God has recently brought about a special personal blessing involving my 2023 David Livingstone biography that I’d like to share with you. This is an exceptional blessing for both my mother (who celebrated her 90th birthday in April) and me, but also has the potential to bring great benefit to many other people.
In August of last year, I was highly privileged to publish a comprehensive biography on David Livingstone: Missionary, Explorer, Abolitionist (Christian Focus Publications). I also narrated an unabridged audiobook edition of the lengthy volume, which CFP produced and made available on Audible.com. Wonderful as all that was (and is), I was left with a perplexing challenge of how to make the book accessible to one very important person—my mom, Phyllis, who is legally blind.
Mom has only a small amount of peripheral vision in both her eyes. She can see some shades of light and color but not distinct shapes or details. With the help of magnification from a reading machine, she can, with difficulty, make out a few lines of larger type. But her eyes quickly tire, and soon she’s unable to distinguish individual lines of print.
In past years, before my dad’s heavenly homegoing, whenever I published a book, Dad would read it to Mom one chapter at a time. But Dad went to be with the Lord in 2018, while I was still in the early stages of researching and writing the Livingstone biography.
When given the opportunity to record the narration of the Livingstone audiobook, one of my primary motivations for doing so was believing that there should be a ready way to make the recording available to Mom. Due to my own lack of comprehension as to how audiobooks are accessed these days—on phones or computers rather than on older-form audio players—I didn’t foresee that it wouldn’t be quite so simple as I originally thought. (My dear wife is still trying to get me into the twenty-first century technology-wise! 😊)
Due to my mom’s limited eyesight, she doesn’t operate a computer or complicated audio players that have a number of dials and buttons. I looked into various types of audio players for sight-impaired individuals, on which files of the Livingstone biography could be uploaded. But for one reason or another, it seemed unlikely to me that they would work out well for Mom’s use.
But Mom does have one means of listening to books on tape which she, in fact, uses a lot and has for years. The Washington (State) Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL) has provided her with a machine that plays not one but ten full-length books on a single long-play cartridge. The WTBBL machine is very easy to operate with just a few control buttons.
Early last November I contacted Christian Focus Publications and WTBBL to inquire if they would be willing to make the Livingstone biography available free of charge as a service to the visually impaired. Donnie Morrison of CFP and Traci Timmons of WTBBL both responded affirmatively to my request, and they soon exchanged the needed information to get the process started. (By the way, while Mom lives in Washington State, I reside in Nebraska.)
WTBBL had many other Talking Book projects in its production queue ahead of the Livingstone volume, and the overall process turned out to be more complicated than was originally anticipated. While trying not to be a nag, about once a quarter I emailed Traci to learn how things were progressing. She remained thoroughly positive and supportive of the undertaking throughout the entire process.
Meanwhile I kept periodically lifting this matter up to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to bring the long process to fruition. I knew that if He smiled on the endeavor then it would succeed.
About three weeks ago Traci emailed to let me know the Livingstone book production was nearly complete, and it would soon be available to visually impaired patrons of WTBBL and throughout the entire National Library Service network. She kindly volunteered to mail my mom a long-play cartridge of the book as soon as it became available.
While I had told Mom that I was trying to work out some means by which she could listen to the audiobook, I did not mention my interactions with WTBBL as those were unfolding. I didn’t want to get her hopes up only to have them disappointed. Even after Traci emailed me recently, I still didn’t say anything to Mom, wanting it to be a complete surprise when the Livingstone Talking Book arrived at her home.
Mom phoned last week to share her amazement and delight at having just received the book on tape. When the WTBBL cartridge arrived, she slipped it into her player without noting the title of the book it contained. A moment later she heard the WTBBL credits being read, stating the title, author, publisher and reader of the volume. “I couldn’t believe it!” she told me. More than once she also stated of being able, at last, to listen to the book, “I’m just so happy!”
I join Mom in being filled with joy over this special blessing for both her and me. What a delight, as well, to contemplate that other people with little or no vision will have the opportunity to hear and benefit from this book.
When I emailed to thank Traci for her vital role in helping see this project through, she immediately credited the WTBBL production team for doing the “heavy lifting” in completing it. My sincere thanks go to everyone at WTBBL and CFP who had a part in bringing this about. Most of all, I’m grateful to God for granting this tremendous blessing. May He be greatly glorified as a result.
Copyright 2024 by Vance E. Christie
