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From The Pastor

July 19, 2019 by Rev. John Hartman

From the Pastor

When a twenty-year-old Anne Sullivan arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to tutor a blind and deaf seven-year-old Helen Keller, she was signing on for a big challenge that changed her life. At the time, Helen Keller could only make guttural animal sounds and would fall into destructive rages. Anne Sullivan tried and tried to break into the consciousness of little Helen’s world. Finally, on April 5, 1887, a day Helen Keller would recall sixty years later, as she was holding a mug under a spout. Anne was pumping water into it, and in her other hand Anne was spelling over and over “w-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r,” when suddenly, Helen understood. She later said, “Spark after spark of meaning flew from hand to hand and miraculously, affection was born.”

Anne Sullivan surrendered her life to further the genius of Helen Keller. Before long, a blind and deaf ten-year-old Helen Keller was writing to world leaders in French. She mastered five languages and far surpassed her teacher in fame and intellect, all because Anne Sullivan was sitting beside her there at Radcliffe, spelling each lecture in her hand. Anne made Helen the queen of her world. Let me ask you, What are you willing to let go of for a friend, to make them queen, to make them king? That's true friendship. That is as real as it gets. Healthy friendships are loyal, they launch, they let go, and most important of all, they are grounded in the Lord. This Sunday, we are going to be talking about the incredible friendship of David and Jonathan from I Samuel. Please join us for worship at 10:00 A.M. as I continue my summer sermon series on the life and times of David.

Pastor John

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Quote of the Week

“Christian friendship happens when the Jesus in me sees the Jesus in you.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.