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