A woman who was born deaf discovers a congregation that communicates the saving gospel message.

Ten years ago, Dan Frey, pastor at Gethsemane, Lee’s Summit, Mo., began learning sign language. It was out of necessity; his members wanted their grandchild who was deaf to take confirmation classes.

“My initial instinct was to give him a piece of paper to read,” says Frey. “But I contacted the [WELS] Mission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and they funded an  interpreter for us for a few months.” The group also told Frey about a WELS member in Topeka, Kan., who taught sign language. For ten weeks, Frey drove an hour and a half to Topeka to take classes.

This opened his eyes to a new community—and a new mission field. “Anywhere you live, there are deaf people,” he says. “I keep noticing them now that I know sign language. Beforehand I just didn’t pay attention.”

One of the people he noticed was Carrie Cox. They met—of all places—at their daughters’ softball game. Now Cox has become a member at Gethsemane and wants to share the gospel message with others in the Deaf community.

Missed communication

Cox was born deaf in Joplin, Mo., in the 1970s. Wanting to offer her more opportunities, her parents sent her at the age of 3 to the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis. “They teach deaf children to speak and lip-read,” says Cox. “I lived in the dorm with 15 girls.”

Although her parents would pick her up every other weekend and bring her home for two nights, Cox’s initial faith upbringing happened mainly at the school. “I was blessed to have gone through so many different exposures to my dorm sisters’ religions—Catholic, Baptist, Methodist,” she says. “It has never been one church.”

While Cox attended many different churches and Sunday school programs, she struggled to learn anything of substance. “Some of the teachers did not know how to communicate with deaf children. We basically did a lot of drawing,” she says. When attending vacation Bible school at home during the summers, she didn’t want to use an interpreter, so the information went over her head. “It was hard for me,” she says. “I was kind of shy, and at the same time I wanted to be normal.”

When she was 10, she had a new roommate at school who was a devoted Christian. This roommate taught her how to read the Bible and encouraged her to keep at it even if it was hard to understand.

Cox moved back home and started attending public school for seventh grade. She attended church with her best friend and also with her mom. She continued attending church through her college years.

After college, Cox moved to Florida, where she got married and then divorced. Church life wasn’t a priority. She moved back to Joplin but struggled with depression—and with accepting her deafness. “I felt like I was being punished for not having a job,” she says. She began partying too much and hit rock bottom before finally going to counseling. “I started getting better and stronger and becoming more accepting of my deafness,” she says.

Cox’s cousin encouraged her to go back to church. She started to attend a Methodist church where she would lip-read and read printed material that the pastor provided, but she says she wasn’t learning that much or growing in her faith. She tried several other churches but found it hard to keep up with the pastor on her own.

Gospel interactions

In 2024, Cox was attending her  daughter’s softball game, and Frey was at the same game. A coach pointed Frey out to Cox when she needed to catch up on the score. “I looked and he started signing, and I was like, ‘Oh, you sign?’ ” says Cox. “And he said yes and that he was a pastor. I said, ‘Really, what church?’ I was so excited!”

Cox and Frey shared a connection that day—a direct line of communication in Cox’s language. When Cox was in a car accident a few weeks later, she texted Frey. “She asked if I would pray for her,” says Frey. “So I got to go to the hospital and have an hour-and-a-half conversation with her about religion and Jesus and his perfect plan. She was even patient with my signs.”

That interaction meant the world to Cox. “I had this sense of calm,” she says. “And that’s how I came to learn more about the Lutheran church.”

Cox started attending Gethsemane, even before she knew that the congregation scheduled an interpreter for its weekly service. She soon began taking catechism classes directly with Frey.

“I think it’s cool because Pastor Frey can communicate with our deaf members and he doesn’t need an interpreter,” says Beth Eaton, a member at Gethsemane who also serves as one of the congregation’s interpreters. “Pastor Frey knew enough sign language that he could sit down and communicate with [Carrie] one-on-one. Anytime a word popped up or a concept popped up that she wasn’t familiar with, Pastor Frey was able to slow down and explain.”

