Longer Testimony
Joseph Stephen
15 February 2012
Updated 2 February 2018
I was born two months premature, my mother almost dying during her three day labour. 47 years ago, this was a big deal. Even before I was born, due to my mother’s circumstances, the doctors had advised an abortion. My mother chose to go against this advice. I was diagnosed with brain damage at birth and the doctors told my mother I’d be a vegetable all my life. At 18 months they then discovered that I was also blind. My mother never gave up hope and amidst a violent and unstable home life she persevered in teaching me basic skills that my other three siblings took for granted. Little by little her perseverance paid off and the baby which the doctors had tried to persuade her to abort, learned to eat, sit, stand, walk and run.
At 7 I went to a crusade where I heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus and came under His Lordship (though it wasn’t for another 8 years until God really arrested my heart).
My school years were very lonely. I transferred to a private Christian school at 12 after first attending a school for vision impaired children. At the private school, no-one really knew how to handle my disability and so I was either left alone or made a spectacle of. In hindsight these lonely years were good character training.
By the time I was in my mid-teens, the 1 or 2 percent sight I had had diminished to 0. Amazingly, my brain still recreates what my eyes think they see and it is only when I go to touch the imagined scenery that I know I actually can’t see at all.
Right from young I knew that I wanted to glorify God with my life and though coming from a broken and disfunctional home, God always brought godly people into my life at just the perfect times.
When I was about 15, I was convicted through the testimony of another student at school that Christianity was more than a set of mental beliefs and it was then that the Lord convicted me to live for him wholeheartedly. While this meant unquestioning obedience to His word, it also meant discovering my strengths and using my life for his glory. At 16 I rode a tandem bike from Adelaide to Canberra to raise funds for the Bible society, right at the time my mother and step-father divorced. I remember arriving in Canberra and everyone else calling their family to tell them of their achievement but feeling the deep sense of loneliness that I had no one to tel. In my later teens I enjoyed playing the drums and singing, and was part of a Christian band that visited churches where we gave our testimonies and performed.
Though my parents (having divorced) never encouraged me in my studies, I knew that God wanted me to do my utmost best at whatever my hand found to do (Prov 9:10). I was the first totally blind student in the state of South Australia to study mathematics, physics and science at matriculation level and to this day, the first in the state to complete a degree in computer science. During my degree I received a grant to purchase equipment to aid me in my studies with the goal of helping me to help others with disabilities. I finished my degree in the top 15% of students, earning me the Golden Key Honours Society award.
Toward the end of my degree I met my wonderful wife, Mary Florence. I now have nine living children (plus 1 with the Lord). In the providence of the Lord I now write software, JAWS for Windows, used by hundreds of thousands of blind people all around the world to enable them to use a computer, (fulfilling the goal of my grant).
In spite of what the doctors diagnosed and predicted, God had other plans. I have lived an extremely fulfilled life, raising children, making them wooden toys, helping educate them, writing books, becoming a software engineer, studying electronics and acquiring an Advanced Amateur Radio licence. I even ran as a senate candidate in the 2010 and 2016 federal elections for the Christian Democratic Party founded by the Hon Fred Nile.
My mother said that out of all the people she knows, I had the most reason to be bitter and the most reason to be a failure. My life has indeed been very challenging and continues to be challenging as I learn to raise a family without sight. All I can do is thank god for what He has done in my life. I have learned firstly that God’s grace is sufficient for me. In my weakness, His strength is made perfect (2 Cor 12:9). I have also learned that we must be content no matter our lot in life (1 Tim 6:6-8, Heb 13:5). Finally, we must apply ourselves. God will not do for us what we ourselves are commanded to do (John 11:44), He only does what we can’t do. We must make the most of every gift and use it for His glory and for the benefit of others. There is no room for selfishness in the Kingdom of God (Mt 25:26-29, Rev 4:11).
My heart now is to proclaim the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see multigenerational faithfulness at a time when many children from Christian families are leaving the faith due to our secular education system. Our family ministry, Faithful Generations was started because of this conviction. My wife and I have written six books between us and spend our time in the work of the Lord, from educating and discipling our children, to writing books, to writing letters to politicians or the media, making short videos, to speaking at conferences. Our heart is to see our progeny love and serve the Lord and to reclaim what is fast being swallowed up by humanism, to re-tell God’s hand in history, and to make history for his glory.
My favorite verse and our family motto comes from Joshua 22:5: … take diligent heed … to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.