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A Breakthrough at the Water Pump
Dear Friend of JFA,
Recently my family invited me to watch a more recent version of a movie I saw in grade school (The Miracle Worker, Disney, 2000). The movie tells the story of Helen Keller, a blind and deaf seven-year-old, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. In contrast to many in Helen’s life who saw her as a hopeless cause, Anne tenaciously labored to draw out Helen’s incredible intelligence and potential.
Imagine the challenge of teaching language to someone who is blind and deaf! Anne felt at many points like she was getting nowhere. Over and over she would spell with sign language into the palm of Helen’s hand, and over and over it seemed that even though Helen imitated beautifully, she did not comprehend the meaning of the hand signs. Then one day Anne and Helen experienced a breakthrough at the water pump. In The Story of My Life, Helen described it:
Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!
We create conversations about abortion, longing for every person to experience this same moment of comprehension. While many have dismissed pro-choice advocates both within and outside our church communities as a hopeless cause, we train pro-life advocates to labor with each person, not discouraged when one approach doesn’t work. Some have called Helen’s experience a miracle. That’s apt. In the same way, while we labor with the best dialogue tools we have, we also rely on God to work a miracle in each person’s worldview. Thank you for partnering with us to help the blind and the teacher of the blind alike, that many may “come to see” the inherent value of every human being.
- Steve Wagner, Executive Director
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