amaryllis

Blind Man

October, 2003

"Excuse me.  Do you know where number 242, the Meditation Centre is?"

I was interrupted in my task of hurriedly bundling the two kids out of the car.  I was on my way to taking my son, Daniel, to his weekly children's programme at a large downtown church.  The blind man in front of me asking for directions was evidently on his way to the Yoga and Meditation Centre down the street.  My toddler, Rachelle, well, she was on her way to making mischief wherever she went that evening.

The man with the visual impairment explained that this was his first time visiting the centre and that he needed some help in finding it.  Since I could not see the numbers on the buildings from my vantage point, the blind man asked if I would be willing to accompany him down the street until he found the place he was looking for.

The man's white cane bumped into various objects as he navigated down the street following me and my two noisy children.  My two and a half year old made an easy sound beacon to follow as she gleefully giggled and squawked walking hand in hand with her older brother.

"Yes, I think this is it," I said lamely as I peered in the window at the strangely dressed people moving about inside the Yoga Centre.  The man bumped his way up to the door and fumbled with the handle.  He thanked me and went inside.

"Oh Lord! What have I done!" I thought to myself as I walked away herding my two boisterous children away from the busy traffic of a downtown street and back towards the church building. "Here is someone who is obviously searching for spiritual answers, and I have led him to a Transcendental Meditation Prayer Centre!"

As I was walking toward the centre with the blind man I had thought about the "Four Spiritual Laws" gospel presentation in my purse.  It had crossed my mind to give him one.  I had one in English, one in French, one for Muslims, one for Catholics, one for young people, but no brail version! The blind man would not have been able to read the gospel tract.

As I walked away, I prayed for the blind man's soul. I prayed that God would show mercy and give the man another chance to meet Jesus before it was too late.

Later that evening as I waited at the church for Daniel's programme to finish, my eyes fell on an old Sunday School paper that was lying around: "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity" (NIV Colossians 4:5)

Much later, as I mulled over the preceding incident, I was reminded of how the work I do daily on the "ilyaplus" website is an attempt to guide "spiritually blind" visitors down pathways that will lead them eventually to Jesus.

As visitors come to our site in search of something, we have constructed the website in such a way that they can be led towards a deeper knowledge of Christ, if they so choose.  Many points of interest lead to many points of entry into a dialogue about Christian spirituality.  That is the goal.

But, just like with the blind man, one cannot seize the reader's arm and take him to a place where he does not want to go.  We have to pray that visitors will be open to walking down a path that leads to God.

Pray for me and others who work on the site design that we will understand how to "act toward outsiders" in a way that makes the most of the opportunities to offer the gospel to today's young people. 

An exciting new development in the past month on the English iamnext.com website has been the advent of a feature called "Free TV".  It is a kind of televised call in/write in online talk show.  We hope that this feature will present more opportunities to steer seekers towards the Truth.

Thanks for your prayers and continuing support of the ministry.

                                                                                    Catherine