As I sat at a small table in the coffee shop waiting for Dr. Victor Vodounou to arrive, my thoughts went back a month earlier when Christine Stanley came up to me at Sagemont’s Ministry Fair and told me that I MUST feature Victor in the Sagemont Life Magazine. She wrote down his phone number on my church bulletin and said, “Don’t forget you can only text him, because he is deaf!” It was at that moment I looked up to see a very dark skinned older black man standing in the doorway scanning the room. When I waved his face lit up with a bright smile. Immediately I felt comfortable with him. After shaking my hand, he handed me his autobiography, The Incredible Journeys of Victor Vodounou: Africa, Deafness and Christianity. I handed it back and asked him to autograph it for me. He looked confused at first and then nodded his understanding when I opened the front page and pretended to write on it. We struggled to communicate for a few minutes as we waited for his wife and later his interpreter, Kay Brown, who leads Sagemont’s Deaf Ministry, to arrive. By the time I left the coffee shop, two hours later, I could not wait to share Victor’s “Incredible Journey” with the Sagemont Church family.
AFRICA
Victor was born, literally, on the side of the road just a few miles outside of the small village of Dovi-Dove, located in Benin, West Africa. He was named Alihonou which means “object or thing of the street” in Fon, the native dialect of Victor’s tribe. He later changed his name to Victor in the fifth grade. He was the only male child in his family to survive infancy despite the fact his father practiced polygamy by having two wives. His father, who was also head of the family tribe, had great expectations for his only son to grow up to fulfill “the privileged rank of head of the family and to wear the traditional costumes that are dear to the Fon tribe” (The Incredible Journeys of Victor Vodounou, p. 24).
At the time of Victor’s birth, the Republic of Benin was still run by the French and was known as Dahomey. Over 60 years later, Benin is still a diverse country with more than 40 ethnic groups, each with their own language. Victor’s family was like most Africans whose culture was directly impacted by “an African tradition, called animism, which involves the worship of things such as water, rivers, snakes, trees, animals and ancestor spirits”(p. 18). They also believe in spirit powers and wear magic rings and beads. Many carry amulets to protect themselves against evils. They also offer sacrifices of living animals like chickens, doves, ducks, goats or sheep to the spirits and to their ancestors.
At a very young age Victor worked along side his father and uncles who were reputed fishermen of the area to fish and farm in order to help provide for the family. Victor grew up in a world where wild animals like monkeys, hippopotamus, wild pigs, buffalo, deer, hyenas, lions, tigers and panthers roamed free. Giraffes, deer, elephants, turtles, and boas were also a common sight.
In September 1959, after seeing two neighborhood friends walking to school in blue uniforms, then six year old Victor wanted to go to school to learn to speak, write and read French. The following day, his uncle walked him to the Public Elementary School of Dovi-Dove created in 1952, which was the only school for the entire community. Victor was the very first person in his family to attend school. Victor wrote, “During the sixth grade, I finally fully understood the value of school…to be educated and become an Akowe (scholar and professional) and have a good salary and live a good life”(p. 55).
DEAFNESS
As early as Victor could remember, he struggled with the ability to hear. He explained, “I was deaf without really being aware, all we know is that people had to shout or scream before I could understand them” (p. 55). At school he frequently would be punished for any misunderstandings if he said or did the wrong thing despite his efforts to read lips.
His family blamed his hearing problems on different reasons including “evil spirits from neighbors, or a demand by our ancestors’ snake or demon idols wanting me to become an adept or follower of the idol” (p. 56). Victor experienced great pain as a young child in attempts to cure him of a possible worm in his ears by pouring hot oil in each ear. Despite all their efforts, Victor’s hearing deteriorated to a point of complete deafness by age 13.
It was a very difficult season in Victor’s life. By the eighth grade he had failed all of his classes and was not allowed to advance further in school directly because of his inability to hear. He wrote, “Growing up deaf in Africa was lonely and isolated experience; I once thought I was the only deaf person in the world. There was no other deaf person in our family or in the village that I knew of, neither was there any school for the deaf in the whole country where I could have pursued my education” (p. 60).
