This Week's Story
click here to play audioBrian Blair, Helen Keller, Linda Levac, Senator Max Cleland, President Franklin Roosevelt, you, and I need the hands of community!
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Community, not Foxholes,
part four
My doorbell rang a few minutes ago. A neighbor stood waiting for me.
“Barbara, the disabled neighbor across the street is outside and looks like she needs help. Does she have someone home to help her?”
“I don’t know. I’ll check. Her mother may have returned home from a restorative care center.”
I found that her mom had returned home yesterday and needed a common over-the-counter pain medicine. I had some and gave it to her. The first neighbor wanted an up-date, which I gave.
Nothing unusual, but something important, had happened. How important it is to live as a community, wherever you live. Many people have a disability. Many people help a friend, family member, neighbor, someone they do not know, or a work colleague with an impairment.
Sometimes they feel awkward or do not want to interrupt what they are doing to help someone. They prefer to remain at a safe distance. Love may make the world go around as a song declares; but not caring, splinters the world.
Brian Blair was born blind. His determination plus the loving help of his mother and grandparents, and the Lord’s presence in his life equipped him with a family, education, friends, and a career as a program director and radio announcer at KCAM radio station in Glennallen, Alaska.
Helen Keller at nineteen months became blind and deaf after having a high fever. Initially her family thought she could learn little. Often, she was left to do whatever she pleased.
Helen’s parents hired Anne Sullivan to live with the family and teach Helen. She was Helen’s teacher, helper, interpreter for fifty years. Anne’s commitment was astonishing.
She helped Helen learn braille, lip-reading, finger spelling, and how to speak. Helen became the first deafblind graduate of Radcliffe College, which became Harvard University. She worked for the American Foundation for the blind from mid-1920’s until her death in 1968. She was a convincing advocate for schools for the blind and braille reading materials. She was a writer and speaker and known to people in many countries.
Linda Levac, my sister, had sudden onset macular degeneration and is becoming blind. She has vigor for each day’s challenges and avidly follows the news, listens to books read on radio, and greatly enjoys visiting with neighbors. With help she is again maintaining a yard with exquisite plant specimens,
The United States’ Triple Amputee Senator Max Cleland lost both his legs and arm in the Vietnam War. I remember reading how he navigated the tremendous challenge of dressing himself in the morning. This he did as a U.S. Senator.
United States President Franklin Roosevelt at age 39 developed paralysis of his legs from polio. He lived most of the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He became president at age 51 and served from 1933 to 1945. These included the years of World War II.
All these people needed and we need communities whether we are disabled or helping disabled persons. What can we do? How can we help or receive?
This is Todd Warren with Barbara Steiner, reminded that not only do we have community, but God’s presence is real,
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