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The Rev. Joo Kang is known as 'an international treasure' within the Deaf community. Last spring he participated in a pulpit exchange with the Rev. Peggy Johnson, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore.

Kang is one of the denomination?s few Deaf pastors. For almost two decades he led the largest Deaf church in the world, in Korea, and now serves a church in Illinois. Johnson is known throughout the denomination as a vital force in deaf ministries.

The two were excited to switch roles, as he came to Baltimore and she filled in as pastor at his church in Jacksonville, Ill., April 4 through 17.

While in Baltimore, he preached, worked at the church?s children?s program on Saturday, participated in the deaf prison ministry, and took part in a domestic violence seminar at the Baltimore-Washington Conference Center.

'There is so much ministry here, so much,' he said, impressed that the Deaf members of Christ UMC see themselves not as people to be ministered to, but as missionaries themselves, spreading God?s word.

During his visit Kang met with Associate Council Director Sandra Ferguson, who shared with him how the Baltimore-Washington Conference attempts to integrate the Deaf community into its other ministries. They are a central part of the conference?s partnership with the American Cancer Society and have served on Volunteers in Mission teams in Africa.

Ferguson also shared with Kang how, over the past 10 years, people in Deaf ministry in the Baltimore-Washington region have taught the church that Deafness is a culture, not a disability. Kang applauds that understanding, claiming it is a crucial realization.

His vision is that the church will provide additional Christian education to school-age Deaf children and encourage them to come to worship. 'If their faith grows, maybe they?ll feel the call of God, go to seminary and enter the ministry,' Kang said. 'We need more Deaf pastors.'

Kang became Deaf when he was 2, after a bout with measles. He went to Deaf school in Korea and felt the call of God when he was a junior in high school, he said.

He went to the Korean Presbyterian Theological Seminary, but they did not provide interpreters. So Kang found himself at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and later Wesley Seminary, where he received a Master?s of Divinity degree.

In 1982 he returned to Korea and was ordained as the first Deaf Presbyterian pastor in Korea. He became an associate pastor of a large Deaf church there. In 1991, the senior pastor became ill and Kang took over, growing the congregation to more than 400 members, making it the largest Deaf church in the world, he said.

Four years later, a Deaf church in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference was searching for a Deaf pastor. They called Kang. He returned to the United States in 2001, became pastor of that 20-member church and ministered to people at four other sites in the Jacksonville, Ill., area.

At Wesley, Kang was known for being an outstanding Hebrew scholar. Today he is fluent in Korean, Korean Sign Language, English, American Sign Language and Japanese sign language. He can read and write Chinese and read Greek. He has written three books in Korean and would like to write more.

The message he most wants to share, he said, involves his favorite Bible verse: Philippians 4:13, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'

'A lot of Deaf people have low self esteem. They believe they can?t do things and that is not helpful. Faith is transforming. With God?s help we can do anything. I hope they will look to me as a role model.'

In Illinois, they do, said Johnson, who enjoyed her time there.

'There are Bible studies around the state and a small Deaf church here (in Illinois),' she wrote in an e-mail. 'It is a circuit-riding ministry. Rev. Kang?s Deaf constituents here are faith-filled and greatly appreciative of his teaching and preaching.'

At the Jacksonville Deaf Center, Johnson spoke about the conference?s Deaf-blind camp. 'I got a volunteer out of the audience for this summer?s camp. I am a shameless beggar. The people there have some of the same struggles we do with empowerment, civil rights, access to employment, housing and communication. The Gospel is being lived out in acts of love and the witness of the word.'

This summer Johnson and Kang will be reunited as The Baltimore-Washington Conference Deaf Ministries hosts the United Methodist Congress for the Deaf at the Comfort Inn near BWI Airport, July 13-17. It will be UMCD?s first international conference, with people involved in Deaf ministries attending from Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Zimbabwe and Ecuador, as well as the United States.