SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Eduardo Cardenas grew up feeling isolated.
He lost his hearing after getting spinal meningitis at 10 months old. For years, he said, his family didn't even know he was deaf.
However, he found another way to express himself -- through music and religion.
"Music was really my first language. When I learned music, there were no words required, no grammar. No writing or reading, it's just understanding pattern," he said. "I grew up learning music first."
Through the influence of his father, who led religious worship services with music, Cardenas said he was "able to survive." He now serves as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Founder of Loud n Clear Ministry, where he can combine religion and music. He led Praise and Worship, a weekend-long church service conducted entirely in American Sign Language.
The event, which ended Sunday, was in collaboration with Elevate Life Church, a nondenominational church in south Sacramento.
"I'm doing this event for people who are seeking God, who want to experience and communicate to a living God and to be in his presence to pray," Cardenas said "I want to provide this as an opportunity for them to practice their religious belief."
Cardenas learned ASL when he was 16, after only communicating in Signing Exact English, a type of sign language based on English vocabulary and grammar. His English and Spanish skills would later catch on in college. Because he struggled to communicate with others, he said, he was left out of society and bullied.
But he hopes with events like Praise and Worship, he can support his deaf and hard of hearing peers and give them access to spiritual resources.
Cardenas was joined by Jeff Jackson, a pastor from Bakersfield, Calif., who delivered a sermon to the church. Jackson was born deaf and said he communicated solely on lip reading until he was 20.
"Seventy-five percent of (trying to understand others) was all guesswork, I was completely lost," Jackson said.
In college, he learned ASL. Jackson said around the time he learned to sign, he was approached by a deaf pastor who inspired him to spread the message of God. Jackson has devoted his life to spreading his religion, from giving sermons to the deaf and hard of hearing community to volunteering as a chaplain for incarcerated deaf people.
"It's a huge need that is lacking for the deaf community all over the United States," Jackson said.
Chelsea Lydell of Roseville, Calif., said this (past) weekend was the first time she was surrounded by more than 50 deaf people in worship.
"I've never seen a hearing church use a deaf pastor as their primary for their sermons. Most hearing churches give a deaf pastor a separate time. They always usually put the deaf person in the basement, if they had one," she said.
"This truly gave me goosebumps," Lydell said.