The drum echoes through the congregation, deeply and rhythmically. Several people step side-to-side, their movements keeping time as their hands shape praises to the Lord. A director stands before them, joyfully leading their song.

For thirty-one years, the Zion Praise Team, a deaf choir from St. Andrews Church in Nairobi, has been blessing their congregation with worship expressed entirely through American Sign Language (ASL). They perform a number of hymns and contemporary worship songs during church services and at special events, with “Amazing Grace” being their most popular song. The choir is comprised of both deaf and hearing members from their mid-thirties to early seventies, some of whom have been members since the group was first formed in 1992.  

Korean missionary Kum Hee Moon founded the choir at his Young Nak Church of the Deaf in Nairobi. The church merged with St. Andrew’s five years later, and the choir has been a part of the music ministry ever since. Priscah Odongo currently leads the choir and has been a member for the last eight years.

“I feel good when leading the choir during Sunday worship services or any other place we are called to,” she told Religion News Service (RNS). “I also wanted to prove to the world that people with hearing impairment have talents and can do things just like the hearing.”

St. Andrews has a strong commitment to their deaf attendees, and provides ample resources for this community, including a live ASL interpreter at every service and ASL classes, which have served about 200 people. Their website also includes a chart for learning the ASL alphabet.

Judy Kihumba, a hearing disability ministry coordinator at St. Andrews, has helped this ministry thrive. Named on the BBC’s 100 Women 2022 List, Kihumba is the founder of Talking Hands, Listening Eyes on Postpartum Depression, an organization that aids mothers with hearing impairments. Through her work at the church, she’s watched the choir inspire hundreds of people.

“When they sing,” she told RNS, “it’s a soul-edifying activity, it’s therapy for them and it’s also a way of worship. They feel closer to God through this.”