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Making Changes: Growing Up CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Part 1
Brother Ronnie: And you know what, there is even one specific moment that I remember which is, the minister is giving—he's wrapping up the lesson, he's getting very spiritual; he’s giving the bayubay (advice).  Brethren are feeling it. And I look over at my mother, and I kid you not, she's crying. And I don't know why. I'm thinking, what are you hearing? What are you listening to? What were you getting from this? 

Brother Rowel: You know, again as a child…what would go through my mind is, you can't even hear, you know. Why is this important to you? Why does it matter? You can't even hear. But as a child seeing that, and then finally being able to understand—it’s like, ok, let me stay awake maybe there’s a reason why. 

Aliw: When I first learned about Brother Ronnie and Rowel David’s story, right away, I had so many questions. I was just so curious about how they grew up and became the people that they are now. You see, they’re brothers who are both CODA, an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults. They grew up in Georgia and are now both ministers of the gospel in the Iglesia Ni Cristo or Church Of Christ. 

Brother Ronnie: I remember asking her afterwards, like, Oh, why are you crying?

What did the minister say? And she said, “I don't know, but I felt something. I was feeling something. And it made me feel like crying.”

Brother Rowel: When me and my brother would talk about it, we would always say they really did worship, depending on the Holy Spirit, you know.

Brother Ronnie: It’s one of the biggest lessons we ever got from them. And again, they never explained that to us. They never said anything about the Holy Spirit. They never put that into words but it’s based on the way they live, that’s how we learned it. 

Aliw: From INC Media Audio, you’re listening to Making Changes, I’m Aliw Garcia Pablo. Today’s episode format is a bit different. This is a 2-part series where we’ll sit down with Brother Ronnie and Brother Rowel to see what it was like to grow up CODA and how that shaped their faith. This 2 part episode is so layered as you will see and feel. It's about the struggle of growing up CODA, love for their parents but also the frustrations from the perspective of two young boys whose lives were filled  with setbacks and struggle.   Let’s listen in…

Aliw: Hi, Brother Ronnie, Brother Rowel, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. 

Brother Rowel: Thank you, Sister Aliw.

Brother Ronnie: Thank you so much.

Aliw:  We'll start off by asking, what would you say? At what age, would you say that you realized that your home life was a little bit different from the rest of your friends in school or wherever?

Brother Ronnie: It didn't really hit me all at one time. It just kind of, eventually, I understood that our situation growing up is very different from other people. Like, for example, when we would go to the grocery store, and we'd help our mom pay. You know, we'd give the cashier the money, or if we have questions, we would talk for our mother. Same thing with going to the doctor's office—my mother would want to tell the doctor something and the doctor tells us to tell our mom and we’d tell our mom. And then even when he came to school. The teachers are telling us okay, I need to talk to your parents, which have home phone numbers, I can call them. They call us later on, and I'm the one answering the phone. So, it was a gradual thing, I don't think it was a specific age, but, the longer or the more we grew up with our parents the more I realized it really is different from other people.

Bro. Rowel: For me growing up, I thought that everyone did sign language to their parents...