When Love Creates Legacy: Lessons from an ASL Teacher's Memorial

Reflections on Mission, Community, and the Church's Call to Radical Inclusion

On Tuesday night, September 9, 2025, I witnessed something extraordinary that has left me both humbled and challenged as a Presbyterian leader.

Across the street from a local high school, MacArthur High School in San Antonio, a church sanctuary overflowed with hundreds of students attending the first of two back-to-back memorial services for their beloved ASL teacher, Mr. Tim Kitterman.

Hundreds more waited outside for the second service. What I observed was not merely grief over loss, but the vibrant celebration of a community that had been transformed - and would continue long after their teacher's death.

I attended the service in support of our community, for Tim’s family, and for my own spouse, who worked with Mr. Tim.

A Teacher Who Taught More Than Language

Mr. Tim was remembered not just as an instructor of American Sign Language, but as a bridge-builder who opened his students' eyes to the rich, beautiful world of deaf culture.

Through his patient teaching, he didn't simply provide technical knowledge of signs and grammar; he invited his hearing students into relationship with a marginalized community they had never truly seen before. I’m guilty of this blind spot, too.

Colleagues spoke of his advocacy that extended far beyond the classroom - reaching into the local college where he also taught, and into the broader community where he championed not only deaf rights, but the rights of all marginalized peoples.

What struck me most profoundly was how his students had internalized his mission. You could see it in their eyes, in their passion, and hear it as they sobbed through the service. They didn't just learn his subject; they caught his heart.

As I watched them sign along to the hymns and move together through their school song at the service's conclusion, I realized that I had just witnessed a community that understood its calling.

These young people had become advocates themselves - passionate, unified, and seemingly unstoppable in their commitment to inclusion and justice for those society often overlooks.

Echoes of Apostolic Ministry

Watching this memorial, I was reminded of the Apostle Paul's ministry model. Paul didn't just preach; he built communities of believers who carried forward his mission long after he moved on to the next city.

His letters reveal his deep investment in nurturing leaders who would continue the work of the gospel in his absence. When Paul wrote to Timothy about passing on what he had learned "to faithful people who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2), he was describing exactly what I witnessed in that sanctuary.

Mr. Tim had created disciples - not in the religious sense, but in the truest meaning of the word: learners who became teachers, students who became advocates, individuals who became a movement.

Tim did not do this alone. One of the teachers mentioned that Mr. Tim would usually be the only male in the room full of female teachers. He was part of a vibrant team of colleagues, including my spouse, who propelled him and others to succeed. Healthy working environment helps build thriving communities.

The Church's Challenge and Opportunity

This memorial service poses uncomfortable but necessary questions for the 21st century Presbyterian church: How can we cultivate the same sense of mission and community that I witnessed among these students? How can we move beyond mere theological understanding to create disciples who are passionate advocates for the values we claim to hold dear?

The Presbyterian tradition, rooted in Scripture, has long championed inclusion, justice, and care for the marginalized. Our Book of Order speaks to our commitment to radical hospitality. Our Confessions call us to be agents of reconciliation. Yet too often, our communities seem to lack the fire, the unity, and the sense of unstoppable mission that I observed among these grieving but determined students.

Lessons for Our Mission

Patient, Relational Teaching: Mr. Tim's impact came not from delivering information, but from patient relationship-building that opened hearts and minds. Our Christian education must move beyond content delivery to genuine encounter - with Scripture, with one another, and with those our society marginalizes.

Learning Through Service: Mr. Tim understood that true learning happens when we share what we've received, just as the Apostle Paul urged Timothy. His students didn't just study ASL in a classroom; they were encouraged to go out into the community and teach others.

I learned that just months before his death, four MacArthur ASL students visited the Brookdale Hamilton Wolfe Retirement Home to teach basic signing skills to a group of adults. Among them was Harry, a deaf resident who was overjoyed that others were finally learning to communicate with him.

This wasn't a one-time event but part of an ongoing commitment the students hoped to continue - turning learners into teachers, receivers into givers.

Authentic Advocacy: These students learned that true learning requires action. They understood that to truly know deaf culture meant becoming advocates for deaf rights and bridge-builders in their community. Similarly, our faith formation must connect biblical understanding with real-world justice work, moving our members from believers to practitioners of the gospel.

Community That Transcends Leadership: The most remarkable aspect of that memorial service was seeing a community so strong it would clearly outlive its founder. This is the ultimate test of any ministry: does it create dependency on the leader, or does it foster a self-sustaining community of mission?

Opening Eyes to the Marginalized: Mr. Tim gave his hearing students the gift of sight - helping them see and value a community they had previously overlooked. The church must similarly open eyes to those whom society renders invisible: refugees, the homeless or unhoused, the mentally ill, the LGBTQ+ community, racial minorities, and others who face systemic marginalization. Jesus sees and loves these communities, and so must we.

A Call to Transformative Ministry

As I left that memorial service, I carried both inspiration and conviction. Those students showed me what it looks like when education becomes transformation, when learning becomes mission, when a teacher's values become a community's passion.

The Presbyterian church in the 21st century has an opportunity to recapture this apostolic model of ministry. We can move beyond maintaining institutions to creating movements. We can shift from preserving tradition to birthing communities of radical inclusion that will outlive us all.

But this requires a fundamental change in how we approach Christian formation, and strategic investment in movements that are already bearing fruit. Like Mr. Tim, we must become patient teachers who don't just share information but open hearts. We must model the advocacy we hope to see, standing with the marginalized not as saviors but as fellow travelers on the journey toward justice. And we must build communities strong enough to carry the mission forward long after our own earthly service ends.

The 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement provides a concrete pathway for this transformation. By investing in their vision of "a church for every context," we support the creation of communities that, like Mr. Tim's classroom, would become launching pads for mission and advocacy.

These new worshiping communities, unencumbered by the need for maintenance of traditional church buildings, are designed to be inclusive, innovative, and nimble enough to be responsive to their local contexts - exactly the qualities that made Mr. Tim's teaching so transformative.

The PC(USA) has already invested over $15 million in this movement, leading to the growth of Christian immigrant worshiping communities in the PCUSA. I coach several of these new worshiping communities and have had the honor of sitting on the front seat of God’s bus, bearing witness to what God is doing in the church and the world. But the need, as I see it, is far greater than the resources currently available.

If we truly want to capture the kind of passionate, sustainable mission I witnessed at that memorial service and in some of these new worshipping communities, we must reignite and significantly increase our support for 1001 NWC and similar initiatives that are creating the church of the future right in our midst. After all, the Spirit of God blows where it wills.

The deaf community has a saying: "Deaf eyes see everything." Perhaps what the church needs most is to develop eyes that truly see - the way Mr. Tim taught his students to see, the way those students now help others see, the way Christ calls us all to see the image of God in every person, especially those whom the world deems unworthy of notice.

In a sanctuary filled with signing hands and opened hearts, I glimpsed what the kingdom of God might look like. It’s a vastly inclusive, loving community, overflowing with radical hospitality. Our children yearn to live in such a world, filled with beauty, joy, and laughter.  The question now is whether we, as the church, and as Mission Presbytery, have the courage and patience to build such new worshiping communities of love, inclusion, and justice among us, right here at Mission Presbytery. I believe we can do it, with God’s help, of course, and your vigorous participation. Let’s do it!

With Gratitude,

Rev. Bobby Musengwa

Transitional General Presbyter