When Victor was 19 years old, he met a man who would change the course of his life forever. This man was Dr. Andrew Foster, a 49-year-old African American deaf missionary from Detroit, Michigan who started over 30 deaf schools in West Africa. Five years after being awarded an honorary PhD from Gallaudet University for educating and evangelizing the deaf in Africa, Dr. Foster along with his wife, Berta, who was also deaf, as well as their five hearing children traveled through Benin in 1975. When they heard that there was a young deaf man from that village, they went to Victor’s family home to meet him. Victor was away at the time and when he found out that he had missed the important visit he was both excited and disappointed. Immediately, Victor took the contact information that was left for him and wrote a letter to set up a time and a place to meet.
By September 1975, Victor was enrolled as a student in the rehabilitation program for the deaf at the Christian Center for the Deaf in Ibadan, Nigeria run by the Fosters. Over the next months, Berta, spent every morning working one-on-one with Victor, teaching him basic sign language by pointing to different things and then showing him the sign. By the following September, Victor was fluent in signing in both American and French Sign Language. Victor lived at the home of the Fosters for the next two years.
CHRISTIANITY
Once Victor entered the world of communication via sign language, Dr. Foster then introduced him to Jesus Christ through the study of scriptures. At the age of 21, Victor accepted the Lord as his Savior. In 1977, Victor was baptized in their church in Nigeria.
Later that year, Victor traveled with Dr. Foster to meet with the President of Benin to get permission to start a school for the Deaf children. Victor recalled President Kerekou’s response, “Deaf people go to school? I didn’t know that”. The meeting was successful and the president agreed to provide a building in Cotonou (pronounced Coe-Two-New) which is Benin’s capital city, as long as Dr. Foster provided everything else. Victor was the first teacher at the Benin School for the Deaf. Originally only eight students attended because most of the parents, like the president, did not believe that deaf children could go to school. Victor taught at that school from 1977 to 1985. By the time he left, the school had around 100 Deaf students.
January 1983, Victor met Benoite, a young woman from Benin. Victor and Benoite’s first date was to attend a men’s Bible study for the deaf. Benoite laughed as she recalled, “I never knew anything about Jesus. I was so scared of touching the Bible because I was raised believing if I touched the Bible then I would become crazy!’” As Benoite sat in the corner scared watching the men sign to each other, she realized for the first time that Victor was deaf! He read lips so well that even her family did not realize he was a deaf man either. She said, “I had heard about the deaf people, but I had never met anybody deaf before. Victor introduced me to the deaf community in Benin and I started learning American Sign Language even thought I didn’t know English at the time.”
After they married in October 1983, Benoite regularly attended church with Victor as well as the same Bible study group. A year later the study group taught a lesson about salvation and used the scripture 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (KJV). She said with a bright smile, “That is when my life had changed. I didn’t resist again and I gave my life to Christ.”
In 1980 Victor came to the United States for the very first time. He first attended a short special class in deafness at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., which is a public university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing.
In 1985, just two years before his unexpected death, Dr. Foster convinced Victor that he needed more education. Victor accepted a one-year scholarship overseas at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, Canada, where, by 1989, Victor earned his Bachelor of Science in education at the University of Moncton. By 1993, he earned a Master of Science in Deaf Education from the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Finally, in 2001, Victor completed his Doctorate of Philosophy in curriculum bilingual education and school administration from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
In 1991, Victor was able to arrange for Benoite and their three children, Irene, Andre (named after Dr. Andrew Foster) and infant daughter, Flavie, to join him in the U.S. By 2002 Victor, Benoite and their three oldest children became naturalized United States citizens. Their fourth child, Bonou-David, was born in 1996 while they lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico so he was already an American citizen.
Victor is quick to point out that all along the way God put fellow believers and Baptist churches in his path to help him. They were instrumental in helping him find jobs and raise the needed money as well as obtain visas for both him and his family. Even a few phone calls were made to the American Embassy on his behalf. Pastor Don Cabbage, was a great example of someone who helped the Vodounou family with the immigration process as well as a job. In 1994, Victor and his family moved from Riverside, California to take the assistant pastor job of building up the deaf ministry at Temple Baptist Church in El Paso where Don pastored. With a smile on his face, Victor shared how five pastors at that church laid their hands on him as he was ordained as a minister.
