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The man who could see
by Joseph Lopez - Challenge Weekly
 “I WALKED with a friend once from Pera Street in Constantinople down to Galata Bridge, a distance that can be covered in 15 minutes. When we reached the bridge, I asked my friend how many blind people he had seen. He looked at me amazed and replied: ‘None’. I had seen 12 … In order to see the blind, you need to have open eyes, otherwise the world of the sightless remains hidden. God has opened my eyes.” — Ernst Jakob Christoffel, founder of Christian Blind Mission (cbm).In the early days of the 20th century, news of violent outbreaks against Armenians living in Turkey reached Germany and the ears of a young theological student named Ernst Christoffel. Struck by the plight of the Armenians, Mr Christoffel was determined to serve God in the Middle East. Originally denied by his school mission board because he was unmarried and planned to remain so, he finally reached a compromise when his sister Hedwig agreed to join him. The Christoffels arrived in Turkey to help children, but something else caught their attention — the desperation of the blind.  In 1908, the Christoffels built a home for blind children and later expanded to include those suffering from all kinds of disabilities and “nobody’s children,” the unwanted boys and girls from the streets. Denied the right to proclaim the Christian faith by the Turkish government, the siblings presented the tangible love of Christ in action to the world, young and old. Later, with his sister married and back in Germany, Mr Christoffel moved to Iran where he opened a home for blind children. He died at the age of 78. His tombstone in Ishafan read “Father of the Blind, Deaf-Mute, and Orphans.”To view the entire Challenge Weekly article click here. |
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