[Blindtlk] an awkward experience

Wed Oct 9 00:36:19 UTC 2013

Hi Christine,

First, welcome!

My name is Gloria Whipple and I am Catholic.

I also had people try to pray over me and didn't really like it, and told
them so in a nice way. If God wants me to see, he will make it happen.

I am also happy with my adaptive technology.

I have some women in the church who try to smother me because of my
blindness. I try to tell them I can get along without them trying to smother
me. I think I got the point across without being snotty about it.

Again, welcome to the list.

Gloria Whipple

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Christine
Olivares
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 17:10
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] an awkward experience

Hi everyone,
I just joined today, but my husband sent the experience you had, Michael. I
may have a different opinion than you guys do, but then again I haven't had
quite the same experience except for once. I was standing in line at Church
waiting to sit down, when this random guy came behind me and turned to my
left. All of a sudden I felt his left hand on my eyes. He said nothing, but
I new what he was doing. He should have asked me if he could have prayed
over me since I would have said of course.

I grew up in the Catholic charismatic Renewal, so I do believe in healing of
all kinds. I have been prayed over many many times for my miracle, and I
believe it will happen. My visual impairment is more medical since I have
congenital glaucoma and have to go for eye appointments and surgeries often.

If someone were to come up to me in a store, most likely I would accept
because I grew up with it. However, there must be some tact. I am not a
"poor child" because of my visual impairment, for it is just an
inconvenience. However, that doesn't mean I don't have hope for a miracle
someday. Until then, I use adaptive technology and am happy with it until
that day comes.

Michael, I am sorry for what happened to you. I think this person who prayed
for you should have been a little more tactful. At least she didn't touch
your eyes. :)

God bless,
Christine
On Oct 8, 2013, at 7:17 PM, "justin williams" <justin.williams2 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It's not off topic; John 9 is awesome.  Why is it that people forget that.
> Seems like they harcon back to old testament when the blind profit fell
dead
> when he found out that his sons died, or when the man rose from the
> wheelchair after jesus laid hands on him.  Or any number of other
instances.
> The one in John nine seems like that would be the deciding factor as that
it
> is in the new testament.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Brandon
> Olivares
> Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 6:58 PM
> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] an awkward experience
> 
> James,
> 
> Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. As a Catholic, I don't get that kind of
> thing within the Catholic Church, thank God. It brings to mind this
passage:
> 
>> As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples 
>> asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was 
>> born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his 
>> parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." 
>> (John 9:1-3 RSVCE)
> 
> 
> A bit off topic, but that came to mind.
> 
> On Oct 8, 2013, at 6:33 PM, "James Kelm" <jameskelm at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
>> Hello there...
>> 
>>  I just thought that I would throw my own thoughts into this discussion.
>> 
>>  As many of you on this list already know, I am a Christian pastor.  I
> have a church, and work fulltime within this position.  I mention this
only
> to say that I have perhaps a bit more familiarity with the Bible than a
lot
> of people, and have a recognized commitment to its teaching.  But this
still
> does not prevent those who are rude, ignorant, or just plain goofy from
> expressing themselves to me on the subject of my blindness.  I don't think
> that this is because they are any particular religion, belief system, etc.
I
> just think that they are rude people, and would be rude regardless of
their
> own justification.
>> 
>>  A few weeks ago, I had a woman visit my church.  A few days after her
> visit, she came to my home.  After I had answered the door, she promptly
> said that she had to talk to me right away, and that it was very
important.
> This is not uncommon for a pastor, so thinking that she had some kind of a
> personal emergency, I invited her in.  After we had sat down, she began
> telling me that she really liked our church, and thought that I was a very
> good pastor/teacher.  She then proceeded to tell me that although she
liked
> our church, she could not regularly attend our services because as our
> church's leader, I had so much unrepented sin in my life!  I have dealt
with
> this kind of thing before, so had a good idea where she was going with it.
I
> asked her to please explain herself to me.  She then went on to explain to
> me that unrepented sin was the only reason that I was blind.  I went on to
> gently explain to her that she was not understanding Scripture properly.
I
> was actually quite shocked when she then told me, "I don't care what the
> Bible says...  I know what I know, and God has revealed things to me
> directly".  She went on to explain to me that I shouldn't be allowed to
lead
> a congregation, until I addressed the sin that was obviously within my own
> life!
>>  So I guess the moral of my story is, that some people are just stupid,
> and sometimes even our Lord's teaching can't help stupid!
>> 
>> 
>> Respectfully,
>> Pastor James Kelm
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message----- From: o
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 5:07 PM
>> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] an awkward experience
>> 
>> Oh Marion - you have made my day!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: National Association of Guide Dog Users <blind411 at verizon.net>
>> To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List' <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Tue, Oct 8, 2013 5:04 pm
>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] an awkward experience
>> 
>> 
>> Michael,
>> I once went to my local grocery store and the person assigned to help 
>> me shop asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. 
>> I replied that I did, but probably not with the same understanding he 
>> has. He told me that, if I believed, I could be healed. I replied that 
>> I had already been healed of the false perceptions of blindness and 
>> that my blindness was actually a source of healing for others as I 
>> share my philosophy of independence and self-determination. He became 
>> a little indignant and said he was referring to me getting my sight 
>> back. I asked him why he thought that was important and he told me 
>> blindness wasn't normal. I asked him when he was going to be healed. 
>> He became a little puzzled and asked me what I meant. I told him that 
>> he was shorter than normal and black, not something that is normal in 
>> our town, so, given his logic and definition, he needed healing! Was 
>> Jesus going to heal him of his shortness and blackness? He told me I 
>> didn't understand what he was saying. I told him it was more that he 
>> did not understand what I was saying. He said, "God bless you!' and I
> replied, "She does!" The conversation ended quite abruptly!
>> 
>> Peace!
>> Marion
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>> Michael
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 9:24 AM
>> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] an awkward experience
>> 
>> Good morning folks,  I lost my sight six years ago and went through a 
>> very dark time for a couple of years and eventually became comfortable 
>> with who I am and have since then gone on to do most of what I did
before.
>> 
>> But I had an experience yesterday that I didn't know how to handle.  I 
>> was at the gym and had just completed an hour of cardio.  I was 
>> sitting at a table located in the center of the gym floor cooling down 
>> when a woman began a conversation with me.  She said that she was 
>> sitting at the table also (which I
>> doubt) and that God had put her there to talk to me and that she was an
>> evangelist.   She asked if she could talk to me.  When I answered in the
>> affirmative she stood next to me, took my hand in both of her hands, 
>> and began praying over me.  She asked God to help this poor  child, 
>> saying that Jesus had healed the sick, cured the blind, and raised the 
>> dead.  She prayed for over a minute (at least it felt like), using 
>> verbage that I only hear on Sunday morning.  Then she finished and 
>> left me sitting there.  I was shocked and didn't know what to say.  I 
>> let her do her thing thinking that I had probably made her feel 
>> positive about herself by helping "this poor child".  Understand that 
>> I am a christian but have never had such an embarrassing display since 
>> losing my sight.  Has this happened to others, and how did you handle
such
> a display?
>> 
>> Michael
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>> 
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>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> Respectfully Yours in Christ,
>> Pastor James Kelm
>> True Hope Church of Duluth
>> Phone: (218) 727-4186
>> Church Office E-mail: office at thcduluth.org Pastor's Direct E-mail: 
>> jameskelm at thcduluth.org Web Site: www.thcduluth.org
>> 
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> 
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