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PAGE 3 Chandler/Tempe Edition
EAST VALLEY
PAGE 18 Sunday, April 1, 2018
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Deaf pastor is first to lead Fiesta Village project to heal an East Valley congregation Mesa sore spot BY RALPH ZUBIATE Tribune Managing Editor
NEWS ......................... 10 Falcon Field shares master plan, expects more growth
BUSINESS . ................ 14 Chandler restaurant builds following with beefy menu
MUSIC ...................... 22 Lee Rocker tells interactive story of his career
COMMUNITY.......... 11 BUSINESS.....................14 OPINION.................... 16 SPORTS........................ 18 FAITH........................... 20 CLASSIFIEDS............ 30
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s Pastor Jeremy Fass preaches the Gospel, the only sound he makes is tiny wisps of breath and the occasional smack of hands coming together. His congregation’s eyes lock on him as he does it. Fass leads Silent Hope Church in Mesa, the first congregation in the East Valley headed by a deaf person. Fass was born hearing but became profoundly deaf as a toddler due to complications from spinal meningitis. At age 4, he began attending the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson, where he lived until graduation in 1995. “I didn’t know about religion, nothing about Jesus,” Fass said through his interpreter – his wife, Kim. Kim was a cashier at Walmart at the time. She was attracted to Fass and started communicating with him through written messages. Kim, a Christian at age 8, started sharing messages about Jesus. He said he thought she was talking about a Hispanic man named Jesus. “I just started talking to him because I could see the loneliness,” Kim said. Kim eventually learned American Sign Language to communicate better with Fass. He became a Christian, and now they’ve been married 16 years. They have one daughter and two sons. Fass’ passion for the Gospel was fired up by a friend. “A deaf friend said I should go to a deaf
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(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
"I want to do everything in love," says Jeremy Fass, pastor of Silent Hope Church in Mesa. He is the first deaf man to lead a church in the East Valley.
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
Tommie Gross signs a song during a church service. "I always wanted to have a church home," she said. "It was a divine appointment."
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fter years of fighting between the land owner and the city, Mesa’s most notorious eyesore is finally due for a
facelift. W.M. Grace Companies plans to turn Fiesta Village at Alma School Road and Southern Avenue into a modern mixed-use residential and retail project. Construction could be months away, but the project has garnered some support from city officials and residents who are happy to see any movement on the long-dormant site. Still, that support is measured as W.M. Grace’s plan for the center – which includes a multi-building high-end apartment complex from developer P.B. Bell – does not perfectly align with the city’s stated goal of turning the Fiesta District into an employment hub. Once a booming, fully occupied retail destination, Fiesta Village declined over the past two decades alongside the now-defunct Fiesta Mall, partly as a result of the 2008 recession. As the center fell into disrepair, W.M. Grace and the city fought over the eyesore, with Mesa opening multiple property codecompliance cases against the owner. “(Fiesta Village) has been a sore spot for the city, because it is such an eyesore,” said Adam Baugh, zoning attorney for W.M. Grace. “The city has long tried to encourage redevelopment, but it hasn’t come together See
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