For Allan and Ava Lepik a new and exciting chapter is just beginning in Greece, a long way from their home town in Tallinn, Estonia and the Soviet culture they grew up in. Due to natal trauma, Allan was born deaf, visually impaired and his feet don’t function normally. He attended Porkuni Deaf School until he was 18 and further vocational training worked as a shoemaker, a hat maker for a Deaf enterprise, a brush maker for the association of the blind and a school caretaker. When he was 23, it was a time of big changes as Estonia became an independent state and a time of spiritual revival too.

Allan powerfully experienced God’s healing of his legs for three days, after a hearing pastor prayed for him, and a year later he gave his life to Jesus. A deaf Fellowship started and Allan was the very first deaf Sunday School teacher. He loved to use pictures to make his message clear for the Deaf and one of the people who came to his class was a 17 year old called Ava. Ava had been through some difficult times at her school for the Hard of Hearing and was looking for something deeper in her life. She became a Christian and was baptised with the Holy Spirit and after a year at a vocational school in Turku, Finland returned to Estonia to attend Bible School … and get married to Allan!

Together they led a weekly deaf home fellowship where Deaf people studied the Bible and in 2005 Ava gave up her job to work full-time as an administrator for the Eurasian Deaf Bible School for 6 months. They were ordained as Deaf Deacons and traveled on mission trips to Lithuania,
Uzbekhistan, Egypt, a 2-year mission placement in the Middle-East and a 3-month spell in Kazakhstan to administrate and teach in the Eurasian Deaf Bible School there.

At the beginning of November 2009, God sent them to a new mission field in Greece, an Orthodox country, where the number of evangelical deaf Christians is extremely low and there is a shortage of pastors and workers. Their goal is to preach the gospel and build a deaf church in Athens. They have met with several Greek Deaf people and although they have only learnt a limited number of Greek words, international sign language crosses the communication barriers and they have a sign language translator at the local apostolic church they attend.

It wasn’t all easy as when they arrived in Greece, they didn’t have an apartment to live in. The church had been looking for a month with no success. When Allan and Ava started to look themselves, God led them to a place where they are now living. They found it through an estate agent, who wouldn’t take a fee and the price was half of what they had expected. Praise God who provides and helps us!

What will they do?
Allan will use Greek sign language and his skill in painting with words to communicate the gospel and each week they meet and talk with deaf people. Go! Sign have agreed to raise money to support them in this deaf ministry in Athens and ask you to pray for them that:

* The Word of God would reach out to many Greek hearts and their lives would be changed.
* God would use Allan and Ava in a special way amongst the Deaf in Athens.

Allan & Ava Lepik (D) Estonia on mission to Greece
(Extracted from Go! Sign - UK, Issue 73 - Spring 2010)