My Experience as the only Deaf Member at the Jerusalem Center Church in Medford Oregon

Hello! I decided to write about my experience as the only deaf member at Jerusalem Center Church that is located in north Medford, Oregon. It is better known as Church of all Nations/Tribes. 

I liked the idea of attending church with people of all nationalities. I have a multi-ethnic American heritage: Spanish, Sephardi, Filipino with Chinese ancestry, Germany, French, Welsh, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Norwegian, English and others.

The pastor of this church is hearing and his name is John David Gomez. But he is called Pastor David. He was adopted at birth. He is American-Mexican. His wife, Gaylene is also a pastor (or say co-pastor). She is English and Puerto Rican. They are a team who run the church together. They have been married for more than 35 years. Very long time. They were from northern California.

I had been attending that hearing church sporadically before I relocated to Washington state in June 2012 and since December 2012 to present. I want to share my experience about attending that church and especially about getting to know the people there, too.

I first learned about that church one day way back in 2010 or 2011 when I came visiting my deaf friend on Mace st. That was how I first spotted that church for the very first time. Out of curiousity, I decided to visit that church one Sunday morning and was surprised to see my friend, Franklin. He was very surprised to see me, too. 

I want to describe Franklin. He was always smiling. You can never catch him without a smile. His parents were pastors like his friend, David. Anyhow, Franklin and I chatted a little bit. Later, I met Deshonia who turned out to be Franklin's sister. I also met Franklin's sweet wife.

During the worship service, I also ran into my friend, Rachel. I was surprised to see her at that church. She was surprised to see me, too. She stood in second row. She was with her sister, Normal who is hearing and interpreted for Rachel. Rachel's four children were also with her.

In 2010 or 2011,there were a lot of people at that church. They flooded the church worship room every Sunday. I attended every other week if not every Sunday. I would either have Normal interpret for me or have her friend write notes during the sermon.

I remember going to that church one day for Bible study with David and one other church member. I don't remember her name. I think she was from California or other state. Anyway, we sat down to read the Bible scriptures. David asked me some question about some scripture. I think it was about speaking of the tongues. He wanted to know I am famaliar with it. I was but I was not expert on that topic.

At that point, I noticed David looked kind of awkward when he listened when I was speaking to him.I know that I tend to speak with an accent due to my partial hearing loss. I had the feeling that he had never met a deaf person until he met me. 

He acted as if he did not know what to make of this. I think it was very awkward for him and I guess that was his very first experience becoming acquainted with a deaf person like me. I can sense that it was a very truly awkward moment for him. To see that he was feeling awkward or uncomfortable made me feel kind of frustrated as a result.

Later, I started to encounter more communication problems with David and his wife Gaylene. Gaylene and David had no prior experience of interacting with real deaf folks until they met me. They had never said anything about whether they knew someone that was deaf or if they knew sign language or just finger spelling. 

Very often, I had hearing people telling me with a positive tone that they knew someone that was deaf or they knew some sign language. But not David. Not Gaylene. They did not seem to be interested to get to know me. That was my impression.

Later, I wrote a letter to them twice or three times to explain that lipreading alone is not enough for me to have full access to their spoken sermons on Sundays. I explained that there are problems that are associated with lipreading and that lipreading is not reliable. 

I requested a note taker to write down their sermons for me as they speak. David and Gaylene never answered my letters. They went unanswered. I missed a lot of their sermons. I sat through, not understanding anything they said.

There were a lot of things that happened at the church. There were a lot of people who also left the church basically they were not satisfied there. I will return later to write and share more about my experience there. 

Ok. I got back from my dinner break. Pastor David's longtime friend, Ray, who is divorced, once invited me to his lovely daughter's Samoan dance performance in Medford high school in early spring of 2013. So I had a ticket that included a Samoan BBQ chicken lunch with Hawaiian macaroni salad.

Before I arrived there, I woke up with neck pain. I had chronic neck pain for many years that I never told Ray about. I took pain killer pills before I arrived to meet Ray at the high school campus. I met his ex-wife there. Ray and I had lunch. 

After the performance was over, Ray asked me what was wrong with me. I did not understand his question. I asked him what he meant by that. He felt that I was ignoring him. I told him that I did not feel good due to chronic neck pain attacks that made it hard for me to stay focused on him. He did not believe me. 

He felt that I was ignoring him. My neck pain made it hard for me to stay focused. I told him that I was diagnosed with cervical instability way back in 2006. I even have doctor's diagnosis notes. Just the same, he didn't believe me at all. He stopped texting me and he also stopped communicating with me on Facebook network. 

I wrote messages and sent him texts, trying to communicate. He never answered me back so I decided to let him know of my final decision to delete him. When he saw that, he got upset and finally said that he had internet problem. Why did he wait a very long time to finally explain that? It didn't make sense.  I was not convinced.