The Gift of Sight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I want to welcome you in to Healing Begins. My
name is Pastor Gael Kroc. I don't know what you're
doing this morning. Maybe you're driving your car, maybe you're
listening to this later by podcast, but I'm so glad
you're on Healing Begins and that you chose to join in.
I know I got feedback not so long ago that
a lot of you like to hear me, and but
occasionally I have guests on the program that I think

(00:29):
will help benefit a lot of listeners, and this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I have a guest named Kristen Galt.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Say Hi, Kristin, Hi, it's good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
So she's written a book called The Gifts of Site
and when I first saw that title, where by the way,
we are both finalists in the.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Kingdom Book Awards. So that's pretty exciting, isn't it, Kristen?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
It is it is.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm actually going to actually get a chance to meet
you when I'm down there in Pittsburgh for the awards.
But she wrote a really great book called Gifts of Site,
and before we get in there get into that, i'd
like her to share a little bit about who she
is and how many kids she has and what she
doubts for a living.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Go ahead, Christian. Hi.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I am from LAPAs, Bolivia. I live here in Oregon
in the United States, and I was a missionary kid.
I moved here to Oregon when I was sixteen years
old and met my husband in college. We are both
in the public school or public education. We're both teachers,

(01:37):
and we both have three We have three kids, two
boys and a girl. Both of our boys are visually impaired,
and so I ended up going back to school to
become a teacher for the visually impaired, which is what
I do. I've been doing for the last sixteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
How did that impact you when you found out that
your children, some of them, were visually impaired. What did
you go through on the inside it?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
It was a shock. They have a specific, specific visual
impairment where their eyes look perfectly normal. They have they
do have this uncontrollable movement that's called nice stagmas, but
other than that they look normal. So my first born Riley,
I just thought he was a very alert child, and

(02:24):
he was. I hadn't been around other babies very often,
and when he was seven months old, seven months old,
our doctor told us he had nice stagmas, but didn't
go into what that meant. And it wasn't until my
youngest was born and Peter. We took him in at
three months and took him to an ophthalmologist, and this
ophthalmologist told us that he was blind, and so it

(02:50):
was a complete shock because he was he was a
very easy baby, and that he did everything he needed
to do physical wise, but he didn't respond to us,
and so we knew something was off, but yeah, we
didn't know exactly what. And it was interesting. A week

(03:11):
or so or a couple of weeks before we took
him in for his appointment, I had been reading my Bible,
and I had been in between Bible plans, and I
ended up opening my Bible to just randomly open to
John chapter nine, the first three verses, and it talks
about the man being born blind and the disciples asking
why was he blind or maybe its a Pharisees asked

(03:33):
him why he was blind, and he said it was
because of the sin of his parents, and Jesus answered no,
it was so the glory of God could shine through him.
And so I remember reading that story and thinking, that's
a really nice story. But it didn't really do anything.
I just thought it was a neat story, and God,
why did you show me this story? And then I
went on with my day, and a couple of days

(03:55):
before the appointment, that story presented itself again, and then
I was just kind of like, this is really interesting.
It's coming again. And then three days after that we
had the diagnosis. And so it was kind of a
God moment where God was just really showing us that
he was in control and that he had already prepared
the way ahead of us. He knew our boys were

(04:16):
both visually impaired to a degree that we didn't know
and at this time. So throughout that summer we were
learning more about Peter. And then Riley started kindergarten and
the first day of kindergarten I went to pick him up.
And he never went to preschool. He was with either
grandparents or us, so he wasn't in a preschool setting.

(04:37):
But we went to pick him up and we stood across.
I stood in the hallway at six feet from the door,
and he came out with all the other little kids,
and we had all the parents flying up, and he
couldn't see me, he couldn't tell where I was and
that was a shock. And so yeah, it was you know,
a lot of grief and then guilt for not realizing

(04:59):
the degree to work through that with my husband as well.
And but yeah, it's been it's been seventeen years now
and God has been shown how faithful he is throughout
the whole road.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Now I think I read in your book, Now correct
me if I'm wrong. Didn't didn't you have someone kind
of say to you, well, I wonder what sin you've committed?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Or did you have someone say something like that to you?

