Blind faith? - Growing up blind | Philippa Woodcraft

I was born blind, without eyes. This came as a great shock to my parents, but, despite this, and their questions as to why God had allowed this to happen, they were determined to treat me as normally as possible. I was included in all family activities, and I went through mainstream education all the way from playschool to sixth form. It was a challenge, but, with help from God and friends, family and staff, I got through it.

I was raised in a Christian family and attended church and Sunday school regularly at Potton Baptist Church. I can’t say what date I became a Christian, but I remember always asking God to help and forgive me, right from a very young age. He is my best friend. I was 12 when I knew for sure I was a Christian and wanted to make my faith public by being baptised.

Since then, there have been many times when I have had cause to be grateful that God will always love me and never changes.

Seeing Christ

When I was about 14 I started singing lessons, and later on went to Trinity Music College in Greenwich on a Saturday to learn singing, piano and trombone. Although I now hardly play any piano or trombone, I still sing.

I find it is a great way to praise my Saviour and share what he has done for me. There is a hymn which I love to sing when I tell my testimony around different churches. It is ‘Some day the silver cord will break’ by Fanny Crosby. She was herself blind, and the chorus of this hymn says, ‘and I shall see him face to face, and tell the story saved by grace’. Although I will never see in this world, and that is sad, the first thing I will ever see will be Jesus my Saviour. He is perfection. What more could I ask?

Attitudes to me

I have been affected by the different attitudes people have towards me because I am blind. There are those that don’t know what to say in case they offend, so they don’t approach me. There are those who don’t understand what I can do and only see the things I can’t, and therefore they ignore me, speak slowly to me, or speak to the person with me. But there are those who are willing to try and overcome their misgivings and talk to me. They start off by being quite reserved and unsure, but, gradually as we talk and they realise that I am normal, they relax.

Some people, however, never even consider my disability, or if they do, it’s only to give me some more information about my surroundings or someone who is with me, such as ‘Jo has had her hair cut, she’s had about three inches off, it looks nice’. This makes me feel included and I have the same information that other people just see and don’t really think about. All these different attitudes follow me through my life. They affect a lot of things.

Teachers

The teachers in school who have left the strongest impressions have all had one of these attitudes. My maths teacher was scared of me, and used to almost run away from me if I walked towards him, even though I wouldn’t always know he was there. The science teacher in my last school just couldn’t take on board the fact that work needed to be given to my support staff in advance so they could Braille it. This meant that science and maths were the only lessons in which I really needed full support. Because of my art and English teachers’ accepting attitudes, I could manage their lessons without support. If my English teacher was writing on the board, he would say what he was writing out loud so I could copy it down.

My art teacher was very good to me. She removed me from one lesson with another teacher, which was about drawing a reflection in a mirror. From then on, I was given all kinds of different materials in which to express my artwork. These included plaster and clay. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would take GCSE art, but, because of my art teacher’s support, I did.

Braille

In church and Sunday school I have always been included with everybody else. When I was young and just learning Braille, my mum and dad and my pastor’s wife went to Braille classes. My parents went so they could help me to learn to read, and my pastor’s wife went to learn it so she could Braille out the hymns. Before she did this, I remember my family used to read a hymn out to me line by line as it was sung, so I could join in.

I went to Sunday school with my other brothers and sisters, and I was always allowed to make something to remind me of the story, such as a pair of paper cut-out feet to remind me of the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears.

More recently, my church commissioned the Brailling of a new hymnbook. We had decided to swap our hymnbook from Grace Hymns, to Praise! and New Christian Hymns. Praise! was readily available in Braille from RNIB, but New Christian Hymns had not been transcribed. The church approached Torch Trust for the Blind, which agreed to transcribe the hymnbook into Braille. It cost the church £1,000. I thank the Lord that I can carry on worshiping the Lord in the same way as everybody else. It also means that other blind people can now get it from Torch Trust.

Finding a job

When I left school I was delighted. But then came the hard task of looking for a job. I had been given six months’ work experience on my school’s switchboard, as well as having a week’s work experience at the Bedford news office of BBC 3 Counties Radio.

I tried getting voluntary jobs, such as hospital radio, and went for several interviews for part time telephonist / admin work. I was unsuccessful, and at one place was even told I might well be considered a risk to the health and safety of their staff. This discouraged me so much that I was on the point of giving up job hunting, when my uncle rang up and offered me a trial on his switchboard at Peacock Auction Centre in Bedford for two days a week. I have been there ever since, praise the Lord.

I have been provided with specialist equipment such as my screen reader, Jaws, which reads everything on the screen out loud, a Braille display which means I can read information on that while listening to a customer, and a switch box with attached head set so I can switch between the computer and phone and dictation machine. I now type for the weekly sale catalogues, and am able to look up clients’ information on the system. It’s just the job I needed. It’s wonderful how God plans everything for us.

I praise and thank the Lord for giving me such a wonderful family, and such wonderful friends, who have seen past my disability to the person inside. I know that many people, certainly in poorer countries, do not have these blessings.

Guatemala

In February 2009, I was interviewed for an article for the Baptist Times about Braille in churches. From that article, I was put in touch with a Christian charity called Through the Roof, and asked if I would like to go on a mission trip to Guatemala.

Through the Roof’s mission statement is to make the Christian message through Jesus Christ accessible to all disabled people and those involved with their lives.

I joined a team of three others in July last year. I was the disabled role model; I went to share my experience of growing up as a blind Christian.

We trained over 480 people during our ten days’ stay, from young trainee teachers, to parents and pastors of disabled children. Each session was different, but we always began by explaining that we didn’t have all the answers, but were here to give them ideas on how to include a disabled person.

There were two girls who had taken the inclusion thing to heart, Astrid and Lucia. They came and linked arms with me and bought me into their group. That experience really touched me.

We visited a school run by an American missionary named Judie. It is called New Life in Education and is a special school for disabled children. The teachers are so dedicated to the school and the children. And, although they lack many things which we have in England, they have God in their schools.

Why did God send me?

However, while there, I began to feel a little bit uncertain as to why God had sent me to talk to these people, especially when I met 16-year-old Blanky, who has spina biffida and has come from dragging herself round on her hands to using a wheelchair and studying accountancy. I thought, ‘Surely she is more relevant to these people than I am because she has been through everything in this country’. I must admit I felt pretty helpless and wondered what on earth I was doing there. Thank goodness none of us had to go in our own strength.

At one of our training sessions there was a family with a girl who was born at 26 weeks. She had had too much oxygen and had gone blind as a result. Also she has cerebral palsy and has just had an operation so that she can now start to learn to walk. I am told that the mother spent the entire time I was talking nodding as if someone at last seemed to understand. I thought that if God had only sent me to give encouragement to that family then it was worth going.

There are already plans for us to take another trip out there. I am going with my friend Christina and three others at the end of July. All your prayers are greatly appreciated.

For details of how you can support Philippa or Christina, go to http://www.justgiving.com/christina-burt and http://www.justgiving.com/philippa-woodcraft