Little Daifa holding her first Braille Gospel of Matthew. Photo: UBSCP/Jock
Nov 162010
What does a little blind Christian girl think of Jesus?
This is the burning question preoccupying my mind when told I was going to interview a little girl who is visually challenged.
Xiao Daifa is an eight year old girl and she is born blind. Abandoned by her birth parents, she was found to be badly in need of proper nutrition and love when the “Shanghai Huge Grace Disabled Welfare Centre”, otherwise known as “Guang Ci” (上海广慈残疾儿童福利院) adopted her. She was already 6 years old at that time, joining 4 other blind children also adopted by Guang Ci.
Founded in 1998, Guang Ci, a registered welfare orphanage for children with special needs, provides basic care as well as medical and educational assistance to more than 40 disadvantaged children, abandoned by their own parents.
At Guang Ci, blind children learn by hearing. Bible stories are taught using audio means. “It was Wu laoshi (or teacher) who taught me stories from the Bible. She will also pray for us children in the orphanage and tell us about Jesus,” said a beaming Daifa, when asked about her teachers.
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Beijing city and Hebei province would probably be the two most popular places in China where many Chinese Catholics reside. We visited these two places where some of the 200,000 Bibles and 800,000 New Testaments supported by the United Bible Societies (UBS) and the Taize Community were distributed. These Bibles and New Testaments were published and distributed by the Catholic Church in China nationwide.
We met four ladies (see photo) in Hebei province, reading the Bible donated from UBS and the Taize Community. Three of them now own a Bible for the first time; all received free owing to the generosity of our donors. Not all the ladies can read Chinese. During Mass, the lady in the group who can read will read God’s Word aloud. Now, with their own Bible copies, all the ladies said they could practice reading God’s Word at home with their children or grandchildren.
One of the ladies (first left in photo) who cannot read said she liked listening and learning. When she got the Bible, she began learning the Chinese characters because she wanted to be able to read the Bible on her own soon. To say that she is very happy now that she has her own Bible would be an understatement.
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4 ladies engrossed in the reading of the UBS-Taize Bibles. Photo: UBSCP
(from far left) Father Zhang, Rev Bao and UBSCP Coordinator Kua Wee Seng. Photo:UBSCP
