Brian Blair

Today I heard about the most amazing person I have ever heard of. We had Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge, a missionary couple from Alaska, come and give our floor devos tonight, and they told us about one of their fellow missionaries: a man by the name of Brian Blair. Brian and his family are missionaries with the Voice For Christ Mission in Alaska, which runs a radio station, the only radio station that countless Alaskan families can listen to because they live so far from any town.

Brian is the announcer and newsman for the radio station. He runs around the building taking care of everything himself. He runs the computers and the soundboard and somehow manages to be the announcer all at once. In addition to his radio station-running skills, Brian is also handy with a table saw.

Now, your're probably thinking, "This isn't so amazing. The guy can run a tiny little radio shack all by himself, so what? I mean, how hard can it be?" Well, it may not be such an amazing feat, for somehow who can see. Brian was born blind. He can't see the soundboard, or the hallways of the radio building, or the computer screen. In fact, Brian doesn't even use a monitor, but he knows how to use a computer a lot better than many others. He knows his 12-channel soundboard like the back of his hand, and he'll operate it so fast you'd get lost if you tried to follow him. Mr. Eldridge said that when he visits the radio building, he'll stumble all over the place before he finally finds the light switch.
"Oh, sorry, I should remember to turn on the lights," says Brian. He works in the dark, and why shouldn't he? After all, it saves electricity, which means saving money. Electricity costs 75 cents per kilowatt hour in Alaska, as opposed to about 7 cents around here.

Brian was actually able to see very bright light until shortly after he arrived on the mission field. He started having a lot of pain in his eyes, and eventually, he became totally blind. He couldn't even see the sun anymore. As he was telling Mrs. Eldridge about it, she didn't know what to say, she felt so terrible. Before she could say anything, he said, "But I can still feel the warmth of the sun on my face."

Oh, I almost forgot: Brian is also an accomplished pianist.

I dare you to tell me God can't use you. I dare you.


The Voices For Christian Ministries webpage: http://www.vfcm.org/
Some of the staff, including Brian and his family, whose faces he has not yet seen: http://www.vfcm.org/vfcmpp.htm

The Good 'Ol Days

Having a blog is pretty fun, but it has the potential to make one's life miserable. I'll be living my simple life, minding my own business, when out of nowhere comes an amazing idea for a blog entry. I won't write it down of course, because it is such a good idea that there is no possible way that I could forget it. I do, however, usually within the hour. It's really quite annoying. If you are a person who has no writing ability whatsoever, and your life is about as boring as playing UNO with a rubber chicken, then you will never have the problem I just described. However, if you have an amazing talent for spinning tales, a superior mastery of the English language, and a life more exciting than playing UNO with a pack of starving, crazed weasels, then you know what I am talking about, maybe. I don't fall into either of the two categories, but I somehow manage to come up with amazing blog entry topics during the day, and then forget them before I can write about them at night. I suppose I could jot down ideas for blog entries as they generate, but that sounds too much like English class.

Anyway, this entry does actually have a topic. Part of my homework today was to write about my "creative experience", which they explained to be all the times you ever designed or created something. Basically, I had to write about how I have created or designed things throughout my life. One of the things I wrote about was playing with LEGO's with my brother. We would spend hours and hours with the LEGO's spread out on the floor of our room building things and then making up stories as we played with what we built. Writing about it made me realize how much I miss it. Back when life was simple. When girls were to be only secretly adored, when homework consisted of a geography worksheet and a handful of math problems, when money was only something that adults had and that you would recieve occasionally for your birthday, and when scheduling your day meant remembering when Pokemon was on. I really miss it. And I'm very tempted to feel sorry for myself. Why? I don't know, for having grown up I guess. But that is exactly what I shouldn't do. I mean the feeling sorry, not the growing up, we should all grow up. In looking back at "better" times, I completely miss all the blessings God has given me for now. He's given me the chance to get an excellent education at a top-notch school. He's surrounded me with friends who love him, and who love each other. He has provided for all my material needs, and many wants. And he's given me loving, humble parents, whose love for me is about as unconditional as human love can be.

I have nothing to complain about, and I certainly have no right to be dwelling in the past and wishing I could go back to the good old days.

So, enjoy the present while you have it, and let the past be a fond memory.

Honesty or coolness?

I spent the day today thinking about what I should write for my first blog entry ever. I wanted to write something that almost everyone would enjoy reading: something that was interesting, personal, funny, and ended with a good message. Well, I didn't come up with anything, as you may have expected. To write something like I was wanting to would require a large amount of inspiration, superior mastery of the english language, an enormous amount of time, and sprinkling of fairy dust; none of which were in my possesion at any point throughout the day. I did, however, realize something about myself.
I often find myself trying to act or speak according to what the people around me think. I don't mean that I should completely disregard all those around, and simply do whatever I feel like doing. But I often find myself trying too hard to make people like me. For example, sometimes when I meet newe people I try to be calm and cool and I probably come across more as boring than cool. As corny as it may sound, I need to be myself. Or even better, I need to be the person God made me to be. Instead of trying to act according to what will make people like me, I need to act according to what will make God happy. In the end, an person with an honest and authentic personality attracts more people than does a person who is trying to be cool.