Speaker 3 (05:26):
They did. It was actually maybe two weeks after the diagnosis.
It was at a barbecue and a woman came up
to me informing me that, yeah, me and my husband
had sinned and that was the reason why Peter was blind.
And when she said that, it's I tell people that
story and they get really upset. But with me, what

(05:49):
happened is just it was that recollection of the verses
that you know, God had pointed me to, and it
was just that whole overwhelming sense of God's got me,
God's got my boys, He's in control. This is for
his glory, not that he causes visual impairments or in
any kind of impairments, but he uses any situation we

(06:10):
give him.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, so many times people will look at people like
they lack faith, and that is really a really tough guilt.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Trip to put on somebody.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
I don't agree with it at all. I look at
the man at the gate, beautiful. He was begging right,
And Peter and John come walking by the hour of
prayer and he was asking for money and they looked
at him, and they had walked by him before. Nobody
understands this, Peter and John, this was this begger's regular
place to sit. But this time was different because when

(06:43):
they looked at him, they said, silver and gold we
do not have. But what we do have in the
name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Now.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
The guy he didn't have faith to be healed. He
wasn't looking for healing, he was begging. And so there
are other cases the Bible too, where when Jesus healed
someone it wasn't their sin. It's kind of like that
Bible story you brought up. It wasn't their sin that
caused this.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
But so often people say, well, you must have sinned
somewhere in your life because of what you're going through. Well,
look at.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Job look what he went through, and that's what the
three accusers are trying to tell Job. Well, you must
have sinned, Job, and so you know the way you
handled that. As I read your book, I thought, wow,
I've heard that before. That that is it's a real challenge.
When you hear something it hurts, right mm hmm yeah,

(07:38):
yeahs words like that hurt. So to go through this
whole experience. What inspired you to write the book The
Gift the Sight?

Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's a great question. It's I think ever since I
was a little girl, I've always been one who has
noticed those who are left out or those who have
been forgotten, and it's been my heart to reach out
even you know, finding those kids who are by themselves
and wanting to go and hang out with them, be
their friend, include them. And I think this all plays

(08:14):
into the gifts of sight because as I became a
teacher for the visually impaired, there is there's a diagnosis
called cortical or three real visual impairment, and it's now
it's the most common cause for visual impairment in the world,
just because of all the technology, all the medical technology advances,

(08:35):
and but it's it's the least understood, and often these kids,
these children that have this visual impairment, are the most overlooked,
and so I was drawn to them. And I learned
about it in grad school and it was just we
were given a book and a lecture. There was never
a full course at that time. This was maybe twenty

(08:56):
years ago, and I was wondering because it's the one
visual impairment that if you have intervention, if you provide
the correct intervention, you could actually create new neural pathways
and create vision. And so I was like, why aren't
we spending more time with these kids? But a lot
of them are nonverbal and so they're just kind of

(09:19):
it's just there's not as much attention given to them
as there might be to other students. And so I
actually went back and took every single course I could
find on it. And this became my passion to help
these these particular group of kids be seen and be understood.
And so and through that, I through learning about just

(09:42):
visual this particular type of visual impairment in all the
different characteristics that go with it, God just really spoke
to me about the correlations between our relationship with God
as well. And so for a long time I just
felt this like a volcano, like I had so much
to share, but I didn't know how to share. And
then in twenty twenty three I had somebody tell me

(10:04):
you should write a book and talk about this because
I feel like there's healing in what you're doing in
a spiritual sense as well.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
So you made your misery into your ministry basically, that's
what I like to say. Yeah, your misery and your ministry.
And when I think about site now at Spiritual Care
here in Hastings were prophetic. So when someone comes in
the door, we don't look at them for who they

(10:31):
are today. We look at them for who Got created
them to be. And so whether we understand it or not,
if you see somebody with a visual impairment or any
any disability, that doesn't define who they are.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
God defines who they are. And I think you spoke
about that a little bit in the book, right, yeah, yeah,
So tell me or share of us.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
What were some of the keys that got you through
through this? Like, what would you say were some of
the keys some of the things your mom you realize
you've got kids that are visually impaired.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
What were some of the.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Keys of getting through this? There must have been some
days of stress and anxiety.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yes, yeah, there was. I mean it was definitely because
these particular groups of students had often been ignored and
they had no voice, no communication for how to or
ability to even have a voice in their own life,
and they weren't being seen. And so working with communicating

(11:37):
with them that took a lot of time and patience
on my tart on my part, learning to just spending
time with them, seeing how their body moved and attributing
meaning to it, finding out what they liked, what they
didn't like, giving them choices. It all took a long time.
And then once there was able to be meaning, once
I could, once they understood that they were being seen
by me, their whole demeanor change and I would walk

(11:58):
into the room and they would they would smile, they would,
you know. And then being able to show the staff
them being able to see this transformation, and then teaching
them how to be able to communicate and working with
the speech and language pathologists and it's a team thing,
but it was it kind of took me being able

(12:19):
to start that and show value to these kids.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
So what do you hope people get from your book? Now?

