If you go
› What: Let My People Hear support group for hard of hearing.› When: 6 p.m. Wednesdays.› Where: Oakwood Baptist Church, 4501 Bonny Oaks Drive..› For more information: letmypeoplehear.com, 423-624-1669.
David Harrison recalls feeling so excluded from Sunday worship service because of his hearing loss that he stopped going to church and eventually sank so deep into depression that he considered suicide.
He asked for help, but no one at church knew how to help him, and he didn't know how to help himself. So he withdrew.
It happened more than two decades ago, but Harrison remembers like it was yesterday.
Since then, he has sat in the back of other churches angry because he couldn't hear. Then, at age 70, he decided he didn't want to die old and grumpy. He prayed and fasted while studying about ways to help people with hearing loss and asked God to help him.
For 10 years he prayed for a hearing-accessible church. Those prayers eventually led him to Oakwood Baptist Church and to a nonprofit ministry he has started called Let My People Hear, which helps people who are hard of hearing regain their ability to communicate.
The first meeting was held at the church in July. Harrison, now 81, hosted the class.
"With small beginnings like in this room here," he said to the audience of about a dozen, "we can have an impact on thousands. We can have an impact on the entire hard of hearing world."
Some 37,000 people in Hamilton County alone have mild to moderate hearing loss, he said.
Harrison provided all attendees with an FM listening device to make sure hearing-impaired people could hear during the meeting. The church also provides the devices for parishioners during Sunday worship services.
For people who are totally deaf, Harrison also teaches lip reading.
But attendees like Ron Farwig, who has cochlear implants, said he functions better without the FM listening device.
Farwig said he'd like the group to be more of a support group where attendees discuss their problems concerning hearing loss.
He said during the first meeting people listened to Harrison's presentation and then discussed their day-to-day problems after class.
"There are issues that I have that are not being addressed," said Farwig about the comments he heard in the hallway.
Harrison, who also has cochlear implants, wants to use his personal experience to help others deal with hearing loss. People with hearing loss follow different rules for communicating, he said.
No one prays with their heads bowed and eyes closed.
"We depend on our eyes to hear," said Harrison. "We lip-read."
He doesn't teach sign language, but he can teach anyone to read lips, he said.
And people who notice that another person can't hear can advocate for that person.
"There's a guy who is outside the circle. He's not getting it. And nobody cares, and that's the way most people are. But now, with God's help, there is hope for anyone who has hearing loss," he said.
Harrison credits his Sunday School teacher at Oakwood, Ron True, for including him in the service. That inclusion increased Harrison's resolve to help others. He hosts meetings at the church at 6 p.m. every Wednesday.
"This church here has done something for me beyond what I could imagine," he said. "A man here (True) took me under his wing and said, 'I want you to be a part of our church.' I am thrilled beyond anything."
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.