Walking in Darkness with THE Light: A Little Light Goes a LONG Way!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

A Little Light Goes a LONG Way!

     We had the greatest opportunity a couple weeks ago to participate in the Junior Blind Olympics. Taylor competed in 11 events. It was an incredible experience, one in which I was more than overcome a few times by emotion and had to excuse myself for a minute to "collect myself." I was so grateful to be wearing sunglasses! I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of volunteers. There were easily far more volunteers than participants which is always quite moving to me.
   Each event at the Olympics was adapted in any way possible to make the blind competitors experience it for themselves. For example, there was a box for the athlete to stand in to line themselves up to the target for archery. There was a rope on which was a PVC pipe so the competitor could run in a straight line. There were verbal cues given all over the place for rock climbing, kayaking, and the inflatable obstacle course. They learned how to play Goalball, a national blind sport similar to soccer. It is super cool too!
     One of the most impacting events to watch for me was the long jump. Competitors were divided based on total blindness or some vision. That made it more fair. I never quite realized the advantage of having "just a little light" until watching the difference between the "Visually Impaired" and "Totally Blind" groups in Long Jump. The adaptations were similar for long jump and sprints. There was a rope with a PVC pipe over it so the competitor could run as fast as possible and jump far as soon as they reached the end. Those with some vision ran and jumped without hesitation. The totally blind group all did almost the exact same thing. They ran as fast as they trusted themselves, stopped completely, and jumped almost straight up rather than far out. I was amazed as each athlete did almost the exact same thing. I also cried happy tears watching them feel like they were soaring!
   I learned something huge that day: A little light goes a LONG way! We can have just a little bit of God's Light shining on us, and we can go much farther and faster than without Him. God wants us to get more and more of Him, and we get lots of help and support along the way. More Light carries us farther faster!