Blind Hymn Writer Lights the Way (Ros' Blog)
Throughout my life there have been some hymns that have made a profound impression on me, and some hymn writers whose stories have touched and inspired me. And in researching these hymn writers, I have found that a number of them are disabled, and have left a wonderful legacy in the words they have written – people like Frances Ridley Havergal, Fanny Crosby, William Cowper, Anne Steele and George Matheson. George Matheson is a great example of how it is not a physical condition that disables, but the attitudes of those around us. And he is also a great example of how, no matter what life throws at us, we can always find all we need in Jesus.
George Matheson was born in Glasgow in 1842, the eldest of eight siblings. He was an exceptionally bright student, and when he left school he gained a place at Glasgow University, where he studied Classics, Philosophy and Logic. He was just nineteen years old when he graduated with first class honours, but at the same time he was rapidly losing his sight. He had always had poor vision, and in school he had worn strong glasses and had always sat near a window to benefit from the daylight. But in his final year at university he lost the remainder of his sight and from then on he was only able to make out faint shadows, and was functionally blind.
Matheson did not allow any of this to hold him back from his chosen career path of becoming a church minister. In fact, it is said that many of his congregation did not even know that he was blind. He would stand up and “read” the passage of Scripture, presumably from memory, so that most of those who heard had no idea that he was not reading from the page. He continued to study and write theological works, dictating them to his sister who transcribed them for him. He remained very close to this particular sister and there was always a deep bond between them.
While at Glasgow University, George Matheson had met and fallen in love with a young lady whom he had asked to be his wife. She accepted and they became engaged. But when he told her of his increasing blindness, she responded, “I do not wish to be the wife of a blind man,” and broke off their engagement. He lived with the pain of that rejection for the rest of his life, and yet did not allow it to deter him from serving God as a faithful pastor and minister of the Gospel.
George Matheson’s most famous hymn was written in the space of five minutes one evening when he was forty years old. He has chosen not to disclose exactly what was passing through his mind when he picked up his pen to write it, saying only that “Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering.” But the occasion was the night of his sister’s wedding, and it’s likely that the event, necessarily taking his sister away from him after many years of being so close, brought back the memory of his own rejection by his fiancée. Certainly he had never married and had never fully got over being rejected for his sight loss.
He wrote later that, unlike all his other hymns and verses, he did not have to work at the rhythm or metre of this hymn, but that it came to him in the space of five minutes; he scribbled it down and never edited or retouched it. It came to him, he said, “like a dayspring from on high”.
During his lifetime, George Matheson was honoured in several different ways. He was made an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Edinburgh University, became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was invited by Queen Victoria to preach in front of her at Balmoral.
He never did marry, ending his life a bachelor in 1906 at the age of sixty-four. Many of his writings still exist and are available to read in books and on the Internet. But the piece of writing for which he will always be remembered is that one hymn in which he expresses so profoundly how the love of Jesus, which never let him go, had become the mainstay of his life. And in writing it, he brought encouragement and hope to countless others down the decades – a hundred and thirty-one years later we still sing it in our churches, and in polls conducted by Songs of Praise it remains one of the nation’s favourite hymns.
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 4
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the fourth report, covering their Sunday visits. Please keep praying for the team--especially for the quick release of the wheelchair container!
Sunday 9 June
Today started early with a visit to Calvary Baptist church where we worshiped with a lively group of local people in one of the camps about an hour away from our accommodation.
As we sang, Michael took over playing one of the drums and we sang and joined in the worship.
Nathan gave the sermon from Luke 5 about the man lowered to Jesus through the roof. Then he was asked to dedicate two children, something that he’d not done before.
After the service we met with the African members of the congregation and were warmly greeted by them.
Then we split into two groups and went out to meet people in their homes. Both teams were able to make a difference to the lives of people and, in addition we were able to mentor some of the HHA staff who will be distributing the wheelchairs after we leave the Moyo camps on Tuesday.
It was a long and tiring day, but we remain in high spirits and look forward to what God has in store for us tomorrow.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 3
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the third report, covering the work they've started doing while waiting for the container. Please keep praying for the team!
Through the Roof and Hope Health Action have tried so hard to speed up the container, but now it will be Monday at the earliest. We are planning 1 day distribution on Tuesday here, then 1 in Bidi Bidi camp a few hours away on Wednesday. Then we have to begin the journey home Thursday.
This way we can mentor the local HHA team who are trained to fit chairs and then they can continue the distributions when the team go.
We had another joyful day of home visits. The audio bibles were a particular hit - these are supplied by some donors from my church in Chessington, and others including Motcombe village. and have the bible read by a native speaker, and are solar powered!
