I can’t even tell you how much this woman has inspired me.
This is Mandy Harvey-- she is a deaf singer.
Mandy started singing at the age of four. She had a beautiful voice and a great ear for pitch, and all her life she desired to pursue a career in music. However, Mandy has a connective tissue disorder, and her freshman year of college she got sick with what she thought was simply an ear infection. Instead, the nerves in her ears deteriorated, and within six months she had lost her hearing.
When I first heard this story, I couldn’t get over how unbelievably devastating that is. To love music so much and then lose your ability to hear it, how horrible.
But there is more to her story.
Eventually Mandy decided to see if she could get back into music. With the use of visual tuners and muscle memory, she began to sing again. She follows the rhythm of the music by feeling the vibrations in the floor. Her voice is amazing. If you listen to her sing, you would never know she is deaf, and she has one of the most beautiful voices I ever heard. I decided to do some google and youtube-ing on her. I found out that she mostly sings Jazz, and she has a couple albums. (This blew my mind even more, because of all the genres of music to sing, I think jazz would be one of the hardest because of the rhythm.) I also found out that she is a Christian, and there is a video of her giving her testimony.
Guys, it’s incredible.
When she lost her hearing she fell into a deep depression because, as she said, her whole identity was wrapped up in music. When she lost that, it was like she died. Eventually she got involved in the Deaf community and learned American Sign Language. She found other people who had similar stories and she slowly got back on her feet again. She said she had intended to teach jazz, she never intended to be a performer. But she decided to sing a song for an audience one time and after it was over, as she was driving home, she had a realization. She realized that she had faced her worst fear. Her worst fear was losing her hearing, and she had gotten through that. If she sang in front of audiences and they didn’t like it, so what? And just like that, God removed her fear of performing. She began giving more performances and put out her albums, and she got many opportunities to share her story and encourage others through it.
At the end of the day, she said, she feels like she trusts God more. The thing she feared most in the world happened, and God helped her get through it. This world is broken, life is never going to be perfect-- but God is there, and God redeems. She is happy with her life, she loves sharing music with others, and her faith is stronger than before.
At first, I was blown away by this. How could that be possible? But then I remembered my own experience, my own testimony. I got pregnant, and my worst fear was losing the baby. That happened. And God helped me get through it. Now, looking back, I am thankful that God allowed that to happen. This world is broken, and life is never perfect-- but God redeems.
Suddenly, I understood. My experience was not the same. But the feeling I had was. There is no way this could happen. And God asking, will you trust me if it does? That journey of faith is hard-- that struggle is unbelievably difficult. But I’m so glad God allowed me to walk through it.
Now, Mandy Harvey worships in Sign Language. When she sings, she also signs, which makes me so happy. I have felt for years that ASL is my “heart language”, it is the language where I can express myself so much better, and clearer, than in English. It is the language I prefer to worship in. It just speaks to me on such a deep level. So when I see Mandy and hear her sing, not only do I hear her beautiful voice, but I am also blessed by watching her sign.
It still blows my mind when I think of all the challenges that Mandy has to overcome to do what she does. On one of the facebook posts I was reading, a woman wrote that Mandy goes to her church and often helps with worship. I had to think about that really hard. It is so casually mentioned. “She helps out with worship a lot.” Mandy can’t hear. How does she know, when she is singing with other people, that they are singing the same thing at the same time? How does she learn new songs? What about when there are impromptu breaks in the songs for prayer or a few words? How on earth does she do this? I have no idea. It is so easy to casually mention, but the magnitude of what she has to overcome to do this is mind blowing.
Mandy says she shares her music because she loves to bless others. Mandy literally goes around blessing others with her incredible voice and beautiful music-- and she can’t hear a note. It has been a difficult and challenging season, and reading a story like this inspires me so, so much.
I first heard of her because she auditioned for America’s Got Talent, and earned Simon’s golden buzzer. She will be singing again on at the live show tonight, and if you all could vote for her, that would be amazing! This incredible young lady deserves it.
