Usually, when we go to churches in different country, mom and dad chat with adults, and the littles go to Sunday school, but me and Zeb usually sit there—looking around us. But that wasn’t how it worked today. While in Auckland, New Zealand, we went to a great church. There was a high school Sunday school, so we went to that. But, to our advantage, we all Whitmore kids ended up in the middle group section. And I appreciated them because they made us feel welcome. They asked us questions about our travels and relationship with God. I loved it. And I made a new friend!
Her name is Imogen, and she’s bling. Which I think is so cool. I’ve never met anyone blind or deaf, and I’ve always been interested in their community. Imogen (said Em- i -gen) was so cool. I loved the energy that she gave to the room. And later that day, she got to come with us on a trip to the beach! On the way to the beach, we belted out lots of musicals, and I would like to point out that Imogen has a fantastic voice and perfect pitch! Which is a big deal in the musical world. When we got to the beach, we walked the whole coast, and I learned that she uses echolocation and can feel it with her feet!
Like, how cool is that?! At one point, we were walking, and Zeb was walking backward, and she said, “Zeb, why are you walking backward?” I was like, “How do you do that?!?” She can hear when someone is facing toward or away from her because their voice sounds different. I would never be able to do that. And when we had to climb on top of a rock to take a picture, she could feel the rock with her feet to find her way. I think that those of us who seem or look different really isn’t really that different. Imogen said something to me that day that really touched my heart. She said “I am only blind physically. Spiritually, I can see everything.” And that really just touched me. If you couldn’t see anything, but you had such faith in God that everything would be ok. And sure, not everything is just peached for Imogen, but not everything is horrible either. I implore you to think about what you know about the blind community. Has anything changed from reading this?
