23 People!

Yesterday at church, I realized I had left my sign-up sheet for my sign language class in front of the office, and I needed it to see how many people were going to be in my class and who they were. As of yesterday, 23 people have signed up to take my class! And I only ordered 25 books!

What's really funny is that I found out yesterday where the Board of Education had decided I should hold my class during the Midweek program: the church library, a room in which ten people would be crowded! I talked to Pastor Hoger about that, and asked if I could have everyone meet in the choir room, which is right across the hall from the library, since it isn't being used. He said that would be fine.

I'm definitely going to have to try to divide up the class into two sessions: one for Wednesday nights and another for Saturday mornings. So far, three or four people have told me that Saturdays would work best for them. Hopefully a few more will make the switch. Ten to twelve people would be manageable for a beginning ASL class, but 23 is way too big for individual attention.

Also, in the bulletin, they called my class "Religious Sign Language," which is the name of one of the books I'm needing to get. I told my choir director that if I only teach religious sign language, people wouldn't learn the alphabet, numbers or conversational sign language. Religious signing is something that goes hand-in-hand with conversations, for the most part. You can't have an entire conversation with signs from a religious sign language book, because those books leave out the signs for words such as the ones I'm using right now.

Anyway, my class starts this Wednesday, and I still haven't gotten the books in that I ordered! Hopefully they will come in between now and then.

Please pray that God would grant me the strength, courage and knowledge that I will need to teach these students how to communicate with and minister to the Deaf.