The Quarterly News Magazine of Torch Trust
OUR AIM: To overcome sight loss as a barrier to finding a personal faith in Christ and to living a fulfilled Christian life.
From:-
TORCH TRUST, Torch House, Torch Way, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HL, U.K.
Telephone: (01858) 438260, Fax: (01858) 438275, email: info@torchtrust.org
Charity Number 1095904.
On Tuesday 29th September Stella Grace Heath, or more simply 'Mum' to the Torch Family, died at age 89 in hospital after a short final illness. We give thanks to God for her. It's 50 years since she and husband Ron responded to God's call and opened themselves to working with blind and partially sighted people.
The call came in the words of Scripture: 'you give them something to eat' - words from the story of the feeding of the 5000. Stella wrote later of their reaction: 'Us Lord? We've nothing to give'. Yet the result of their faithfulness to this call is that not 5000 but tens of thousands have been fed.
Jan Turner is among the many who became Christians through Stella. Shortly after leaving RNC, a school for blind youngsters, Jan came to help Stella with correspondence. Jan recalls, 'I asked her why she prayed before answering a letter. She read the Bible with me - I was so struck by the reality of her faith'.
On Friday 16th October a service of thanksgiving took place in St Mary's Church Pulborough, West Sussex. Revd Paul Welch who led the service commented on her names. Stella: she was a star and now shines in the firmament of heaven. Grace: God's love to us though undeserved, something that she brought to many others.
Bringing a tribute, Gordon Temple, who with his wife Pat visited a month before her death, said: 'What she has created under God's guidance continues strong. Stella was the one and only "Mum" of Torch. Like a child, Torch was born to her, nurtured by her, and has grown to maturity, to independence and lives beyond her.
'For Stella there have been few plaudits – many who achieved a fraction of what she has have received gongs and honours in recognition. It is in the many lives touched, blessed, healed and transformed that Stella's accolade is to be found.'
He recalled when Stella last visited the new Torch House in 2007 she wished she lived nearer so she could help!
Gordon closed his remarks by reading words from Scripture:
Well done, good and faithful servant! ... Come and share your master's happiness! (Matthew 25:21)
[The full text of Gordon Temple's tribute is available from Torch House on request]
There are a wide variety of alternatives to the D-word; one used particularly for Christians is 'called home', gentle words that embrace a profound truth. At the service of thanksgiving for Stella Heath's life, Ray, one of her grandsons, read from John 14. It was an apt reading. These verses assure us that Jesus has gone to make a home for us.
Stella was a homemaker - and her way of building the mission of Torch was to make home. Torch's formative years were played out, not in a rented office, but in the Heath family home. The work took over - the tables, the rooms, the spaces, the family. When it outgrew the Heath home and premises had to be acquired, the solution was not an industrial unit but a larger home, in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, with a new and growing family to fill it - the Torch Family. Soon that was bursting at the seams. The answer? Make another home -3 this time with 40 bedrooms - in the village of Hallaton, Leicestershire.
That sense of home, with its welcome and warm hospitality, its atmosphere of love and safety, is something Torch remains committed to preserve. So many lonely blind and partially sighted visitors to Torch Holiday and Retreat Centre speak of their experience there as like coming home. And even the modern workplace of Torch House in Market Harborough still draws from guests' appreciation of the welcome and peace.
Ron and Stella laid sound foundations that bear well the weight of today. I recommend you read Stella's book, Coping with the Camel, if you haven't already.
As Christians we are all headed homeward. As the old song has it, 'This world is not my home'. But we are 'passing through' with a purpose. Right to her last weeks Stella's passion was to share her faith with others.
Gordon Temple
* * * * * *
In July of this year Stella Heath wrote from The Anchorage care home an account of her involvement with Torch. Her original text has been edited with the help of Eileen Cole, her companion of recent years:
Dear Friends,
My lifetime has been such a long one, and Ron and I started Torch Trust for the Blind. Those first days (1959) were amazing ... My husband and I were able to move from our old house in Reigate in 1962 to a (then) completely new 4-bedroom house in Crawley. In our years there, we met more and more people, blind, partially sighted and able to see, who wanted to know the lovely spiritual way. I was amazed to see the way God was teaching me. Then, somehow, we were guided straight from the Lord, to Hurstpierpoint - 15 bedrooms - with about 20 of us getting to know each other in our daily chores. The library was formed, braille and giant print - and we began to use cassettes. There we were!
