Hello This is Joe Cepeda. Today I celebrated 15 years of spiritual birthday. My best flashbacks as a disciple are: getting baptized on November 21, 1996 and marrying my beautiful deaf wife, Carole, on September 17, 2005. 3 reasons for me to become a disciple: to overcome my depression of being heart broken when my ex-girlfriend broke up with me because of a pregnancy which lead to a miscarriage, to accept my deafness and learn to improve my communication skills to others, to not commit suicide and appreciate God convicted my life to become a different person and to be grateful for salvation. My favorite bible verse is 1 Corinthians 7: 10 “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Through this verse, I have learn that Godly sorrow is showed only when I forgive myself and forgive others, as I made mistakes in life or as someone hurt my feelings. I am not perfect but it is important to follow Christ daily by reading the bible and praying to have solid relationship to God and to His disciples.

My favorite sports are NBA, NFL, MLB and martial arts.

I have been volunteering for the Deaf Ministry ICOC website (dmicoc.org) for over 2 years and I love every moment of it. It is fun and inspiring to get connected to the Deaf Ministry family around the world and to build relationships with the brothers and sisters. Carole & I love to attend deaf events to socialize with deaf friends.

My spiritual vision is to baptize interpreters and deaf disciples at Mission Point Christian Church (MPCC). My dream career is to work any deaf organization so I can improve my ASL skills with deaf employees and deaf customers. I do enjoy educating hearing people so they can learn how to communicate to the deaf and to promote Video Relay Services products for the deaf.

Happy Thanksgiving to USA and enjoy your upcoming holidays!

1. How did you became a disciple? Share brief experiences about your life changing that convicted to follow Christ.

I became a disciple as a high school student in the Latino Ministry in Chicago.  My sister had invited me to church with her.  After attending church and studying the bible for about 8 months I was baptized!  Reading the bible and seeing the heart of God and the sacrifice Jesus made was very impacting.  Realizing that God made this sacrifice for me made me see that I was responsible for it and was willing to do anything to try and show my gratitude for it. 

2. Where did you meet your husband?

I met my husband, Travis, in Phoenix while we were both in the single’s ministry there.  He had been a disciple in the Phoenix church for a few years when I relocated to Arizona. 

3. Where did you learn ASL?

I had the amazing privilege to learn ASL while attending ASLIS (American Sign Language and Interpreting School) in Seattle.  The program was amazing very personable and extremely supportive.  The instructors were phenomenal and my experience is one that I would love others to have.  Unfortunately the school has now closed and it no longer offers classes. 

4. Why did you decide to become a certified trilingual Interpreter?

I became an interpreter after deciding to take some ASL courses because I have a niece who is Deaf. I am from a large Mexican family that predominantly speaks Spanish in the home and noticed how much more difficult it was for her to communicate with family, especially our non-English speaking family. I decided to take an ASL course solely to communicate and include my niece. Wow, was I in for a ride! Once I started my classes I fell in love with the language and Deaf Community and decided to continue with the ASL Deaf Studies and ITP offered. I had an amazing team of instructors and an even more amazing and supportive Community. After graduation in June of 2007 I decided to take a short break to figure out my role as an interpreter and to see if I truly wanted to take it up professionally. Six months later I realized that I absolutely loved interpreting and decided to pursue it as my full time profession and haven’t looked back!  I decided to become certified because I wanted to challenge myself professionally and strive for growth in our profession that is ALWAYS growing and changing.

5. What is your best memory of your interpreter career?

My best memory is when I took my certification exam and passed! 🙂

6. What is your strength and weakness of your interpreter skills?

My strength as an interpreter is knowing what I can and can’t do as an interpreter.  Our profession is one of integrity and I would never want to be thought of as an interpreter that does not have integrity in the work she provides.  My weakness as an interpreter is in the performing arts.  I am NOT a performance interpreter but strive to one day learn the craft and become better at it. 🙂

7. Do you have a goal for the future Deaf Ministry at your church?

Although our church is a small church it would be amazing to have Deaf brothers and sisters and/or other interpreters in our congregation.

I. Sharing

Roman.

1 sec. Hello, dear brothers & sisters.

5-12. Time has passed and I want to introduce you to a new brother.

Zhenya.

13-15. Hello to everyone! My name is Zhenya. I’m studying here in a local university.

16-29. We have a great celebration today. My classmate Tanya is going to be baptized now.

30-44. I want to wish her all the best. Wish her be filled by the Word. May God bless her!

Roman.

45. Let me tell a little.

50-1.24 I have watched Tanya a lot. She eagerly studied the Bible. She had many questions, much struggle. It was quite difficult for her to choose the right life-way. But today she is going to be baptized. That’s amazing!

1.25-1.29. We shall have the first deaf sister in Ukraina!

Julia.

1.30-1.34. Yes! They are so happy! Welcome!

II. Baptism

1.32-1.35. Slava. “Excellent! She’s saved!”

1.54. Slava. “Let’s pray right now”.

2.04- Roman’s praying. Julia’s translating. “God – our Father!

That’s so valuable for us! Time’s passed, but she has already baptized! that’s amazing!

2.13. Thank You – You gave her a Holy Spirit! She is the first deaf sister in Ukraine! That’s cool!

2.20. Our group was begun! I’m so happy!

2.23. Bless her Father. Bless us by having many new sisters and brothers, by seeing many changed lives! Amen!