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Sometimes, says Becky Yazel, it takes a little doing to get people to understand exactly what the Christian performance group she founded in 2002 does.
“You mention sign language and they think right away of someone in that little box on TV, and that’s not what we do,” she says. “Or, you say music and they think we sing. We don’t sing.”
Most often, people think Yazel’s Silent Witness is a group that ministers to deaf people.
Wrong again.
“Actually, the group has had a larger impact on the hearing,” Yazel says. “Most of our audiences are not deaf.”
What Silent Witness does, Yazel explains, is use elements of sign language and choreographed movement to dramatize the lyrics of contemporary Christian songs and the stories they tell of redemption, hope, love and awe.
The dramatizations are done during a concert-like worship experience that features a soundtrack of music and personal testimonies from the four-woman troupe.
Members include Yazel, 55, of Defiance, Ohio; her daughter, 31-year-old Erin Wagler of Osceola; Angela Wyse, 31, of Archbold, Ohio; and Lindsey Grogg, 23, of Fort Wayne.
“We use songs that you would hear on the radio, on any Christian radio station,” Yazel says. “People who have seen us say that when they see us connect with the song, they hear the song in a new way. Because they have seen the song acted out, the song takes on a new meaning for them.”
Silent Witness had its beginning after Yazel saw a performance by a woman who did something similar at a church in Roanoke, where her husband, Tim, a Baptist minister, was a supply pastor, she says.
Yazel had taken sign language classes as a teenager at Lima Baptist Temple in Lima, Ohio, her family’s church, and for several years was part of a group that, during worship services, interpreted the words of hymns for deaf members of the congregation.
The woman’s performance renewed Yazel’s interest in signing. Yazel doesn’t recall the woman’s name but says she would love to thank her for her inspiration.
Yazel started performing with her daughter in Fort Wayne. The group expanded after Grogg saw one of the performances and asked Yazel to teach her to sign. Soon Grogg, still in high school, was performing, too.
Wyse joined the group after the Yazels moved to Defiance when Tim Yazel became pastor of First Baptist Church, a position he still holds.
Grogg left the ensemble for a time after becoming a student at Bethel College in Mishawaka. But she rejoined after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sign language interpreting.
She now works as a contract interpreter for the deaf at the League for the Blind and Disabled in Fort Wayne and for a nationwide company that uses her skills and video technology to provide deaf people with the ability to make calls on a regular telephone.
Grogg says her experience learning sign language from deaf teachers and working with the deaf gives the group’s performances added authenticity. She considers performing “a joy.”
“I get to tell people how much God loves them,” she says, adding she uses facial expressions and gestures as well as signing. “It can be very emotional.”
Among her favorite pieces to perform: “Watch the Lamb” by Ray Boltz, which tells the story of the day Jesus was crucified through the eyes of the man who carried the cross.
Grogg says she can understand why deaf people might not flock to Silent Witness performances, which rely heavily on the sense of hearing because they are done to music. Sometimes music is hard for the deaf to relate to, she says.
In addition, the performances don’t translate song lyrics word for word. They use American Sign Language, but the performers select words to emphasize for dramatic effect.
Still, Yazel says, because the performers mouth the words of songs exactly, deaf audience members who can read lips can get a full message. Several have said they have been touched by the troupe’s work.
“On the occasions when we have had deaf people (in the audience), they loved it,” she says. “When they see the signing, deaf children get very excited and say, ‘Mommy, mommy, they’re talking to me!’ ”
Yazel, whose daughter-in-law’s mother is deaf, says she sees performances as enhancing the understanding of sign language by people who can hear, thereby bridging the gap between the two communities.
Silent Witness has performed in churches and for Christian events in northwest Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. The performances included one last month at Covenant United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne.
There, Jackie Young of Fort Wayne, Covenant’s director of ministries, says the group “made a big impact” on her.
“I found their interpretation of the songs very dance-like, even though they weren’t dancing. They were using a form of sign language, it has a very fluid movement to it and is very beautiful to watch.”
The performance “was inspirational and worshipful,” Young said. “It wasn’t so much a performance for them as them sharing their heart in a worshipful way. They definitely look at what they do as worship. That came across very loud.”
Young giggles at her unintended wit.
“Well, loud – in a silent sort of way.”
