Chad Entinger

Chad Entinger was born into a Christian home and raised by Christian parents. At the age of 16 months, he had Spinal Meningitis and became Deaf. His parents received encouragement to communicate with their Deaf son through sign language.

When he was four years old, his home church, the Christian Church in Howard Lake, Minnesota, learned that Deaf Missions was hosting a conference in Norfolk, Nebraska. They financially supported Chad’s father to register for the conference and purchase a round-trip ticket to fly to/from Norfolk. He went to the conference and received training from Duane King, the Founder and former Executive Director of Deaf Missions.

Chad remembers going to the airport with his mother and baby brother to pick up his father when he returned from the conference. As he stepped off the plane and approached his family, Chad recalls seeing him carrying his briefcase. In the briefcase he had resources from Deaf Missions.

His father used the training and resources he received at the conference to teach another Deaf boy and Chad about God’s Word in sign language. He also taught them the Gospel of Jesus. At the age of eight years old, Chad believed in and proclaimed Jesus as his Lord and personal Savior. Chad was also baptized by his father in the church building in Howard Lake.

Chad was mainstreamed in the Howard Lake Public Schools with an interpreter during his elementary and junior high years. For high school, he was a student at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) in Faribault, graduating in 1993. Furthermore, Chad graduated from Gallaudet University with both Bachelor and Master degrees.

From 1999 to 2003, Chad served as Ministries Coordinator with Deaf Missions in Council Bluffs, Iowa. After a three-year stint (2003-2006) as elementary teacher, elementary department chair, and assistant football coach at the MSAD, he returned to Deaf Missions as Associate Director. In November 2007, after a year and half of transition-in-leadership period, Brother King officially transferred leadership of Deaf Missions to Chad. Chad now feels he gets to give back to the ministry that has had a tremendous impact on his life.

Chad is married to Glory, who is herself a nationally certified interpreter and a licensed sign language interpreter in the state of Iowa. They have six children and are blessed to be involved in First Christian Church and Christ’s Church of the Deaf, both in Council Bluffs.