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Your book is your passion, because it's really the message
in your book and the method that you use has
turned out to be your life's work. Okay, honestly, that's
what it is. You're actually working in an area that
God had destined you to work in before the foundations
of the world.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Don't even think about that for a minute.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
It says it sounds one hundred and thirty nine, verse sixteen.
All the days written for you were written in his
book before one of them came to be. So before
you were born, God took out a book. He wrote
down the full number of your days. He wrote down
the names of your children, he wrote down the name
of your he he wrote down everybody everything about you,

(13:06):
and he put it away. So now what you're walking
out is what Heaven has already written, and it's book
about you. And that's same for those that are listening.
If you're listening today, there's a book about you. There's
a book about what you could be and what you
could do if you trusted the Lord. And so what
is it that you're hoping people walk away with as

(13:27):
they read the book The Gift of Sight?

Speaker 3 (13:31):
I think my main message it's to see and to
be seen and just how with the Lord each of
us we're all in some ways our own ways. We
can tend to be visually impaired where we have heard lies.
I mean, you've listened, paid attention to those lies, and
it's not truth. And so it's you know, our vision

(13:52):
how we see God might get a little bit blurry.
And I feel like part of what I do is
carry the beyond working with my own students just be
to be able to see things in their own environments
and interact. Is how to help others see who they
are in Christ and see who Christ is and see

(14:13):
others through Christ's eyes as well. So it's just it's, yeah,
those who are feeling overlooked, who are feeling forgotten, those
who feel let down by life showing those who feel
not loved, Yeah, those who not don't feel like how.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Many times are those students you're working with, those young
people with visual pyramids, Maybe they feel loved or or
discarded or even damaged because they cannot see.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
And then I love it.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
There's a part in the books as a need for light.
Light is so important. We don't understand that we'll see
pretty well, you know, So the.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Need to be loved is.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
So that is such a big topic right there, and
it se.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
So I see that in your work you're pouring God's.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Love into them by showing them acceptance of showing them
that you see them.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yes, yeah, yeah, that they're valued.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Have you ever felt that way yourself, Christian, that you
didn't feel valued?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, this part of you know, it goes into my
own story. I know, I had a rough middle school
and high school years where I was I was kind
of I was bullied a lot. I was the only
white kid in my class in Bolivia. My parents, we

(15:38):
were we actually it was just an interesting way to
grow up because I went to a school, a private
school that was one of the most prestigious schools in
the country because it was the only one that taught
in English, and my parents didn't want to send us
off to boarding school, and so I went to school
with these kids who were from really, really wealthy families,
and we were we weren't hurting, but we were not

(16:02):
We were not very wealthy, and so in my family
worked with you know, the lower the lower class, you
could say, and so it was kind of I was
feel like I was a little bit caught between two
worlds and whenever I was at school, I just felt
it was, Yeah, I was like one of the only

(16:22):
white people, and I just felt there was a lot
of hateful feelings towards me. Politically, there was just some
issues going on with with yeah, the countries, and I
was I was kind of the brunt of a lot
of feelings, and so I was a lot alone by
myself a lot during those times. Then my outside of
my church group, I was very well loved and accepted,

(16:45):
and that was Those are my positive feelings. But then
when I moved to the United States when I was sixteen,
the culture shock and trying to fit into the United
States was very difficult.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
And that is a difficult thing. I know, because when
I go to Costa Rica and Honduras, we work in
the really tough to the really poor areas, and we
will pour our life into there.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Sometimes two weeks we're living right in that area.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Just I find adjusting to them is easier as coming home,
and it's hard.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
All of a sudden, I realize, Wow, what a difference
I have experienced.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
I have experienced going from the depths to well, you know,
they look at us a rich and I was in
Sin Salvador last November, and I met some missionaries from
Bolivia that were working in the area of human trafficking.
So when you said Bolivia, I was meeting some missionaries
from that area. So you know, there's maybe someone listening

