marriage family members are Seraphs till date. Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria played a vital role in my life, I was there for 10 years. Presently, my family and I worship at First Baptist Church, in Oyo State, Baptist because it’s my husband’s church.

What job do you do?

I am a Lecturer working as an Educational Administrator. I also have an online store for clothes, footwear, and kitchen wares. I run the store when I’m free.

Can you tell us when and how you discovered your hearing impairment?

I lost my hearing to measles in 1996. It started precisely on Sunday, June 16, 1996. The signs started as drowsiness and tiredness during one of our Mary band anniversary services. My mother was the band captain then.

I was one of the few young choristers who never slept during services and because of this, the Choir Master insisted that I go home to sleep after he noticed my drowsiness, he also informed my mom that I was under the weather. I thought I’d just sleep a while and return to the service but I was awakened by Mom’s touch around 4 pm when it had all ended. After that, I was bedridden for three days and was receiving treatment for malaria.

On Wednesday, some of Mary Band members came to check on me and one of them identified my condition as measles. My mom was shocked that she couldn’t identify it as measles all along after caring for a lot of children and the herbs for measles were right in the compound. But that Wednesday morning I had my first meal without vomiting since Sunday. I was getting better so there was no need for further treatment.

Unfortunately, after a while, I learned that the measles coupled with the quinine for the malaria treatment I received, had affected my hearing. 

By December 1996, it started becoming painfully obvious that something was wrong. We went through several medical, herbal, and spiritual treatments, all to no avail.

And how have you coped since then?

Today, I thank God for this special gift even if I never recovered my hearing. For me and many others living with hearing loss, it is a very challenging journey – the mockery, jests, losing valued friendships, insults, isolation, and endless tears are beyond explanation. But to the glory of God, I’m a survivor and a living testimony that “All things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

I braced up and embraced myself in the 10th year of the journey. When dad descended from our Church’s annual covenant mount, I went to hug him tearfully and said “Daddy, pray for me. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been suffering from this hearing problem”.

He pulled off my hands and said “Dare, look at me. Yes, it’s been 10 years but has it stopped you from progressing?” I replied “No sir”.

He said “So, what is the problem? As long as it cannot stop you, it is not a problem. When it is God’s time, He will remove it. Iwo sa a ma tesiwaju. (You keep moving forward)”

That day, my perspective changed. Though I still lived with the pain, my dad’s words coupled with that of Prophet Lekan Bisade-Phillips of the Place of Grace (C&S Students Fellowship/Unification), Olabisi Onabanjo University, then strengthened me.

To the glory of God, here I am today, a proud daughter of God, undistracted by physical noise, constantly and continuously helped by God.

When did you start your daily bible reading in sign language?

I started Bible Reading in Sign Language around November/December 2021.

When I met my husband in 2014, I started learning about the Ministry to the Deaf from him. He is an active minister to the Deaf. At first, I wasn’t interested in it beyond interaction with the Deaf in Christian settings. However, I had a major turning point in February 2021. Though I grew up in a spiritual garrison and was well raised in the Vineyard, the gap created by my hearing loss brought me to a point of depression from 2019-2021. I almost resigned from my job because life was just a meaningless routine to me, then social offers started coming up trying to occupy my time but I wasn’t raised in the world so I had no interest in the ‘juicy’ offers.

God who knew me even from the womb, sent a brother to me who patiently took me through conversion. I found meaning from then on. I came to realize that God had planted me in my garden since but I’d never tilled intentionally. I had never been intentional about my Christian life before then even though I had been a passionately active child of God since I was 6 years old. Ministers need to beware and be sure that their children are Christians and not just religious.

During my days at Foursquare, my pastor then tried to raise me into stature but let’s just say, his purpose in my life did not include helping me to become intentional about my Christian life.

What happened afterwards? 

I later started a series on YouTube about the Life of the Deaf in June 2021. It hit rocks after the second video. The video was on parenting a deaf child but I couldn’t do part 2. At about the same time, my mentor at work went to teach about parenting and was attacked physically and spiritually. We talked severally about how Satan was attacking homes and children but neither of us knew how to go about our burden beyond just hosting talks.

My spiritual mentor didn’t let me rest and insisted that I must produce part 2 of the video but the attacks on my boss scared me then and added to my inability to do the second part.

That day as I finished reading my Bible verse for the day and worried about the YouTube video until the Holy Spirit ministered to my heart to sign the bible verse and post it. It was a great relief that this is one thing I can do effortlessly so I started it daily.

By March 2022, I couldn’t continue again. In August 2022, God sent my secondary school friend to me so that I have to return and post it daily. Since then, God has helped me to keep at it and He is gradually revealing His purpose for everything.

In what way do you think the church can support the cause of people with hearing impairment?

That can happen through a Ministry for the Deaf. The C&S Church like some other Churches does not have a Ministry for the Deaf. My husband’s constant burden is seeing Churches raising their deaf children in-house. God has used Him to see to it that churches have their own Deaf Ministry. It has also been a burden on my heart to see Deaf Ministry in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.

The Deaf are a great tool in God’s end-time plans. He allows our hearing loss so He can keep us focused on Him. Satan knows this so he uses isolation to hijack the heart of the Deaf.

Deaf Ministry is beyond Sign Language or Interpreters. There must be burden bearers who must be ready to sacrifice everything to rescue these souls from hell.

God is doing it in other Churches. I’m certain He will do it (in fact, He has started) in the C&S Church too.

You run a platform under the name, JEWOR. Can you tell us more about it?

JEWOR is a name the Lord gave to me when I first met Christ in 2000. I was on an Emmaus Correspondence course which dad (Baba Aladura Adeoye) put me on to bridge the gap created by my hearing loss. After studying “Men who met the Master” a topic under the course, the assignment was “what will you do with the Master?”.

As I prayed that morning, God gave me the vision and gift of writing and from then, I found myself writing profusely. The theme I received that day was Justification so I named myself “The Justified Pen” and my assignment” The Justified Evangelical World Outreach (JEWOR). But I wasn’t happy that it centered around my name “Damilare” so I added JESU to it in my mind to become JEWOR JESU.

In October, 2022, God had me edit the name to JESUS EVANGELICAL WORLD OUTREACH while he gave me confirmation through a sister the following day.

First of the assignment is to see Deaf Ministry in C&S Church. When I got clarity on this, I wasn’t happy because I was not fully in the church; I never knew that Aranmonisefayatii had already put everything in place. Out of the blues, friends from home started gaining interest. I was privileged to meet some C&S leaders who really understand the need for Deaf Ministry and I tabled it before them. When dad became NEC Chairman, I wept through that night as I marveled at how God works out His will. Now I can see that I don’t really need to be seated in C&S Church before pushing for Deaf Ministry there. Yes, I am persuaded that the C&S Church will become inclusive soon as the Lord’s purpose gains more expression in the Church.

What is your advice on the inclusivity of people with deafness in the affairs of the church?

We need help for constant preaching of inclusivity in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church. There are so many like me out here that we don’t know where we belong just because our home churches never had a ministry in place for us. If I’m to talk about the internal and external conflicts we face for this, I’ll write a full novel. I wouldn’t like to meet another younger deaf seraph with identity issues in the future. The Church needs to address this.