By 1974 we had to move to Hallaton - a small village with a large house where we produced much braille, giant print, tapes and print. Such lovely new people came along. There were up to 160 fellowship groups each month in all parts of the British Isles, and beginning to join in spiritually with other countries. Some of the most needy people were Malawian blind friends. Gradually the Lord had led us into such love and joy, as they learned from Him. Well, my dear friends, right up to 1998 I directed, with my Ron, the Torch Trust.
My husband died, and my friend, Eileen Cole came away with me to East Grinstead. I had a lot of loving care and companionship there ... Each June we had about 60 people for a 'Shalom' holiday for 5 days. It was good! But then, in the end of July, 2006, I had a stroke (what a mess that was!)
Now, sadly, I was not able to stay in the home which had been so useful, so I am longing to do more here at The Anchorage. But so many lovely people are working hard, in the Torch headquarters, Market Harborough, regionally in UK, and in many other countries. I have especially loved the work being done in Malawi and Mozambique - what huge promises, what love, deep love, has been growing.
Now, 50 years after the start of Torch in 1959, what a lot of joy has been growing in the Lord. Dear friends, I do feel so deeply about the wonders that God has done - and is still doing. I am so glad that I had a little part in it all.
Much love in our dear Saviour and Friend, from the Torch Trust, and from me.
Stella G Heath (I'm often called by 'Mum' Heath).
Read your way to Christmas, it's non-fattening and lightens your soul! All titles are available in braille, giant print, cassette and DAISY.
Do Nothing Christmas is Coming, an Advent Calendar with a Difference by Stephen Cottrel. £4.99 per copy.
On the way to Bethlehem by Hilary McDowell. £6.00 per copy.
Joy to the World by David Coffey. £5.00 per copy.
It's a Wonderful Life by J John. FREE!
Please call (01858438260) or email (info@torchtrust.org) to order.
... But for 50 days - at least!
50 Steps Forward is our celebratory devotional book, written by 50 different authors, including Stella Heath. At just £5.00 per copy in any media, it is a real gift - for you, for your family and for your friends. Just think how many stockings you could fill!
We apologise for omitting the postage and packing in our last edition of Torch Family News. Of course all accessible formats go Articles for the Blind freepost but print copies have to have postage paid.
Please call (01858438260) or email (info@torchtrust.org) to order.
Gill Walden recently wrote:
Thank you for the excellent service you continue to give to me and all visually impaired people who use the library.
I am continually grateful that I live at a time in history when so much is available to VIPs [visually impaired people], especially in terms of Christian literature etc. I often wonder how blind Christians coped before people like the Heaths and then Torch really got their teeth into trying to find a solution. Every time I start listening to a new book, I thank God for you all, and the work you do.
The latest book you sent me was fantastic and it suited me down to the ground. The writer is a born story-teller, and the reader was brilliant too. She was totally believable and brought the whole thing to life.
Thank-you again. God bless you all.
Start your day with Torch House staff and volunteers. Our daily prayer time focuses on the scripture text on this calendar and you can join with us as we pray. Available in braille and giant print at £2.50 each. Order in packs of 5 or more for the discounted price of £1.70 each.
Faced with the spiritual hunger of blind people, the scriptural quote: 'you give them something to eat' (Matthew 14:16) were the words God gave to Stella Heath. Now 50 years on we are still doing just that and in Malawi the Lunda braille Bible volumes for Zambia are being embossed. This brings to 9 the African languages which have been embossed over 10 years in Malawi. That is certainly a lot of braille as some languages have had 500 copies of each Bible volume embossed. Can you imagine the blessing these braille Bible volumes have been to thousands of people!
