The first sign language choir to visit Bermuda embarked on their second tour of the Island this week.

The 54 member group -- God's Hands of Praise -- arrived from Detroit on July 8.

And it didn't take them long to impress local audiences at performances at City Hall and Harbour Nights.

"The reception we have received has been wonderful,'' said choir director and founder Kim Logan Nowlin. "People who can hear are so moved by it.'' Mrs. Nowlin added: "Harbour Nights was great, it was packed. There was standing room only. It was just our 50th performance.'' She said the group, whose members range in age from five to 64 years of age, started performing only 13 months ago with none of the members knowing sign language.

"I started teaching sign classes at church and it just grew from there,'' Mrs. Nowlin explained. "We now have a waiting list.'' She said she taught her sign classes songs because they learned sign faster through music.

"I was teaching sign through song and one day I just thought `God is trying to tell me something here','' Mrs. Nowlin said.

And she pointed out that most members of the group only joined six months ago.

Mrs. Nowlin said the group's mission was to minister God's message through sign language to the hearing impaired.

"They (the hearing impaired) can feel it through us,'' she added.

Mrs. Nowlin, a clinical psychologist who has been signing for 14 years, said she was motivated into her present career by her childhood experiences.

"I was an attention deficit disordered child,'' she revealed. "And I saw how the kids were treated in those special classes.

"I always said I was going to do something about it. And when I was in college my brother told me I should take sign as my minor.'' Mrs. Nowlin said she has learned a lot about humility as a result of being director of the choir.

Her future goal is to take the group on tour around the globe.

"We already have t-shirts, tapes and videos out,'' she said. "I want to take them all over the world. And to fill auditoriums with people who came just to hear us.'' She added: "We are also looking to do a book containing a collection of the songs we've sung with sign language printed beside it.'' And she said the book would definitely include the group's most requested song -- `Grace and Mercy' -- by the Mississippi Mass Choir.

Mrs. Nowlin said the choir will perform at tomorrow's benefit at the Seventh Day Adventist Centre on King Street in Hamilton.

The benefit, the main reason for their visit, will start at 7 p.m.

ON A MISSION -- The choir's director and founder Kim Logan Nowlin.