A stern sign on the wall of the production room urges any visitors to be quiet, in all senses of the word. The DOOR Deaf Bible translation and training centre in Nairobi, Kenya currently hosts seven teams of Deaf artists, videographers, graphic designers, editors and performers who are using their skills to craft Bible translations for the Deaf communities in their respective nations. As the teams grapple with expressing God’s word clearly, accurately and naturally in their language the translators don’t scribble notes to change a word, but labour over moving hands, testing facial expressions and tilting shoulders just so. The final product is a set of videos typically published on DVDs, flash drives or cell-phone videos with an accompanying storyboard book.

Recently a website was launched to host the finished translations. 32 passages each in the sign languages of Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and Kerala, India are now available with more to follow later this year. This means that the Gospel can now be accessed by over three million Deaf. The videos feature beautiful drawings and the expressive efforts of talented signers. Many hearing people find these Deaf Scriptures fascinating and you can see them for yourself at deafbibles.com.

P.S. You must watch the introduction videos at the top right first before you can access the story videos. Deaf love chronology! Or watch in random order on Vimeo.

Photo: Zeke du Plessis