(17:41):
out there today, maybe they struggle with their site, or
maybe there's people listening to you in the radio that
are blind, maybe.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
They can't see.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
And I know we serve a God of miracles, and
yet God helps us to get through the trials, Paul
said in Corinthians. These light and momentary inflictions are working
for us an eternal weight of glory. The fires outweighs
them all. So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but what is on sceen. For what is

(18:09):
seen is temporary, and what is on seen is eternal.
So although when you're going through a trial it can
seem like it's eternal, it could seem like it's going
to really last forever.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Right, yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
So we have a few minutes left. Why don't you
and I pro I don't know, have you lift up?
We got about four or five minutes left. First of all,
tell them how they can get your book, Kristen.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, it is. It is available on Amazon print copy
or through Kindle. I'm working on getting an audio copy
done in this next month or so. Yeah, and you
can also go to I have a website kristin Galt
dot com where my books are there as well, so.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
They can purchase them right off your website too.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
I think it takes it. Takes it too. You can
click the link and it takes you to Amazon.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Right takes your right to the Amazon one type of
mine too. Yeah. So being very well in really good investment.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Maybe you're a family member that has a child that
is dealing with site issues, This would be a really
good book for you to read and or if it's
an audiobook eventually or listen to it be very good.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
So, Kristen, why don't you.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Just lift up a prayer for those that are listening today,
those that are struggling with maybe not just the site,
maybe there's other handicaps they are dealing with, or other
disabilities are dealing with.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Yeah, I would love to do that. Thank you, Dear Jesus,
Thank you so much for this opportunity to share, to
share your love and the hope that you bring, And
thank you for all the listeners who are on here
right now, and Lord, I just you know every single person,
You know their story, you know their history, their past,

(19:57):
their present, their future, and I just praise you for that.
And I pray that those listening will just feel your love,
feel your presence and this feel that how would you say,
the sense of just value and the love that you
have for each and everyone, and for them to even

(20:18):
experience today God moments where they can sense your touch
and that your personal personal attention to them, that you
your thoughts about each and every person are more than
the sands of the sea, more than sands of the
shore and the stars in the sky. And just yeah,
praying for your presence for just if there's disabilities out there,

(20:41):
if there's just even visual difficulties with being able to
see you, clearly Lord, that you will be able to
work through all of these in touch hearts out there
and for faith to increase. Amen.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Amen, as you are praying, I got out my IM card.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
We use here a spiritual care I would like to
say some of these out loud for the listeners, because
this is who God created you to be, this is
how He feels about you. I am God's child, I
am beautifully created on the inside and out.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
I am Christ's friend.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
I am accepted, I am clothed in his righteousness. I
am sound minded. I am an overcomer. I am forgiven.
I am seated with Christ and heavenly realms. I am
complete in Christ. I am peaceful. I am free from
all fear. I am holy spirit controlled. I am healed

(21:36):
by the strife of Jesus. I am God's workmanship created
for good works. I am confident to come before God
in prayer. I'm able to do everything through Jesus Christ.
And my favorite I am statement of all is I
am a treasure.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
The reason that's my favorite.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
It says in Corinthians we have this treasure and jars
of clay. Treasure in the original language is the secret
purposes and plans for your.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Life before you were born.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
And so whether people understand it or not, everybody is
a treasure. Everybody has a treasure inside the heart. When
you help people understand what their treasure is, then they
get hope and they get purpose and they can begin
to do things.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
They never thought they could do.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
So I'm going to say a prayer and we're going
to close out this session together. Father, I thank you
in the name of Jesus for those that are listening today,
that they would know they are loved, that you see them,
and that they're valuable. Lord, I pray that you would
cause your presence to be with them. Touch each and
every listener in the name of Jesus.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Amen, and I want to say I'd like to hear
from you who are listening.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
My email is share at Healing Begins radio dot com.
That share at Healing Begins Radio dot com and Kristen
any last stalks before we sign off.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
This is just it's been a pleasure to be here.
And yeah, thank you, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Made the Lord bless you made the Lord, keep you
made the Lord causes face to shine upon you. May
he be gracious to you and may you have peace,
and may you always know that you are loved and
you are valuable.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
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Speaker 1 (24:06):
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Speaker 2 (24:21):
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Speaker 1 (24:27):
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(24:49):
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Speaker 2 (24:56):
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