So we are doing well. Disappointed not to be fitting chairs as planned, but what a great opportunity to take time to see people in their homes and follow up clients from previous distributions!
Keep praying.
Thank you all.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 2
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the second report, covering the work they've started doing while waiting for the container. Please keep praying for the team!
7 June
Today we split into 3 teams to make use of the unexpected time without the container and equipment. The pastors and Michael, the Children’s worker, spent time with local disabled people and pastors training them on the Biblically view on disability. This begun with a talk on the Bible principles on disability followed by the dangers of the prosperity gospel and the joy of the true gospel. The group then split into two to look at examples of people who were disabled in the Bible. We then ended with a drama on the story of Mephibosheth on the importance of a two way relationship when helping people. The group listened and responded very positively to the training.
A small team attended Ibakwe Hills Nursery and Primary School where Michael took an assembly for 1638 pupils with his puppet Davis! When he was sharing the message of Christ, we were shocked to hear that nearly every child had seen a dead body, even the youngest in the school. It was fantastic how positively the children responded to our visit and humbling to hear how dedicated the 19 teachers were who work voluntarily to prepare the children for their Primary School National exams.
This team completed 3 home visits including Keiden Josephine, a lady who had suffered from leprosy and crawled out of her hut to welcome us. She still had the old unusable wheelchair her son had pushed her for 2 days to cross the border and reach the camp. She already had a wheelchair provided by a different charity and was using this successfully to access the church and local community. This extraordinary lady managed to cook and get in and out of bed unaided and her final comment was “I cannot believe that you took the time to come and speak to me”. It was great to affirm just how valued she is in God’s sight.
Home visits were the focus of the group. We met several people who had wheelchairs already but who were struggling to use them because of needing repair or problems sitting comfortably. Meeting these people highlighted how much a wheelchair can change their lives. The First Lady we met said that before receiving her wheelchair she never left the small compound of her home. Now with a chair she can go and collect six cans of water, attend church and school and was involved in a work skill building program for disabled people. She proudly talked about successfully managing to work on a project to construct a building for a training centre and appealed to us to raise awareness of their efforts to equip the centre.
We also met an elderly man who was crawling on the floor as he planted crops. He had a wheelchair but it needed some adjustments to make it comfortable for him to use and to propel more easily. Another man with a tricycle was given some help to make his chair comfortable so that he was not in discomfort as he travelled 12 kilometres to work and back. Simple work on his chair made a huge difference to this man who was very grateful for the help he was given.
So many people in great need from such varied backgrounds. We heard how people who were previously farmers were able to adjust more easily to sustaining themselves on the camp whilst others from the cities working in jobs such as bankers, lawyers and such like professions struggled to learn and cope on the camp.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 1
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the first report, covering their travel, plans, and settling in. Please keep praying for the team!
6 June
After waking at 05:00 in Entebbe we were taken to the airport, where we checked in after a thorough bag search and weigh in. We had bread and banana and hard boiled eggs for breakfast whilst waiting for the flight. We took off in a Cessna and flew first to Gulu where we refuelled and then onto Moyo flying over some refugee camps en route.
We landed safely at the airstrip in Moyo, and were met by some of the HHA team who took us to the Multipurpose Training Centre where we are to stay whilst in Moyo. We were shown to our rooms which are twin bedded rooms in a separate block.
The weather today has been overcast with the occasional shower and clap of distant thunder.
Unfortunately the container delivery has been delayed in Kampala, due to there being Bank Holidays this week, but we are hopeful that it will be delivered on Friday evening or Saturday morning. We therefore have a “spare” day tomorrow when we are going to split into teams with the pastors running disability awareness training for pastors and church members in the camps and the therapists and techies doing home visits to potential clients.
After lunch, we walked into the town to orientate the team. At the market we bought foam mattresses, water and food for lunch, checked out the hardware store and some of the ladies bought fabric and Lynne ordered a dress.
We decided to buy a variety of mattress thicknesses as found a store that did a good deal for us.
Whilst we were in town we were joined by Michael, a children’s worker from Kenya, who has done four previous Wheels trips and had travelled by road from Kenya over the last two days. Pastor Shadrack has also joined us from Tanzania as he is hosting a Wheels and Churches Inc trip in October and is on a fact finding mission with us.
The day hasn’t turned out as we originally planned, but God has the overview and we have seen God at work, for example, we were concerned about our excess luggage on the small plane, but we discovered that a couple travelling in the plane with us had lost their luggage on the way to Africa and so we were able to use their allowance at no cost to us.
