10/19/2009
Role Models Listening to Michele
Michele Kassa hates the spotlight. Yet almost every Sunday, there she is, in the spotlight interpreting her pastor’s sermon for those who can’t hear him.
Her expansive involvement in the deaf community—both inside and outside of the church, plus her role as a single foster mother to four deaf or special needs children makes Michele a hero to many.
The former small-town girl from Maine got involved in the deaf community when a dear friend found out that her son was deaf. Michele began to learn sign language to help out.
That led to a course in American Sign Language and then a college certificate. She began filling in for a church interpreter, and has since developed a ministry for the deaf at the Rock Church in San Diego. It wasn’t easy for the private woman. "The first time in front of an audience I was so nervous I felt like throwing up. I was afraid I'd fall off the chair."
Her concern for the deaf community led Michele to commit more than Sundays. Placement for deaf or hard-of-hearing foster children is very difficult to find. With no licensed foster home in Southern California, deaf children sometimes have to be moved to other states, "making reunification with their families really difficult," Michele said. "God gave me a vision to buy a house and become a foster parent," Michele said, matter-of-factly. Despite a lot of people saying she would be biting off too much, Michele closed on a five-bedroom house in April 2006. The home is licensed for up to six children, is the only one in Southern California. (Check here for a Ph.DO description of establishing a foster-child ministry to the deaf.)
Now, at 35, Michele is the foster mother of four teenagers. How does she juggle it all? "I'm a New Englander. We get things done."