Dr. Fred Adams
Dr. Fred Adams was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, in a non-Christian home. He became deaf at age one due to high fever. At age fourteen Fred was at Bill Rice Ranch for the first time where he saw {heard} about the Gospel and Hell. He accepted Christ Jesus as his personal Savior on July 25, 1974. In 1977, Fred attended Hammond Baptist High School and graduated in 1979. He began teaching Sunday School when he was 17-years-old. Fred surrendered on December 24, 1978, to God’s call to preach the Gospel to the deaf. After graduating high school, he went to Tennessee Temple University for two years. Fred and Sherrie had first met and become friends at Hammond Baptist High School. Then they met again at Tennessee Temple Schools and began dating. They were married on July 11, 1981. In the Fall of 1981, Fred transferred to Temple Deaf College, where he graduated in 1983. While in school, he became Evangelist on the weekends. After finishing school, he became a full-time evangelist. Dr. Adams was a full-time evangelist all over America for 11 years after graduation from Temple Deaf College. He was ordained by Pastor Eugene Bordean, Pastor Bob Baker, Pastor Arlie Spargur, Pastor John Rohrer and Dr. John Clark at Firestone Road Baptist Church in May 1987. Fred was a pastor of Sword Deaf Baptist Church in Mason, Ohio in 1989 for 20 years as a Missionary Pastor. God leads Fred and Sherrie to move to Knoxville, TN in 2009 and started the new Deaf Church, Sword Deaf Baptist Church in June 2010 in Clinton, TN and resigned as pastor in May 2016 . He is a full time missionary to the deaf as helping/strengthening the deaf ministries, deaf churches and the deaf work. Also is a president of Sword Deaf Baptist College since 1999. We have three sons, Christopher-32 years old, John-29 years old married and Matt-27 years old. All of them live in Cincinnati Ohio. They all are hearing and working as Sign Language interpreter.
Website – Sword Deaf Baptist Ministries
Dr. Reggie Rempel
I was born deaf and grew up in Canada where I attended a Deaf School. I was saved at the age of 16 while attending the Bill Rice Ranch. I graduated from Tennessee Temple University in 1978 and 1980 with a degree in Theology and a Bachelor of Science. I became a Missionary to the Deaf under BIMI in 1982. For the next 12 years I traveled as a Deaf Evangelist throughout the US and Canada. My wife Kim and I started many deaf ministries in local churches. After more than 10 years of starting ministries, we started BIMI Deaf Camp in order to create fellowship among the ministries we had begun.
Deaf people began to surrender their lives to go into the ministry themselves, through the ministries we had started and through the camping program. I would recommend schools to these deaf; however, many of these schools closed their deaf programs due to the financial burden of a specialty program.
I often asked myself who would one day be my “Timothy” when I am gone. How could I find training or train young men to serve the Lord as my wife and I had done for so many years? How could I give them the opportunity which I consider the greatest privilege, that of sharing the wonderful gospel of Christ with the deaf?
After several years of praying and seeking God’s guidance, my wife and I felt led to begin the BIMI Deaf Bible College (now Harvest Deaf Bible College). God allowed us to sell our home, and since I had built it, we were able to profit a sizeable sum to use in purchasing the property for the school. BIMI Deaf Bible College began in 1994 with 12 students. Since that time we have averaged between 20 and 40 students a year in all programs and have graduated over 50. Many of our graduates have begun deaf churches or are serving in missions across the globe.
God then allowed us to begin Faith Christian School for the Deaf (now Harvest Christian Academy for the Deaf) on the premises of the college. This allows deaf children to get an education focused around the Word of God. They can also look to good role models in our deaf college students.
In 2001 we established Harvest Baptist Church of the Deaf, also on the premises of the college. I felt burdened to better train our men in the area of church planting by having a deaf church for them to work with while in school. God has blessed in an enormous way and the church has been the biggest blessing yet!
Website – Harvest Deaf Ministries
David Mason
Pastor David Mason was born in Peoria, Illinois and grew up in Tuscon, Arizona. He graduated from Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind and National Technical Institute of the Deaf. In October 1990, he accepted Jesus the Lord as his personal Savior. In April 1991, he received a great blessing to be married to Cheryl Mason, which she prayed and waited for seven years.
His wife and he were members of First Bible Baptist Church in Rochester, New York for ten years. They have two children, Jonas and Anna. Since he graduated from North Star Bible Institute in 1997, he prayed to the Lord for what Eugene Bordean would like him to do for Him. One night in February 1999, he received an unexpected phone call from Pastor Eugene Bordean, Columbus, Ohio. Pastor Eugene Bordean asked him if he was interested to be an assistant pastor as Pastor Eugene Bordean was dying of pancreatic cancer. The Lord touched his heart and it was the Lord’s plan. His family moved to Columbus, Ohio in July 1999. It is an honor to serve the Lord as a pastor for Liberty Baptist Church of the Deaf.
