Missionary / Erik’s Focus for 2008

• Contact illiterate and unreached ‘local’ deaf people
• Building relationships with, evangelizing them and therapeutic care for ‘local’ deaf
• Forming partnerships with and empowering/equipping congregations in terms of Deaf Ministry

Staff

D3 Executive Director: Erik de Waal

Erik (himself being deaf impaired) has taken his call very seriously since the Year of Service for Christ in 1992. During this year he worked for one year in the De La Bat congregation for the Deaf in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. In 1993 he begins with full-time studies at the Huguenot College.

Unfortunately he could not complete his studies because the high standard of academic language and concepts cannot be accommodated sufficiently in the culture and language abilities of the deaf. So for 7 years he worked part-time among the deaf in the Cape countryside and West Coast. But in 1999 a benefactor made it possible for him to study in America. Erik completed his Theological degree at a University that specifically accommodates the deaf, therefore within the context of the language and culture of the deaf.

Upon his return from America he immediately begins to work on one of his ideals, to establish a Theology College for the Deaf, DCMA (Deaf Christian Mission Africa), established in 2005.

In 2005 he enters for the M.Th Clinical Pastorate Degree at the Theological Faculty of Stellenbosch. For the first time ever this field of study is tackled by a deaf impaired person in South Africa. Erik’s aim is to qualify him better for the pastoral caring of deaf persons.