When Jim Bracelin was a boy he was playing outside and noticed his mother’s flowers outside the windows. To him, they looked uneven. So to fix this problem, he went and broke them off of their stems, so that now they would all be the same height. He thought it was a good idea, until his mother confronted him. She asked if he broke the flowers off their stems, he lied.
Jim recounts to me that for the first time in his young life, he knew he was a liar. Not long after this incident an old fashioned tent meeting occurred in the area. One night it seemed like the preacher was talking straight to him. He said that if you have sinned even one time, you cannot go into heaven. Immediately it struck him, that he was a liar, and he couldn’t go to heaven. When the invitation came, he tugged on his mom’s skirt. She told him to wait, as she was a counselor for the meeting and was attending to a girl who had responded for salvation.
On the drive home she asked him what it was he wanted to ask her. He said he wanted to pray to ask Jesus into his heart. Jim jokes that his mother became an Indy 500 driver that night as she quickly got them home. At his parents bedside he kneeled and accepted Christ as his savior.
He would go to Bible college where he would meet his wife Terry, and they would both end up in a church in Maryland. They would hear the preaching of Ted Camp, one of their missionaries. But Ted was different. He would preach, but also use sign language at the same time as he preached. It was in that sermon that God revealed to Jim that somebody needs to go and tell deaf people how to get to heaven. And that someone needed to be Jim.
He studied Sign Language from a book in the library and memorized the Signs for words in a gospel tract. He memorized how to Sign the gospel the best he could. He then prayed for God to bring a Deaf person into his life. Jim coached a soccer team for a Christian school at the time. That fall, he went out for the first day of practice, and noticed two new players. After speaking with their father, he mentioned to Jim that his youngest son was Deaf.
Jim knew this was the Deaf person he had been praying to meet.
Jim found the opportunity to witness to his son. He signed the gospel as best he knew how but he knew he was butchering it. After 45 minutes, he asked the teenager if he wanted to accept Jesus. The boy signed yes. Jim didn’t believe him. Jim didn’t think his signs were even legible. So he presented the gospel again. Another 30 minutes went by and he asked the young man again if he wanted to pray to accept Christ. The young man signed yes. Jim thought he was being mocked by the boy. So Jim asked the young man to sign back to Jim, what he had signed to him. What happened next was a precise, detailed signed explanation of the gospel. When Jim asked again if he wanted to accept Jesus, the teenager got frustrated signing that he had already said yes twice! That was the first deaf person Jim led to the Lord.
That started a spark within Jim’s heart. He just wants to see that again, and again, and again. It gave him a thirst for deaf people getting to know the gospel and know God.
Someone needs to tell the Deaf how to get to heaven. Jim remarked that he has seen a majority of Deaf accept Jesus after seeing the gospel for the first time. Many of them have never seen it before. In other countries, they might not even have Sign Language, or any language at all. Many times, these Deaf are disregarded – thrown away as if they were trash. Many Deaf in other countries become beggars if there is no family that can or are willing to help them.
Jim tells me that deaf people are very blunt, it’s part of their culture. When presented with the gospel they either accept it or reject it. Almost every deaf person he meets is an open book. Many will share their whole life story because they have no one to talk to. Because they see that you know sign language, they know you can be trusted. They see that you care.
Jim tells me as an interpreter, you’re nothing more than a microphone. You’re not the creator of the message. You are there to make sure that the Deaf see it loud and clear. He says we don’t change the message we just transfer it.
And it’s the same way with the gospel.
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