NEWS
News items
and other items of interest
about disability issues.
SPECIAL DISABILITY AWARENESS EVENT PLANNED
In April, CVM shared a part of our Disability Awareness and Education Program with the office staff of Dr. Danita Thomas Heagy, D.C. L.L.C. of St. Augustine. On Friday, August 29 from 9-6, we will be joining forces to educate the community about people with disabilities through a unique disability awareness event.
For a donation of $20 or more to CVM, patients can receive an adjustment or a state of the art scan, which measures nerve irritation and muscle spasm (a $65.00 value). We will be in the office all day providing fun, educational exercises in an effort to inform patients about living with a disability and how they can get involved with CVM.
If you would like to be a part of this rewarding opportunity, please call Dr. Heagy's office at 904-797-5100 or simply contact us.
SOUND TRUTH MAGAZINE FEATURES SPECIAL INTERVIEW
Do you like to hear a good story? The Summer 2008 edition of SOUND TRUTH Magazine features one. Rick and Jann Loderhose of St. Augustine tell their story of love and grace in raising two beautiful special needs daughters adopted from Korea. Don't have a copy? Contact us for details how on to receive one.
EXCITING, NEW OPPORTUNITIES
What began as a dream years ago is now a reality. In January, CVM relocated to St. Augustine, Florida, following the direction and leading of the Lord through a number of moves and over several years. We are excited to be here and see what God has planned for us. We have already made connections with people in the community and are involved with Young Life on the campus of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB).
The CVM studio is located in the Risch Professional Building, 2120 US 1 South, Suite 110, St. Augustine. The space is small, but functional, and easily accessible to volunteers. It is less than a mile from the office, located in the home of CVM founders/directors, Sam and Ann Thompson.
CVM has been providing quality Christian literature on cassette for print impaired individuals since 1987. If you are interested in volunteering, and live in the St. Augustine area, contact us.
If you would like to make a donation to CLEARER VISION MINISTRIES, INC. or would like someone from CVM to speak at your church, school or civic group, please contact us.
VIEWS
Personal testimony
and comments about
Clearer Vision Ministries, Inc.
Becky Barnes, Subscriber
"My relationship with CVM, which began in 1988, has been a fulfilling one. It goes far beyond the wonderful tapes I receive from the ministry, wonderful as they are.
It has helped me to focus on what's really important in my Christian walk, helped me listen for the call God has on my own life, and helped me to discover and use the talents God has given me.
Educating the public about disabilities in general, and blindness in particular, is an ongoing activity for those of us who are blind, whether we want to do it or not. Educating the church on these issues is even more important.
CVM has set a standard for all of us to aspire to when it comes to reaching out both to the Christian community and to those who need to hear the good news about Jesus Christ."
Kathy Nimmer, Subscriber
"When I was a little girl, I could see the world spread out in front of me. This was true on a literal and figurative level simultaneously. I had perfect vision, and I had an enormous imagination. That imagination converted doll houses and their little figurines into real worlds with complex stories involving vivid characters who interacted with realistic intricacy. And let’s not forget my fictional world of competing gymnasts who flipped and twisted on our backyard Jungle Gym with the girl bearing my favorite name always winning the gold.
And somewhere, I knew God was watching over me, guiding this shy and introverted dreamer toward a future of … what I didn’t know, but He was there. My bedroom was pink, my brother was only as annoying as siblings are allowed to be without crossing that forbidden line into enmity, and my pet dogs completed the picture of joy.
Then, life beyond my imagination slipped in quietly and swiftly. My parents divorced, we moved to a new town, and my vision started deteriorating. I went from doctor to doctor with the constant message that I was making up the vision problems to get attention. God seemed to have gone silent, especially the day that my mom and step-father heard the news that I would never drive and might experience enough vision loss to classify me as blind one day.
At age eleven, the doll house figurines, minus the doll house itself which was too cumbersome to pack up, accompanied me to a school for the blind 150 miles away. There, I found a future which was much different than I’d ever counted on. New challenges, new teachers, long and scary hallways which twisted and turned in spooky ways, … it was overwhelming. But, my keen interest in learning and dreaming emerged once more, and I felt my feet find a place on which to stand again.
Age 14 swept away any pretence of being sighted for the rest of my life as I learned braille, crossing that line between the seeing and what I feared would be the unseen. After all, how could God allow loss at the most critical time of growth and development in a young girl’s life? Where had He gone anyway? I slipped into anorexia and depression, clawing for control in my spinning universe. Those little figurines of childhood could help me escape no longer, and I was lost.
With the prayers of a minister from my home church and with the belief others had in hope, I began seeing a flicker of light in the darkness. My desire became to succeed, to find excellence, to soar above expectations and fill the emptiness with achievement.
And so, I did just that. National champion gymnast, head cheerleader, speech team member, writer, pianist, organizer, valedictorian, all titles I added to my resume. I used these successes to propel me into college at a small Christian school nearer home. There, I lost travel vision and began using a cane. But, I found a career that seemed to fit as I trained to be an English teacher. See, the characters who inhabited my childhood worlds now were leaping forward, out of existing books that I could bring to life for my students and also out of my own imagination and onto paper which was finding publishing opportunities. I felt God’s presence again and knew He hadn’t been gone; I’d just been turned the wrong direction.
After grad school, I interviewed with a maverick principal who liked to be “first.” I was his experiment; he would be the first principal in our region to hire a blind teacher. Bravo for me, for it got me in the door. Had I any way to know what was behind that door, I might have turned and run back to the rusting and discarded Jungle Gym back at my parents’ house.
My first years of teaching were nightmares. Students walked quietly out of my classroom, teachers didn’t speak to me, parents didn’t support my decisions, and chaos reigned. In the bleakest moment, right after a student’s thrown book bag shattered a frosted glass window between my room and a nearby office, I contemplated quitting and starting over. I would have done this, but I had no idea where to start and no clear leading from God to make a move.
I prayed, harder than I ever had done before, even in the darkest moments of loss and change in the past. And, finally, a wall that had kept me from the constant knowledge that God loved me how I was, where I was, and His hand was in everything in my life, … that wall shattered like the frosted window in my classroom. I finally knew I didn’t have to imagine, succeed, or flounder anymore: Jesus was my living, loving Companion, and I only needed to trust.
Nothing magically became “okay.” But, I did have a new direction, a new hope. My dear friends at Clearer Vision Ministries, Inc. were pillars during this time of rebuilding. They knew already what I was just learning, and I looked to them for guidance. Gradually, classroom problems declined, and my sense of worth grew. Issues from the past which had been silent mocking forces surfaced and then slid into the corners of my existence where the loving presence of my Redeemer shadowed their supposed importance.
Now, I am finishing my sixteenth year of teaching. I walk with a beautiful guide dog by my side and with an assurance that God is using me in this public high school as a testament of hope. I falter and fumble, but then I stand strong once more. And, as in those imaginary outdoor games where the gymnast with my favorite name always won, I cling to the favorite name in my life with the sense of certain and eternal victory: my Lord Jesus Christ."