Mr K's fingers ran swiftly and competently over the braille! He began again and moved slowly and hesitantly over the embossed dots! For the third time the fingers began to read the letters:
Is this true? It can't be - but it is. It is Lunda braille, the language of my heart. How wonderful!
Can you imagine the delight and emotions of this blind man, who had learnt braille in Bemba and had only ever read the braille Bible in this - a second language?
Mr K was the first man ever to receive and read any Bible volume in Lunda braille.
During the month of August the first Mark's Gospels in Lunda braille, embossed in Malawi, were distributed to blind people at Solwezi in the North Western province of Zambia.
Janet Stafford has recently returned from Malawi and shares here two events, which were 'firsts' that took place during her visit.
Chrisiya was the special speaker at the ladies' day for the women of the churches in the area. They had come to learn about blindness and the ways in which they could support and help blind people.
After sharing some information with the women, they paired up and, with one blind-folded, had gone into the village and walked together explaining what they saw and putting into practice some of the things they had learned.
Chrisiya answered questions about her childhood, her schooling, her 36 years of marriage and the bringing up of her children, who were now teenagers. She shared requests for prayer and sang of her love for Jesus her Saviour.
The ladies were on the edge of their seats as they watched their blind sister. Could it be that her three fingers moving across the dots on the paper were actually telling Chrisiya the story of the book of Ruth? Her reading was so fluent and full of expression. You could have heard a pin drop. When she finished, the place erupted with clapping and praise to God.
What happened next was very moving. The women wanted to show their care and love for Chrisiya and in a spontaneous response a lady got up from her seat and came out and placed on the table the equivalent of a few pence. This was followed by others. Then one lady took her top piece of cloth from her waist and laid it on the table, and then another did likewise. One after another got up and spoke of the challenge they had received and how they wanted to go back to their villages and help the blind people.
Sighted people can't believe that blind people can organise a meeting and do everything themselves. This, however, was proved possible and very successful when the blind brothers and sisters from Ngabu went to the Lower Shire Eastbank district where they had an overnight prayer meeting with the blind people there.
The lorry was loaded with cooking pots, plates, cups, water drum and other utensils. The cooks and the blind people climbed up onto the lorry and the journey began. They sang all the way - so happy to be serving Jesus.
Gradually the blind people arrived and over 100 blind people plus 70 sighted people were present. This was a new thing in this area. It was really so encouraging to hear the testimonies from the blind people thanking God for what he is doing for them.
It was great to see even those people who could not read braille being given audio Bibles. These are playing a wonderful role in the lives of many blind people. There have been a lot who came to know the Lord through hearing the talking Bible.
Time passed all too quickly and the lorries came to take the blind people back to their villages. They left encouraged and challenged by their fellow blind brothers and sisters with the sound of their singing drifting into the distance!
[Rosina Sharp accompanied Stella Heath on her trail-blazing visit to Malawi and Mozambique 20 years ago, and now reflects on that visit ...]
I recall the thing that moved Stella most was the expressed hunger for God's word in braille by those who could read. She felt strongly the Lord was saying, 'you give them something to eat'. This was confirmed when one young man read a verse of Scripture in braille in a local language and said, 'English speaks to my head, this speaks to my heart.'
How thrilled Stella was when we visited Victoria Falls and she stood in the middle of a rainbow. She felt it was a promise that the God of faithfulness would enable Torch to fulfil his will for them in this part of the world.
Norwich: The Norwich Torch Fellowship Group took the opportunity of this 50th year to invite churches and local organisations to a presentation led by the Torch singers to let them know how Torch could help them. Excellent contacts were made. An exhibition and display showed some of the technology that helps people access the Bible and other books. Eric had previously returned a DAISY player because no one had been able to help him use it. Colin (himself blind) was able to show him how to navigate a disc with the machine, and on the strength of that, Eric once again has a DAISY Player and a copy of the DAISY Bible to enjoy!
