Deaf Ministry History

In living up to the church's motto: "Your need is our vision," Pastor Harold R. Bowman saw an unmet need and set out to meet that need.  One of the congregants had experienced adult onset deafness and had learned Sign Language.  Pastor Bowman decided that it was time to have one of the church services interpreted for the Deaf and then if, in the future, more Deaf members might join the church: Praise God!  On February 7, 1993, the first interpreted service took place.  For the next 14 months, Phil Wizeman, a free-lance interpreter and pastor of an independent church in Baltimore, interpreted one service each Sunday morning.

In April 1994, the church in Baltimore closed down and Pastor Wizeman joined the staff at Heritage.  Pastors Bowman and Wizeman quickly agreed that a single interpreted service did not truly qualify as a ministry, thus they set out to increase the services offered by the church.  Over the next three years, the following services were added:

• A weekly Deaf-only church service 
• A weekly Deaf women's discussion group and Bible Study 
• Monthly Pot-lucks (generally the last Saturday of each month)
• Quarterly multi-denominational service and fellowship meals (the last Saturday evenings in January, April, July and October, at 5:30pm)
• An annual retreat in Garrett County, Maryland
• Counseling services
• A weekly Children's Bible Study at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Columbia, Maryland

The amazing growth can be attributed to the vision of Pastor Bowman and the members of  Heritage Church of God -  to meet people's needs.

The Deaf Ministry has plans to expand in the following areas:

• A Deaf/Hearing mixed marriages support group to meet on a weekly basis

• A higher level of Christian education for Deaf children and adults

• Support of the Deaf Missions Omega Project to translate the bible into ASL

• An annual multi-denominational Deaf-only retreat