Meet Monica Caimano

 

We recently connected with Monica Caimano and have shared our conversation below.

Monica, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

Greetings! I found my purpose by translating God’s Words into American Sign Language (ASL) and opening a Christian Business, Judah Wellness & Crafts with my family.

Right after high school I went to Gallaudet University, an all Deaf college. This was when I first learned ASL. I dropped out of college and went to a dental trade school and graduated as a Denture Lab Technician with a certificate a few years later. I worked in this field for about 13 – 15 years. I stopped working in my early 30’s and went back to college but transferred to a community college nearby. I thought maybe I was mature enough and ready to finish my degree. Sadly I ended up dropping out, again and went back to the dental lab work field. Fast forward today, I am now working for a cleaning company and have been with them for about four years.

How we got started as a small family business. This idea came to us sometime in August 2023 and we came up with the name Judah Wellness & Crafts. We brainstormed, learned and put into practice. By October 2023, we started making soaps. We launched our business on February 17, 2024. We now have over 20 different homemade soaps made with healthy ingredients. We are very excited for our new journey!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a Pennsylvania native and grew up in New Castle just outside of Pittsburgh. Right now I live in Boardman Ohio and have been here over ten years. I am hard of hearing, moderate to severe, and I wear two hearing aids.

Highlighting #1 Spiritual Ears For The Deaf Ministry: I learned ASL when I was 18 years old and it is my second language. My salvation started ten years ago at the age of 35. October 4, 2015 was when I said yes to Jesus Christ and followed Him ever since.

About two years after my salvation, I have fallen in love with wanting to translate God’s Word and worship into ASL. I wasn’t sure why because I haven’t been signing for about a decade. A friend and sister in Christ who has been mentoring and helping me to get back into speaking with my hands again. She shared with me, because I know another language, we are responsible to share The Good News/Gospel in that language too. This now makes sense to me why the Holy Spirit has been inspiring me to bring the Gospel into ASL. WOW! So encouraging and humbling.

This vision had inspired me to help Deaf culture to get to know Jesus Christ in their own language and in hope that they will say yes to Him and to let Him into their lives. During this time, I have learned that there are over 300 different sign languages in the world. Sadly, only about 2% of the Deaf population know or heard of Jesus Christ. This then became my passion to start translating God’s Word into ASL and posting them on all of my social media platforms that I have: Spiritual Ears For The Deaf Ministry.

Jesus commands us to “go and make disciples” of all nations. What does He mean by this? He wants us to go out and evangelize/witness to nonbelievers and help them come to faith in Jesus Christ.

I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who I never met and speak the other 300+ sign languages and they would be sensitive to hearing Holy Spirit and also wanting to translate God’s Word into their sign languages as well.

Highlighting #2 Judah Wellness & Crafts: Although we make homemade healthy soaps, we also make other handcrafted items such as acrylic soap dishes, wooden dishes, wooden vases and more. Our soaps are the top selling item in our business. The top three soaps that our customers used and loved are Lavender Soap Bar, Allergy Soap Bar, and Kickstarter Coffee Soap. Just recently, December 2024 and January 2025 we just started making a new product, Lotion Bars. We are very excited!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1) Learning ASL ended up being the biggest impact on my life. It truly inspired and impacted me to become a translator to God’s Word for the Deaf community. The coolest part when I translate to ASL, Holy Spirit is also teaching me!

Right now I mainly reach out to the Deaf community on social media platforms. Soon in the near future I hope to reach out to them in person. For whatever reason we are lacking volunteer ASL interpreters and other sign languages translators around the world for sharing the Gospel in their own language. Think of it like this, we translate spoken languages into other spoken languages. This should be no different.

A few years ago I learned that many people do not know that ASL is not English and it is not universal. I was one of them before I learned ASL. I am truly a Pidgeon Sign English because I have a hard time breaking away from the English order form.

2.) I learned over time after high school and especially when I worked in the dental lab that I am very good working with my hands. I enjoy the artwork, basic math, basic science, and creative skills that came with it, especially when some cases were more challenging than others. It was definitely nice to see how I might have made some kind of an impact in other’s lives to get their smile back.

3.) I am so thrilled and thankful for my handcrafted skills that may have landed me into making soaps and lotion bars alongside my family whose hand craftsmanship has also brought us acrylic soap dishes, woodwork vases and more, We may have started later in life, but it is never too late to start your own family business. It is so rewarding.

My advice and my opinion, I do not think college is for everyone. Please do not misquote me, if you know exactly what you want right out of high school, go for it. Don’t waste time. If you are not sure, wait and check out other options. I only went to college because I was just following others and thinking this is what we are supposed to do once we graduate high school. If I knew that trade school was also an option for job career, I would have checked into that instead of college. If I learned anything from my time at college, it was that it was not the right thing for me.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I would have to say this blindness that I have is pretty challenging for me. It’s called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).
Unfortunately I won the gene pool lottery in my family. No one else has this but me. I was born with extra pigments on the back of my eye balls that affect the way I see. This extra pigment left me with less peripheral field vision. The best way I can describe it is like I am looking through a box that fits the frame of my face. This eye disease totally restricts my light vision that causes me to see less light in a well lit room and leaves me in total blackness at night. I can’t even see my own hands in front of my face in a dark room. Think of it like this, when you shine your flashlight, cover the light with a piece of paper. you can see the light gets very dim. This is how I see with the lights on. Being outside in the sunshine is my favorite.

My mobility is challenging at new places that I am not familiar with. Usually over time after repeated visits, I tend to remember the layout. I sometimes count my steps when walking up and down a flight of stairs. When I go somewhere new, it really hits me how much my eyesight is dependent on others, especially compared to my home and favorite places that I am familiar with.

A quote I like to share to help people to understand: “I can spot a dime on the floor across the room, but I trip over an “elephant” in front of me to go get it ”.
– Author Unknown

With my field test, I can still drive, daylight only. But unfortunately I cannot drive in the dark. This night blindness causes me to lose my ability to come and go when I please without relying on others during nighttime hours.

There is no cure for the kind of RP that I have. Out of all the things we lose, the most important thing not to lose is faith in Jesus Christ. My physical eyes may always be in the dark but my spiritual eyes are always in the Light!
2 Corinthians 5:7, We walk by Faith not by sight.

RP is a hereditary disease which affects the retina. No, glasses will not help with this kind of blindness because it has nothing to do with you having or not having 20/20 vision, not relatable. A completely different kind of blindness. It’s a disease that varies from person to person. Not all people who have RP are the same. RP are usually designed to progressively shrink your visual field to the point that you are looking through a straw or in some cases total blindness. RP also restricts your light vision which causes you to see less light and total blackness at nighttime.

It’s incredible how difficult it is for me to explain this eye disease to people, because they actually compare this with glasses wearing or they say things like “yeah I don’t like driving at night either”. It’s not that I don’t like driving at night, I can’t. Not the same thing. But I can’t really blame them for not understanding or not believing because I am one of the very few people with RP who can still drive in daylight. Plus, how would anyone take me seriously when I tell them, “oh I am partly blind”, but then they see me get in my car and drive away. ::Laughing::

Thank you for taking time to read my story. The journey ends here.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Natalie Griffin
Marsha Flanery
Maggie Parker

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