Swansea: We entered the Waterfront Church in Swansea, with a sense of wonder as we beheld the scene, as though prepared for a wedding breakfast. Round tables were laid with golden table centres and candelabra. The sense of anticipation was tangible. Just over 100 people sat down to celebrate the awesomeness of God's greatness and blessing throughout the 50 years of Torch Trust.
Following lunch, more joined for a service of celebration. Peter Jackson accompanied the singing and also shared his vision for the future of Torch in South Wales. David Palmer brought a message from Torch House while Verena Walder shared some thoughts on our walk with Jesus.
After this we enjoyed a piece of celebration cake, made specially and decorated with the Torch Trust Logo. Our praise and thanks go to the Lord for the way he blessed and inspired the whole day - a truly memorable occasion.
Scottish Thanksgiving: It was evident how special friendship is within the Torch family - the love and laughter just spilled over. The only word to describe the meal that was prepared for everyone was 'sumptuous' with lovely serviettes and an 'after eight' in each saucer.
To see a good proportion of younger blind people present was a great encouragement, along with those long associated with Torch. As always the singing was great and the contributions made to the service were blessed by the Lord!
Southend: Southend welcomed Basildon and the local Disabled Christians Fellowship to a fiftieth year Torch celebration. Mike Townsend was the guest speaker: 'Thanksgiving' was his theme - as the thanksgiving service in Pulborough for Stella Heath had taken place the previous day. Moving memories were shared. 'All I have needed, thy hand hath provided' was a phrase which rang out from that great hymn, 'Great is thy faithfulness'. 87 year old V was touched: 'I have had a good life, but have never thanked God before. Today I want to thank him in a special way for being in my life.' Liverpool: We had a wonderful day at the 50th anniversary celebration at Liverpool. We were so blessed by all the lovely Torch people we met, and the two-course meal prepared on the premises was delicious. On the way home our train was cancelled but God had a reason for it as we found the main speaker for the event, Peter Jackson, on the platform and we had a good chat!
The need is enormous. A report prepared this year for the UK Vision Strategy, an initiative to reduce avoidable blindness and improve support and services for blind and partially sighted people, gives the number of blind and partially sighted people as 1.8 million. The report goes on to project that by 2050 the number will have more than doubled - to almost 4 million!
Each week across the UK 100 people are told they are losing their sight. Sadly the support and rehabilitation services offered to them vary enormously. The UK Vision Strategy sets out an action plan to improve this in each of the nations that comprise the UK.
One of the needs highlighted is the need for emotional support. Torch would wish to broaden that to include spiritual support. When someone loses their sight their whole being is affected. Interestingly, the action plan highlights the vital role of local 'peer support' groups. We call them Torch Fellowship Groups!
So what limits the number of Torch Fellowship Groups? Ultimately, with such an evident need, it can only be the willingness of people to get involved in starting and running Groups. The fields are indeed ripe for harvest and the workers are few.
The isolation that comes with sight loss is surely something to which Christians are uniquely well placed to respond, bringing the warmth of God's love and Christian fellowship to lonely lives.
What does it involve? Making a cake, driving someone, visiting a person at home, playing some music or leading a meeting - small everyday tasks within most people's abilities that take just a few hours each month and bring great encouragement and blessing to a person with sight loss.
Another important role in sustaining the network of Torch Fellowship Groups is that of a Regional Coordinator, a volunteer who supports and encourages the Groups in an area of the UK and helps maintain good links among the Groups and with the national and international work of Torch Trust. There are large areas of the UK for which there is currently no Regional Coordinator. Could you fill a gap? It does involve a bit more time commitment but is hugely rewarding.
If you wish to know more, please contact David Palmer on 01858 438260 or email: DavidP@torchtrust.org
So often we hear accounts of blind people's difficulties with church life. To alert churches to some of the potential problems that blind people face at church Torch has produced a 5-minute DVD that can now be requested from Torch House or viewed via the Foursight website www.torch-foursight.org
Premier Radio is now available nationwide on DAB - not just the London area. So this means, for UK listeners, the Torch 15-minute weekly programme, 'Insight', can now be accessed almost wherever you are in the country!