Website – Liberty Baptist Church of the Deaf
Mike Remington
Michael Remington was born deaf in 1965 and raised on a small Ranch near Longmont, Colorado. His parents knew something was wrong with him, but didn’t discover he was deaf until he was about age 5. After getting hearing aids his Sunday School teacher realized he was deaf and probably hadn’t understood the gospel of salvation. So, she got a book from the Bill Rice Ranch and learned how to witness to the deaf. Using flannel graph pictures and lip reading,she explained that all have sinned, and God’s plan of salvation. Michael understood he was a sinner in need of a savior and asked Jesus had died to pay for his sin at age 7. Growing up, he was the only deaf person in a Baptist Church with no interpreter, during church he would read his Bible during the preaching, and through this, he learned more of God’s interactions with man and His plans for man. Michael often helped with Vacation Bible School at his church, and even went to teach Vacation Bible Schools on the Navajo Indian Reservation in AZ for 3 summers with the Church youth group. One summer they mentioned there was a deaf Navajo boy. Though this, God began to burdened Michael to reach the deaf. He attended main stream schools and graduated from Longmont High in 1983. Michael often talked about Jesus and salvation with the deaf he met in Public Schools. He went on to attend Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. where he graduated with a B.S. in Photo Science in 1987. While at R.I.T. he met and witnessed to many deaf, and attended a church pastored by a deaf man which opened his eyes to the world of Ministering for Jesus. In 1988 Michael attended Temple Deaf College in Peoria, IL and later transferred to Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, FL where he graduated with a B.A. in Theology in 1991. There at Trinity, he met Amy Diley, and they married and moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1991, where they started a deaf ministry that became Signs of Life Baptist Church. As they ministered to the Deaf in
Phoenix, they met and helped Many deaf with drug, alcohol, or rebellion problems. In 2000 they officially started Remington Deaf Ranch as a 501c3 and became missionaries under B.I.O.In addition to the Deaf Church, and Rehabilitation program for deaf youth, Pastor Remington also travels and conducts Camps for the Deaf in Benin and Togo Africa, as well as Teaches Sign language and helps start deaf ministries in the Philippines.
Website – Signs of Life Baptist Church
Bruce Kelly
Bruce Kelly was born deaf and raised in Orlando, Florida. He attended an oral program in elementary and then went on to attend mainstream programs during junior high and high school. After graduating from Oak Ridge High School in 1983, he went on to attend St. Petersburg Junior College in Clearwater, FL from 1983 to 1985. He then transferred to Northstar Bible Institute in Rochester, New York in order to pursue a career in ministry, and was there from 1985 to 1987. He graduated from Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, FL with a degree in Theology in 1990 . He has been married to his wife Vicki since 1986. They have three children: Paul, born in 1988, Timothy, born in 1990, and John, born in 1995. He also earned his Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Studies from Covington Theological Seminary in 2001. Vicki Kelly graduated from National Technical Institute for the Deaf under Rochester Institute of technology in New York with an Associate’s degree in Applied Science with Business Technologies in 1985. Bruce was saved at age of 13, after being witnessed to by Fred Danley on November 6, 1977. Bruce was member of Palm Springs Drive Baptist Church in Altamonte Springs, FL from 1977 to 1983. At the age of 15, Bruce surrendered to God’s calling to full time ministry while attending the Bill Rice Ranch in Tennessee. Vicki was born deaf and was saved when she was 18 years old. While attending St. Petersburg Junior College, Bruce began serving in lay ministry as a Sunday School teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in St. Petersburg in 1984 at the age of 20. Bruce was an Evangelist from 1990 to 1993. He became the deaf pastor at Greater Portland Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon in 1994 and served there until 1997. He relocated to Georgia to become a Deaf Pastor and Missionary with BIMI in 1997. Bruce started Deaf Baptist Church of Smyrna, GA in Northwest of Atlanta in March 2001. In 2010 the church purchased a building and the renovations were completed in 2012. Bruce started the Deaf Spiritual Leadership Conference in 2001 and also an annual summer deaf camp in Florida in 2015. It is called Deaf Spiritual Leadership Camp. Bruce has been burdened to help minister in Brazil and has conducted mission work there through preaching at deaf camps and doing Deaf Spiritual Leadership Training.
Website – Deaf Missionaries, Bruce and Vicki Kelly
Mark Coleman
Mark graduated from Bob Jones University with a B.A. in Sacred Music in 1977 and a M.A. in Ministry in 2013. After serving for 15 years as music pastor in a church in Twin Falls, Idaho, Mark and his wife, Jan, became involved in the Deaf ministry there. In 1995, Mark accepted the call to become the Deaf Ministry Pastor at Bethel. Mark serves on the board of Deaf Baptist Fellowship of America and Silent Word Ministries International. Jan is a certified interpreter working primarily in educational settings. Mark and Jan have three married daughters and 11 grandchildren.
In addition to pastoring the Deaf members at Bethel, Mark also ministers to homebound seniors and conducts Bible studies in local senior facilities.
Website – Bethel Baptist Church
Ronnie King
Quail Run Deaf Baptist Church – Oro Valley, AZ
Ronnie King was born in Germany while his father served in the U.S. Army, and shortly thereafter, his family was moved to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. At the of 10, he accepted Christ Jesus as his personal Savior in Fabens, Texas while living in Chaparral, New Mexico. He was later enrolled in the New Mexico School for the Deaf, from which he graduated in 1979. Upon his graduation, he began attending the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf, where he met his wife, wonderful Carol, in 1982.
Ronnie lived for many years raising and supporting his family, but all the while, God was dealing with him about his service to the Lord. He finally surrendered and rededicated his life to Lord, determined to live for Him last December 2001. God eventually led him to work in a deaf ministry at Desert Spring Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona, where he served for four wonderful years, until God placed upon him a burden to start a deaf church. In 2005, the Quail Run Deaf Baptist Church was established! During this time, he also received a Bachelor of Arts in Bible from Sword Deaf Bible College in Mason, Ohio, which he received in 2007.
The Kings have three wonderful children and Eleven wonderful grandchildren.