After several more teaching jobs, the Vodounous moved to Houston in 2008. Victor knew that he wanted his family to attend Sagemont Church, because of Dr. Chuck Page, his friend from their church in Nacogdoches, Texas who had been raised at Sagemont. Victor and Benoite immediately became involved with Sagemont’s Deaf Ministry led by Kay Brown. Victor teaches free sign language for the Advanced classes on Wednesday nights.
That same year Victor published his autobiography that began with this, “I wrote this story of my life to show you that God works miracles everyday and everywhere. God can use disabilities and other life woes to get our attention and lead us to salvation in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son” (p. viii).
LIVE EARS MINISTRY
Since 1998, Victor felt called to follow in Dr. Foster’s footsteps and return to Benin in order to start a deaf school to help and evangelize the deaf and hard of hearing children in West Africa. In February 2006, Victor and Benoite created a 501(c) non-profit organization called Live Ears Ministries (LEM). Victor explained, “It is called Live Ear Ministries because in my tribe would say the deaf person had dead ears. So now when they say to me, ‘Your ears are dead!’ I say ‘Yes, my ears are dead, but when I accepted Jesus my heart became alive!’”
In 2010, LEM purchased six acres of land in the rural area of Hinde, Benin. Several buildings have been established for a school to house, educate and train the deaf and hard of hearing children ranging from ages six to 18. By November 2008, his dream became a reality when the students arrived for the first day of school at Ehphatha Center for Education and Training of the Deaf, which is referred to as CEEFS, an acronym from the name of the school in French. The French word “Ehphatha” means “Open” which was directly taken from the account of Jesus healing the Deaf man in Mark 7:31-37: “And looking up to heaven, He [Jesus] sighed and commanded, “Be opened!” Instantly the man could hear perfectly and speak plainly!” (NLT).
This past March, two men from Sagemont Church traveled to CEEFS on a work mission trip to install solar panel lighting at the school as well as help with the water well project so the teachers and students can have clean water. One of the men was Dr. Ken Gray, a local veterinarian, who is also the first LEM board member to visit the school. The other was Greg Myers, who owns a small company, GulfCoast Solar and Wind in Pearland, Texas. Greg shared, “Dr. Ken and I installed, tested and commissioned the Solar Power, battery and LED lighting system that was carried in-country in one suitcase, except for battery which was sourced in Cotonou. This trip was also for projects to meet day-to-day needs and in preparation for the Summer Children camp mission trip in July/August 2014”. CEEFS now has two hours of light for six of the 19 classrooms. Victor is currently making efforts to raise money so Greg can return CEEFS to expand the solar lighting to the other rooms as well as street and courtyard.
This summer, LEM hosted a very successful five-day Deaf Summer Camp similar to Vacation Bible School, but for hearing and deaf people of all ages, on the CEEFS campus. For the last two summers, Sagemont’s Sew Fine ministry donated dresses that they handmade for many of the deaf girls and women campers. LEM hosts Summer Deaf Camps in Se, a rural town in SouthWest Benin, and in the neighboring countries of Togo, Niger and Nigeria. Victor reported the results of this summer’s camps, “At the end of camp, we had 36 Deaf and one hearing who accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. In addition 27 deaf rededicate their lives to Christ. In Togo four deaf accepted Jesus Christ. This brings the total new believers to 41 during our visit for which we gave glory to the Almighty Living God!” (www.live-ear.org).
What makes Dr. Victor Alihonou Vodounou’s life so “incredible”, is not just the fact that he was able to go from “a thing of the street” who triumphed over his struggle with deafness, but the fact that he gives thanks to his Heavenly Father for allowing him to become deaf! Otherwise, he feels that he might have never been humble enough to accept his salvation through Jesus Christ. In the final page of his book, Victor wrote, “The Lessons I Have Learned from my Deafness: To be a person with a disability does not mean to lose one’s purpose in life. Personal effect, determination, courage, patience, and above all, trust in God that He is there in charge and offers free salvation in Christ are key. One needs to remember that God does not abandon His children. He can change a bad situation in to a good one….To God be the glory for great things He has done. I did not hear the world’s sounds again as I have wished in the past, but I hear something different…the Word of God. It is amazing”(p. 151).
If you would like to learn more about Live Ear Ministries, purchase his autobiography or volunteer to support you can contact Victor at www.live-ear.org.