Tune in at 4pm every Sunday to listen to life experiences, guests, topical comment and much more, all linked to the theme of disability CD's of all the programmes are available each month from Torch Trust.
For Torch Holidays it has been a wonderful summer full of blessing - and with more guests than ever before.
UK readers can find the latest Torch Holiday News inserted with this edition of Torch Family News. The back pages set out the programme of holiday and retreats for 2010. Book up now, either as a guest or to help out - or encourage those who you think would benefit to book. It's especially important that we get early bookings for those at venues other than Torch Holiday and Retreat Centre as we must make commitments to the centres we use. For the Keswick houseparty we need bookings by Christmas.
And there's still space at the Christmas Houseparty starting on 23rd December in the beautiful country house setting of High Leigh in Hertfordshire. Call Ildi at Torch House or email holidays@torchtrust.org.
These past few months have seen a number of providences that help us to understand God's financial provision for Torch.
Earlier in the year our forecast showed that we might need an overdraft of up to £140,000 at the end of October. That led us to use known resources more sparingly and also to put our Bethany residential house up for sale.
With a reduction in our salary costs (in which the staff have generously cooperated), more cost-effective supplies and a rise in donation levels we ended our financial year in September with no debts! And at the end of October the Bethany property sold, Torch having only dipped slightly into overdraft, and this has restored our cash reserves temporarily.
In addition to all this we were blessed with responses to our need for a new dishwasher at the Torch Holiday & Retreat Centre that will meet the cost. Thank you for praying and for giving so generously and sacrificially.
The future, however, continues to be far from certain. Notifications of new legacies, which in recent years have provided about 50% of Torch's income, have fallen sharply; and we cannot say for sure whether the welcome rise in donations was a particular response to our 50th anniversary year or represents a more sustained level to underpin the work of Torch in the future. The welcome rise in standing order giving gives us some indication, but above all we covet your prayers as we move with confidence in our great God into the 51st year of the Torch Trust's faith adventure.
Andrew Nicholson
We welcome Roger Morriss. Roger has been involved with the Truro Torch Fellowship Group all his married life, leading the group for over twenty years. His wife Doreen had already been involved for a couple of years when they married in 1979 and set up home in the Cornish village of Scorrier. Roger had grown up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire and worked in the retail business in London. He joined Rodda's Creamery, Doreen's family's business, later supervising the packing and despatch of this internationally renowned brand of Cornish clotted cream. Roger and Doreen have three children, Rebecca, Louise and Paul.
Roger grew up in a Christian family home and came to faith in Christ at 19, then in a Strict Baptist Church. Today he and Doreen worship at the Independent Evangelical Church in Scorrier where he is a trustee and where the Truro and Redruth Torch Fellowship Group now meets.
Torch depends heavily on people who, sensing God's call, make a sacrificial long-term commitment to the work. Eventually the time comes for them to retire and that brings the opportunity to express our appreciation - and to wish them a long, happy and blessed retirement.
Dennis joined Torch in January 1982. Both he and his wife Jan felt God's call and moved to a house in Hallaton village with their two young children (aged 2 and 6) to work at the then Torch House. It was the hardest winter in recent memory adding to the challenge for the family to settle in this rather isolated location. Over the years Dennis has worked in many capacities, in purchasing, finance and library logistics.
Cecil joined Torch staff in January 2002, but both Cecil and Irenee had been involved in Torch work in Northern Ireland as volunteers for ten years before that. Working together they have filled their time in supporting not just the Fellowship Groups but also in encouraging many blind and partially sighted individuals. The barbeques at their home have become almost legendary - with over 100 at the one in August! Over the years they have developed excellent relationships with local charities working with blind people, linking many blind and partially sighted people with Torch.
Volunteers are playing an increasingly important part in the work at Torch House and Torch HRC. We are seeking someone to join the team at Torch House as Volunteer Coordinator and help us develop further the role of volunteers in Torch work. A heart for people and ability to organise and keep records is required.
For more information contact John Darby at personnel@torchtrust.org or call him on 07747 842192.