Churches Inc in Kosovo -- Day 6
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from day six of their trip...
We can’t believe we are at the end of our week here in Kosovo. We were at the Family Church in Kosovo this morning where we were given a truly warm welcome. I was able to show a Power Point presentation “Does God love disabled people?” This led on very well into Mike’s sermon on the “Through the Roof” story. Mike’s blind friend Gezim, from Pristina, joined us this morning and read the Scripture from his Braille Bible. The fellowship really took hold of the message and the pastor said he was going to think about how his church could be more inclusive and another member said they were going to refurbish the church and would definitely include a lift (yay! Their church is on the first floor, up many stairs).
We felt that it needed just one church to get the vision of inclusion, and then to share that vision with other churches.
Many from the church fellowship are invited back this evening for a BBQ on the only day when it rained!
More when back in the UK
Churches Inc in Kosovo - Day 5
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and leaders there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from day five of their trip...
This morning we joined the children at their Saturday club at the Gjakova Family Church. There were about 100 children, all very responsive. Alison did a parachute Bible story (the paralytic man) this went down very well. We left the parachute and parachute story book with them. Mike followed with an activity where he blindfolded a child and asked another to lead them. The children loved it.
The afternoon visit to Handikos in Rahovec was quite difficult in that the stories we heard were very sad and much the same as we’ve heard all week; lack of money for medication, little help with care for the disabled, inappropriate facilities and poor transport for clients, some who live 25 km away. On top of this the centre manager has Parkinson’s and his medication had finished. He was feeling quite unwell.
Mike was able to talk to 4 blind people, one of whom was a bit of a pioneer, “the grandma for the blind”, leading an organisation of 150 blind people. A great inspiration. We wished that others would have vision to set up similar networks to support each other.
We came away wishing we could do more but we identified a few areas that could be addressed by Ray who will go back soon.
Again, more requests for wheelchairs and walking frames. We heard too that wheelchairs are often left outside the home due to lack of space so they don’t last very long.
Churches Inc in Kosovo--Day 4
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and leaders there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from Day four of their trip...
We started today with a visit to Handikos in Gjakova. About 40 people gathered, clients and staff and we sat round a large table to discuss their needs and issues. Many issues we had heard before: the lack of funding, the poor roads for wheelchairs, the cost of registering for disability pension ( 75 euros per month which many don’t receive even if registered) many have to take medication for various medical issues, for which they have no money. Save the Children is funding projects at Gjakova but are withdrawing in August. The staff say they cannot sustain the centre long term.
Alison was able to pray with one lady, then two others asked for prayer too.
This afternoon we met with two leaders from the Blind Centre. We were told that 44% of blind people in Kosovo are under 40 and 95% of them are the heads of their families with little or no income.
They work out of a very dilapidated, run down, building for which they could not afford electricity. We felt they had little hope of change and were ground down by the constant denial of help and support from the government having been promised help, which had not materialised. We discussed possible ways to move forward for the long term improvement of support for blind people.
After two hours of impassioned discussion we assured them that we would support Ray in any way we can as he continues to lobby for change on their behalf.
Churches Inc in Kosovo 2019: Day 3
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and leaders there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from Day three of their trip...
Had a good morning at Prizren Handikos. About 30 people including staff. Very receptive of our visit. Good range of ages and disabilities. They shared openly about the issues they face, both physically and socially. More wheelchairs are definitely needed, especially for a young Six year old disabled boy who has no way to get to school other than mum carrying him on a bus. Another lady said her independence was hindered by poor roads from her home to the shops. She needed a proper pathway for her wheelchair. Two ladies had electric wheelchairs from Turkey but they are expensive.
We spoke about supporting each other and the great need for respite care which is non existent as no one wants to volunteer help but want to be paid for their services. We feel this is an area the church could be involved in. We hope to speak with pastors about this. Weather very warm today - lovely! It has been chilly up til now.
Tomorrow we visit the Handikos centre in Gjakova and a support group for deaf and blind people in the afternoon.
Thank you all for your prayers.
Churches Inc in Kosovo: Day Two
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and leaders there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from Day two of their trip...
Wednesday
Today we visited the only special needs school in Kosovo. It specialises in teaching for the deaf. More of a fact finding visit than a workshop opportunity. It is a Bank Holiday today so only a few children in school. Very interesting for me especially (Alison) as my background is in this area. We met two lovely girls who are deaf. Both had been in main stream schools and chosen to come back. We were able to say why we were here and ask them about how they felt deaf people were included in society. They were both very positive about their lives. The school is doing a wonderful job.