Archive: Gaining Insight From the Blind

Bob Brunson holds a chain filled with hexagon nuts which he gives to friends as a reminder of how faith holds a Christian together under stress.

by Boyce A. Bowdon

Blindness doesn’t keep Bob Brunson from helping his church bring comfort and hope to people around the world every week.

The 71-year-old retired school teacher is founder and coordinator of the sound ministry team at Ridgecrest United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.

Every Sunday his team tapes the worship service which Bob takes to the studio at his home. With professional equipment, he edits it, then makes 200 copies on high-speed duplicators. By Monday afternoon, he has the tapes ready for other members of the team to mail to homebound members of the congregation, to visually impaired persons across the United States and 60 other countries, and to a dozen radio stations “including some overseas” that air the program as a public service.

Recording and distributing the worship service is only one component of Ridgecrest’s comprehensive tape ministry. Bob also produces an audio tape for every visitor. The tape, highlighting ministries the church offers, includes a greeting from the pastor, specials from the choir, descriptions of Sunday school classes and various groups, interviews with members, and testimonials by person who have experienced God’s transforming power.

Each month Bob also produces a tape for every member of the church who has a birthday during that month. The tape contains a greeting from the pastor and specials from the church quartet.

Not long ago I sat in Bob’s studio and watched with amazement as he operated his sophisticated recording equipment. I wondered, how does he do this? And why? I found the answers as he shared with me his journey of faith.

Bob said he has been troubled with diabetes since he was 11 years old. The disease caused his vision problems. It was in 1950 that doctors discovered he was losing his sight. At that time he was teaching chemistry in high school and was engaged to marry a third-grade teacher.

“I told Lorene that the doctors said I was going blind, and I suggested that we reconsider our plans to marry,” Bob told me. “She didn’t hesitate a minute. She said that she loved me, that she knew I loved her, and that she wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together, whatever happened. And so we went ahead and married.”

Within six years, Bob was totally blind. He went to a rehabilitation center in Little Rock, Arkansas, for several months of training. After returning to Oklahoma City, Bob received counseling from Travis Harris, a fellow United Methodist who lost his sight when he was nine years old in a school explosion.

“Travis helped me to stop thinking about what I had lost and to start thinking about what I had left,” Bob explained. “He was teaching Sunday school, working with amateur radio, helping develop an eye bank, and doing all kinds of things. He convinced me that I could too, with God’s help.”

Bob returned to work with Oklahoma City Public Schools. “Fortunately, the school board was looking for abilities, not disabilities, and it gave me a chance to use my skills,” he told me. He served as an elementary school counselor until he retired at age 65.

One of Bob’s most discouraging moments came in 1966, when he was critically ill with pneumonia. Doctors were baffled because he was not responding to medication. Bob knew he might not recover. As he lay in the hospital bed, he committed his life into God’s hands.

“Lord,” he prayed, “from this day forward, whether I live or die, I want to be your man.”

He became less anxious, more relaxed, and dropped off to sleep. A few hours later he awoke.

“I sensed that somebody was in the room with me, standing beside my bed,” he told me. “Even though I had been totally blind for 10 years, I saw this face that I perceived to be the face of Jesus. He was smiling, as if to say He had heard my commitment and was accepting it.”

Bob paused for a moment. “Some people might say I was having a hallucination or that I was dreaming. I don’t understand it. I never had an experience like that before, nor have I since. All I know is that I sensed the presence of Jesus Christ standing beside me just as vividly as I sense your presence right now here in this room.”

Bob said he had believed in God ever since he was a child, but his life was turned around that night.

“I was no longer just a believer. I was a committed believer. And since then I have been able to cope far more effectively with tough times that have come my way. I have known that I am not alone.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large hexagon nut. “You know what this is?” he asked.

“Sure, it’s a nut that fits on a bolt,” I replied.

“It’s a little smaller, but it makes me trunk of the nut that holds a propeller on a helicopter shaft,” Bob said. “By holding the propeller on the shaft, it enables the helicopter to rise and fly. That’s what my faith in Jesus Christ does for me. It enables me to rise above obstacles, blindness, and everything else!”

He handed me the nut and said, “I’d like for you to keep this. I’ve given away hundreds of them over the years to people, just as a reminder of how faith in God holds us together come what may.”

Since 1969, Bob and Lorene have led more than 75 Lay Witness Missions across the country, sharing with thousands what faith in God means to them.

Lorene says her husband doesn’t feel sorry for himself and doesn’t want her or anyone else to feel sorry for him. She says his faith helps him to be cheerful and to have a sense of humor, because it helps him see beyond himself and his obstacles with hope.

“Bob kids a lot,” she said chuckling. “Sometimes he refers to me as his seeing-eye wife. I’d rather be married to a blind man who has faith in God than to a man who has perfect sight but no faith.”

Friends, knowing Bob has a good sense of humor, often play tricks on him, but he usually gets the last laugh. Recently a fellow church member tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Do you know who I am?” Bob replied, “No, but I have a psychiatrist friend who can help you figure out who you are.”

Bob knows who he is because he knows Whose he is. He belongs to the One who’s presence he felt so vividly that night in the hospital room. He knows that in God’s sight his worth as a human being was not lessened when he lost his sight. With this assurance, he continues to be happy and hopeful.

Bob Brunson is a committed believer in Jesus Christ. That’s why blindness doesn’t keep him from helping his church bring comfort and hope to people around the world every week.

Boyce A. Bowdon is the director of communications for the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church.