A Paper

At Stephen's request I had to blog something...so something that I could just copy and paste...here is a story I wrote for English. I got a B+ on it. It is about LBDC.
Hope you enjoy! :-) Joni


Flying Hands

Ba-da-da-dum! The music is so loud, if I get too close to the speakers I feel as if I am at a rock concert. I place my hands on the pew for a moment, just so I can feel the vibrations, before quickly raising them to sign once again. Every other person in the room is signing too. They may not be signing with the words, but they are signing with the beat. Why are they not singing with the words? Because almost everybody in the room is Deaf; they are using sign language to worship God. This is a normal Sunday morning at my deaf church back home in Louisville, Ky.
I walk in through the side doors at church, a hearing church (Deer Park Baptist Church) that let’s us rent from them, when I see some of the older people sitting on the benches waiting for the doors to the chapel to open. “Hello!” they sign, sometimes all at once. Mary Ellen Schaffer, an older woman whom I call grandma, always asks, “Have you been good to your mother?” I always reply, “Never!” Then she looks at me with a disappointed expression; at that moment I always admit that I am merely jesting. Before I leave church, Mary Ellen always reminds me to “Behave!”
When Brother Tim Bender, our pastor opens the doors almost everyone goes in, sometimes there are a few stragglers. But not this Sunday, everybody has gone in, yet they all are talking a whole lot. Sometimes church does not start on time, because of all the little conversations occurring. Most the time they talk about the weekend, what happened during the past week, sometimes I can catch the older ones talking about a friend who is sick, or possibly dead.
When the church bulletin is finally handed out to everyone, someone goes up on the stage to start with announcements and welcome any visitors. The most common visitors besides Deaf people would be American Sign Language students from the University of Louisville. They are required to go to a certain amount of Deaf-lead events and our church happens to be one of the events that are on their approved list. Furthermore, depending on their skill level my church gladly provides a voice interpreter for any and all visitors.
After announcements, my Associate Pastor Stephen Newell signs the pastoral prayer, where people can give either of our pastors’ prayer cards, filled with any prayers or concerns they have for that week. Then whoever is willing for that particular week; will lead all the worships songs that Sunday.
Worship is my favorite part of church. We have a projector that shows these worship videos on a screen, and because almost everybody is Deaf they put the music up so high, so people can feel the vibrations. But also because of this fact, I tend to sit in the back. Just because I am fluent in sign language does not mean that I desire to be deaf!
We have an offering like any other church, but sadly it is usually a small amount. That is because most of our members are living on social security or disability. Then we have special music, which is never interpreted. My mother and Ms. Lorie never interpret the special music, because they want the visitors to experience something similar how to Deaf people experience life. It is usually very silent and calm during special music, until the end when everybody raises theirs hands, fingers spread wide, gesticulating wildly in a “Deaf applause.”
Brother Tim normally preaches for about thirty to forty-five minutes. Sometimes when he is out of town, Stephen preaches in his stead. Because he is younger, Stephen usually preaches a lot shorter then Brother Tim. There is one last song, and a time of invitation, and then we are done with the service; almost every Sunday after church, we all head out somewhere to eat and fellowship. This is the norm for Sunday at my church, Louisville Baptist Deaf Church.

Camp Dogwood the Prequel

Hey everybody! I am back from Camp Dogwood now. However, since I have work at the library and other things to catch up on, I will not be able to properly share all my stories of Camp Dogwood just yet. I hope to type something up when I have the time. But as of this moment...that will not be happening any time soon.
Just letting yall know I am still alive, and here at Gardner-Webb.
Much Love,
Joni

Extra Information on the Schedule

Also...Every week on Tuesday nights, GWU has the Verge. Which is a worship service, with a live rock band. They have drums,electric guitar,acoustic guitar,bass,keyboard and a couple of singers. One of them plays the acoustic guitar at the same time as he sings.
And...every other Wednesday night at 8:00-whenever we get done, there is SGA meetings.
Any other events that I go to I will try to tell y'all about them.
This morning they had a very interesting Dimension's service. They had a firefighter who was one of the first to respond at the Pentagon on Sept. 11th 2001. He will also be the key speaker at the Verge tonight. Tonight the Verge will be at 7:00 instead of 8:00 because he is from VA; he has to catch a flight from the Charlotte airport.
But I gotta go, I have a paper to type up, that is due tonight in English. Also I will be having a meeting with my English professor over my first paper. My goal is to figure out what exactly does he want in my writing...
well hope y'all have a nice day!
Joni

My Schedule

I thought it would be good to tell y'all my schedule, so that y'all can know the best time to contact me.

My Class Schedule
Mondays Wednesdays Fridays
I have 9:00,10:00,12:00,1:00 classes.
Tuesdays and Thursdays
I have 9:30,1:15,6:00 classes.
On Fridays I have an 8:00 ASL Lab.

My Work Schedule
Sunday 4:00-6:00
Monday 8:30-11:00
Tuesday 11:00-12:00
Wednesday 2:00-3:30, 10:00-11:00
Thursday 11:00-1:00

Also I will be working my last Saturday of the Semester this Saturday.

This weekend I will be working, the following weekend, I will be off campus, going to Camp Dogwood. Camp Dogwood is a deaf-blind camp they have here in NC. I will be helping out by SSP's...
One very exciting thing, they have a video phone here in the Library at Gardner-Webb! So if y'all want to talk(using sign language), just ask my momma for the number.
Joni

Work-Study

I thought of a nice topic to discuss...the lovely world of work-study. Which the title in of itself is quite deceiving. or at least for the "work-study" I am involved with...there is only work, with maybe if you are lucky an minimal amount of study time permitted. But it's okay, I am working at the Library. Which is interesting because I was assigned the stacks E-G to "shelf read." For the uninitiated, shelf reading is the old art of perusing the shelves to remedy any irregularities. If a book is wrongly mis-shelved by a patron (who are not supposed to shelf any books in the first place...) it is the shelf reader's job to find the pre-said irregularities and fix them. Sounds easy enough, but the first few days of work they did not even let me near a shelf, it is because we use the ever so difficult classification system of the Library of Congress. Which I might add the library at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary does not even stoop to use! humph...well now I am well versed in the Art of Classification via the Library of Congress, so I guess I can consider myself a well seasoned library worker. I am sure the librarians back home in Okolona will love me even more so, now that my skills have improved.
But back to my beloved stacks, my first experience with shelf reading was fine, however somewhat arduous. Why you may ask? Because the shelves E-G are the historical books. I found myself highly conflicted with a desire to read the very books I was supposed to be classifying! But I made it through, I am still alive, and even though I paused at various intriguing books I was eventually able to complete the task that was set before me.
For my mother's knowledge...I help close the Library Monday and Wednesday nights. Since it does not close until 11:00 I think it would be best for you to forgo any attempts of communication those particular nights.
Also a point of interest, I went to a "normal" church this morning. I really had to control myself to not sign. Though I did think of Bro. Milton this morning, when all those hearing people were sing How Great Thou Art all I could think of was Bro. Milton signing away...I greatly miss Louisville Baptist Deaf Church.