2023–2025 LWML Mission Grant #4
Fortifying Faith in Those with Vision Impairment
Lutheran Braille Workers — $100,000
Watch the video about this mission grant!
About This Mission Grant
Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) has the opportunity to reach individuals with visual impairment who live in spiritual darkness with the hope and salvation of Jesus Christ. There are millions of people around the world who are blind or visually impaired. They seek to strengthen their Christian faith while coping with isolation and dealing with physical, mental, and spiritual struggles. They often find it difficult to access Scripture-based reading materials.
This grant will provide LBW the opportunity to produce and add to their library 50 to 100 Scripture-based topical materials in Braille and specialized large print to help meet the spiritual and emotional needs of people who are visually impaired. Because LBW works with every Christian denomination, these materials would be available for outreach and evangelism at no cost to those who are blind or visually impaired regardless of faith or belief.
Mission Grant Resources
featured January 2024
Bulletin Insert (half page insert, 2 per page)
Large Print Resources for Grant #4
Church Worker and professional musician Brooke Pernice reading a devotional in Braille alongside her guitar. Having been Blind since birth, growing up in the church, and having earned her Master's Degree in church music, Brooke knows firsthand the challenges in finding rich, theologically sound, and Scripturally-based Christian resources in Braille and Large Print. Brooke's face reflects her experience of feeling God's love directly in her heart by reading the Scriptures with her fingertips!
More Mission Grant Photos
The Portals of Prayer in Braille, one of the most popular daily devotional periodicals produced by Lutheran Braille Workers in Braille. Daily and monthly devotional materials are among the most requested items from individuals throughout the United States in Braille and Large Print. The opportunity to study God's Word each day was considered "a joy unlike any other in the world" according to one woman who has limited vision and reads Large Print.
Group of volunteers who assembled "Hymns for Advent and Christmas" in Large Print materials and some of the recipients of these materials together! Collections of hymns are extremely popular at senior care facilities as they are often the songs everybody knows. One facility increased their chapel attendance from 10 people a morning to over 60 people simply by bringing in "Favorite Hymns" in Large Print which the men and women were finally able to read in order to sing along.
Volumes of the Large Print Bible designed for prisoners which is often accompanied by a prison-specific Bible Study and the Small Catechism. Prisoners who have limited vision often struggle to gain access to any Christian materials in Large Print and crave the opportunity to learn more about Jesus. Despite significant evidence showing the positive impact of these resources on behavior and recidivism rates, there continues to be a lack of Large Print Christian resources in prison.
Young lady in Mexico who received a complete Spanish Braille Bible alongside her family from Pastor E.B. Holschuh of Zion Lutheran Church in Alamo, Texas. This young lady's family had been searching for years to find a way to bring God's Word into her life but could not afford to purchase a Braille Bible in Spanish, which can cost over $1,000 in the United States. This family was overjoyed that their daughter and sister could grow in her faith alongside of them!
Recipient in Nigeria of a Large Print Bible. This was the first Bible she had ever received that she could read since she did not know Braille and still had limited vision! This lady was so moved and overwhelmed by the gift of a Large Print Bible, she soon after began walking between villages and sharing this news with others. She personally led over two dozen individuals back to this facility so they too could receive the Word of God in a format they could understand!
Recipient Brenda Knowles receiving devotional "Daily Walk with God" at the National Federation of the Blind conference in New Orleans alongside her husband and an LBW volunteer. Brenda was among dozens of individuals who placed orders at several conventions over the summer for materials which supplement the Bible. Brenda was ecstatic at receiving Christian materials for free in a format she can read by herself and feel the emotion of God touching her heart through her fingers!
