Carol Vetter: Pioneering Woman Of Faith
As a nationally appointed home missionary to the deaf in Chicago, Carol Vetter has a most unusual task. Her call from God is to bring the light of the gospel to inner-city deaf gang members. The ministry is desperately needed, but it is a great challenge, especially for a single, white woman.
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"I just won’t listen to any of the voices who say it can’t be done," says Vetter. "I have a mandate from God, so I simply have to go places no one else has ever gone."
Vetter chooses to live where her parishioners do—in a part of town that is not the safest.
"Police used to stop me as I drove into my neighborhood," says Vetter. "They would say, ‘Lady, what are you doing here? Get out right away and go home. It’s just not safe for you here.’ But I would just smile and explain that ‘home’ for me is right around the corner. The policemen would look at each other and shake their heads."
Vetter’s apartment has been broken into several times and many of her sparse supplies have been stolen. She admits that she had questions after being burglarized twice in as many months, but the Lord confirmed that this was where she should continue to live. Friends put grates on her doors, an alarm was installed, and she trusts God for the rest.
The old van Vetter uses to pick up new deaf converts for church is a trial to keep running. The battery has been stolen out of it many times.
"Whenever this happens," Vetter says, "I make my way to the local junkyard to get a replacement. Once I asked the owner what he could do to help me. He put a huge chain around the battery and strapped it into the car. The next morning it was gone again."
Vetter pastors Calvary Deaf Assembly in a Chicago suburb while simultaneously planting the south side inner-city ministry. She never complains, but the needs are great and the finances are often meager. Vetter firmly believes that the deaf, composing one of the largest unevangelized people groups in the world, must be reached with the gospel.
"I have to lay the unseen foundation for this ministry which does not exist," explains Vetter. "There has never been a ministry to inner-city deaf."
Vetter’s pioneering spirit was evident long before she came to Chicago in 1988. She planted two deaf churches in the Twin Cities, worked with several other deaf ministries around Minnesota, and pioneered the Deaf Studies department at North Central University. All of this comes as a result of faith.
"I have the work of believing for things that some say are impossible and have not been done before," says Vetter. "Sometimes I even have to admit that they seem impossible to me. But I see the overwhelming need and then faith starts churning."