Through these classes Cox was able to learn about biblical facts and doctrine that she had not known before—including the doctrine of the Trinity. “Pastor does great [with his signing],” says Cox. “I cannot put it into words. He has gone above and beyond.”

Cox became a member at Gethsemane in January 2025. “She was really excited,” says Frey. “I simplified the questions so that I could remember them and sign them to her as her pastor. Thankfully we had gone through the questions beforehand, so she knew what I was signing.”

He continues, “You think of culture as someone who looks different than you or who is from a different nationality, but the Deaf community certainly has its own culture. Yet the same gospel still works.”

An underserved community

Cox is one of four adult deaf members at Gethsemane, along with several deaf children. “Personal relationships are really how all our deaf members have come [to the church],” says Frey.

He continues, “The Deaf is one of the most underserved cultures. It has a different language. They feel coming into a hearing church that it’s not for them, so we try to make giant strides to be more welcoming to the deaf and open to them.”

Gethsemane works to bridge that gap through using interpreters for worship. Frey also emphasizes “worshiping with the eyes,” highlighting that observing the rites and ceremonies and visual elements in the church is part of worship too. Sunday school children are taught to sign Bible verses and share what they learn monthly in worship. “And we let our hearing members know that a smile and a handshake go a long way too, even if they don’t know sign language,” says Frey.

Frey says that the deaf members adapt as well, understanding that an interpreter won’t be available for all the events. “I think our members learned that here in the church we are a family—even if there is a communication barrier,” he says.

Cox is oral and reads lips plus has a background in Christianity, so she is able to participate in the “hearing” Bible classes and other events a little more easily than some. She appreciates gathering together for worship at a physical church. She says that with the huge strides in technology, many in the Deaf community prefer to worship online, if at all. “It’s a lack of motivation for the deaf to even try to go to church because they know they might not have an interpreter,” says Cox. “I want to reach out to them to encourage them to take that step because the more the church is aware [of the Deaf community], the more they might do something to help them.”

She continues, “My heart hurts to see a lot of deaf people [who] don’t understand the Bible or what sin means. They need to find Jesus and know and understand what Jesus can do in their lives.”

Author: Julie Wietzke
Volume 112, Number 05
Issue: May 2025

Hands of God

This summer, Dan Frey, pastor at Gethsemane, Lee’s Summit, Mo., and six of his members—four who are deaf (including Carrie Cox) and two who are interpreters—are planning to make the trek to Wisconsin for a conference on how to serve the deaf and hard of hearing members of God’s church. The Hands of God Conference will be held July 18–20 at St. Paul, Lake Mills, Wis.

Frey, part of the WELS Mission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing committee planning the conference, is excited to gather with others to dig deeper into this important topic.

“This is a passion of mine—I’m in it now,” he says, referring to his own congregation’s ministry to the Deaf population. “I’m excited to help open the eyes of other people who might be interested.”

The conference will feature topics like technology devices in church for the deaf/hard of hearing, how to welcome deaf/hard of hearing guests at church, how the deaf share their faith (panel discussion), and setting up a deaf Bible study. One workshop, which will be led by deaf members, will focus on the Deaf culture, how it is different, and how congregations can bridge the gaps.

“This [conference] is for the deaf [members] to get together but also for anyone interested in working with the deaf,” says Frey. “We get to be the hands of God as we live our life in this world.”

Learn more and register for the conference.

Did you know?

• According to the 2023 American Community Survey, about 3.7 percent of the US population, or about 12 million individuals, reported having a hearing disability (disabilitystatistics.org/acs-custom).
• Roughly 98 percent of deaf people worldwide (68 out of 70 million) have never been reached with the gospel (deafmissions.com/about).
• The WELS Mission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has created an online religious sign language dictionary to help the deaf and interpreters share the gospel more effectively.