Kendra Lindsey, who is visually impaired, and her husband Rod were appointed as missionaries to Western Europe earlier this year.Kendra Lindsey is legally blind and unable to drive or leave her house alone. Yet her vision for overseas missions is crystal clear.
This spring, Lindsey, her husband Rod, and their four children will move away from their home in La Marque, Tex., to Western Europe. There, they will help start churches as Southern Baptist missionaries. If being a missionary seems intimidating to most people, consider filling that role without the ability to see.
But 38-year-old Lindsey isn’t looking for sympathy.
“If he wants to move you, God will use us no matter who we are and where we are in life, so long as we are open and faithful in seeking what he wants for us,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey was born with a birth defect that left her blind in her right eye. She also has a condition that has gradually deteriorated the vision in her left eye, leaving her with no peripheral vision. A contact lens gives her minimal vision in that eye, allowing her to read e-mail with a program that enlarges print.
Though Lindsey is legally blind, her warm personality and good eye contact hide her impairment. She’s the typical healthy-looking and vibrant mother of four. Her husband has led music and education at First Baptist Church, La Marque, Tex., for the past 10 years.
As their move to the mission field draws closer, Lindsey looks forward to the challenges ahead.
In Western Europe, mosques are being erected, while churches and unused cathedrals are being torn down or rented. Most people who live there still need to hear and accept the gospel. Despite the tourism and ornate buildings, it’s a spiritually dark place, Lindsey said.
While growing up, Lindsey struggled with her own dark days of resentment and frustration toward her visual impairment. In recent years, however, she has accepted her limitations as a gift – and uses them to share her faith.
“God has used the fact that people come and pick me up and take me places as times to have one-on-one personal conversations,” she said. “Sometimes that has been a ministry to people. – I think being blind really made me more determined. It made me more determined to be the best that I could be in whatever God was wanting me to do.”
There are still many unanswered questions Lindsey will have to entrust to God when she moves with her family to the mission field. She will depend heavily on public transportation and try to find language courses that cater to the visually impaired.
“I may not know or understand all of those logistics of how language study will happen or how my ministry will specifically be,” she said. “But I know that God uses me here … and he will use me wherever he’s called me.”
Lindsey said she hopes her blindness and heart for missions will challenge others with physical disabilities to follow God’s call.
“My attitude is that this is who I am now,” she said. “And he is going to use me because I’m who I am.”