|
A Woman with a Vision
Mildred Whitney sat quietly in church, listening to the sermon and following
along in her Bible. But suddenly something went very wrong. With no warning,
her eyesight was gone! She couldn’t see a thing!
Mildred was a housewife with young children, living in East Jordan, Michigan.
She had always found things to do for the church and for other people, but she
still felt something was lacking in her life. She often asked, “Lord, what can I
do for You?”
That Sunday in church, she felt God speaking to her. Then suddenly, she became
blind! She looked down at her Bible and could not see to read it. At the
same time, she felt the Holy Spirit say to her, “What if it were like this all the
time, and you could not read?”
For an entire hour, Mildred was blind. God showed her what it would be like to
live as a blind person. After an hour had passed, her vision returned as quickly
as it had gone.
Earlier that same day, Mildred had read a story about a woman whom God used to transcribe Christian literature into braille, the language of bumps and
dots that blind people use to read. Her one-hour experience with blindness
convinced her that this was God’s calling for her as well.
Mildred began a search to find a publishing company that created Pentecostal
literature in braille. To her dismay, there were none. She even called Gospel
Publishing House in Springfield, Missouri, and learned that there was no
braille ministry in the Assemblies of God.
Mildred decided to attend a school where she could learn braille. Soon she was
busy transcribing and producing Pentecostal literature in her own home. She
even created her own braille printing press by using an old wringer washer!
Every spare moment, after her household tasks were done, she diligently
worked at creating church materials in braille. As her children grew, they
helped with the work.
By 1960, the demand for materials was so great that the Whitney family could
not keep up. Several members of their church began to help. In 1961, Mildred
was appointed as a home missionary with the Assemblies of God, and in 1968
she moved to Springfield to help start a library for the blind. Students from
Central Bible College helped produce the literature, and funds from BGMC
helped keep the work going.
Because of Mildred’s work, the Assemblies of God operates the second-largest
denominational library for the blind. Today the work of the Whitney Library
for the Blind continues under the supervision of Paul Weingartner, director of
the National Center for the Blind, part of the Assemblies of God U.S. Missions. Materials are being sent to almost every state and to 26 foreign countries.
BGMC has been a big contributor to the National Center for the Blind. BGMC has paid for cassette tapes, braille paper, special computers, special braille machines,
and lots, lots more. BGMC even paid to have the JBQ Fact-Pak translated
into braille so Blind kids could participate in JBQ.
What an impact one hour of blindness has had in helping those with visual impairments!
God used a miracle of blindness to direct Mildred’s life, and Mildred
was willing to accept the call.
Information for this story comes from AG Heritage 1996 and is used with
permission from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.
©2007 The General Council of the Assemblies of God. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce and adapt lesson components for exclusive use in the local church. Any other use requires written permission. |
