Dummy walker

[larry2]

Can God Reach Everyone?

I want to tell the story of a man called Dummy Walker. I heard this from a man that knew a man and is supposed to be true. The man that told it to me knew the original man that was the pastor at this event and trusted his truthfulness about it.

Many years ago before Heller Keller as the miracle worker came around, deaf persons had no sign language, and virtually no way of communicating except grunts, waving their arms for attention, etc. and Dummy certainly fit that category. We don't hear that term used much anymore because deaf people communicate very well and they are able to verbalize now due to new audio techniques allowing them to hear their own voices so they learn to pronounce words.

Well, back to the events that were about to take place that gave me chills when I heard it; have you ever trembled when the Holy Spirit takes hold of you so hard and puts something new into your life that you don't know what to do, and you felt like just getting up and shouting thank You Jesus?

Got to get back to the story or I'll run out of paper before I can finish it. There was a five night revival starting one night in a small Texas town; probably Dallas in its beginning (that's not part of the story and I don't really know if I'm telling it exactly right anyhow.) but on the first night Dummy, his father, mother, and his younger sister attended the meeting. At the end of the sermon, the pastor and the evangelist or whatever gave the call for anyone not saved to come forward and accept Jesus and they would talk to them and tell them what to do.

Well, guess what? Here comes Dummy to the front not able to have heard anything and the pastor was caught off guard not knowing what to do. He sat Dummy back in his seat. The pastor and the evangelist went to the parents the next day and asked what they could do and how would they know if Dummy understood. His father told them that Dummy wasn't stupid, only deaf and he had learned to do chores by imitating them, and the mother said something along the same line. His slightly younger sister had taught Sunday school for five years and said how she tried every way she knew of to tell Dummy about Jesus and never knew if he understood anything.

Second night of the revival and at the end of the meeting the invitation was given again and this time Dummy got up and went past the pastor and evangelist to the front of the altar, lifted his hands heavenward and seemed to grab hold of something and return it to his chest, then he went back to his pew and just sat there; certainly with out comment, he couldn't talk.

Third night through the fifth night Dummy would go to the meeting, and when the invitation was offered, he would look around seeing someone he didn't know, go to them and point his finger toward heaven, then point it to their chest in a repeated tapping of their chest. Pesky guy wasn't he?

Praise God, He can do anything, and He makes the deaf to hear, and He made us the blind to see Him, didn't He? Do not think that those of you who witness to others are not getting through to them, but remember that it is you planting the seed, and maybe a pastor watering, but it is God that gives the increase. Thank you for listening and whatever you do, do all things as unto the Lord in Jesus' name –

[Joe King]

Wow. Awesome! I wish one of the people he did that to, shared testimony.

[ƒσяєяυииєя]

Thanks for sharing Larry,



__________________
Peace, and so forth

[markedward]

Found this on another website. (The sister in this version is three years older, not slightly younger.) The manner in which this is told, in the first half at least, seems a little parable-like, since the three people questioned pretty much say their own story in the same format as the others, as if they practiced.

I have a dear preacher friend, Oby Nelson, pastor of Royse City, Texas. We have been praying partners for many years. He told this story in a Baptist association meeting in Texas. When he was much younger, say, twenty years ago, Brother Nelson and another young preacher, John Skaggs, held a brush arbor meeting in one of the school communities on the Red River near Gainesville, Texas. People came. The Lord was with them. Souls were converted and baptized into the church. One day, after the morning service, a young man told Brother Nelson the Dummy Walker was coming to the mourner's bench that night for salvation. Now, Dummy was the deaf and dumb (born that way) son of a Baptist deacon of that community named Walker. Dummy had not missed a service of the revival, but of course he had not heard a syllable of the proceedings. The two preachers, Nelson and Skaggs, walked over to where Dummy was standing.
"Dummy, do you know what it means to be a Christian? Are you ready to accept Christ as your Savior?"


Dummy opened his mouth, smiled widely, and made that awful, heart-rending sound that a deaf and dumb person makes when he tries to speak. It was clearly seen that Dummy neither understood the others nor could he make himself understood. Not willing to give up too easily, the two preachers placed Dummy in their buggy and drove over to his father's place. The old man was in the yard of his home, working on some harness, when they drove up.


"Mr. Walker, Dummy wants to give his heart to Christ, and we want to be sure he knows what he is doing. Will you try to explain to him the meaning of being saved?"


The farmer man looked out across his fields. His eyes filmed over with unshed tears. "Brother Nelson, and you, Brother Skaggs," he said, "I am fifty-three years old. Dummy is twenty-four. I have been a Christian and a Baptist since I was nine and a deacon for over thirty years. I can make that boy understand almost anything about the work of the farm, but I have never been able to explain Christ to him, and God knows I've tried. Perhaps his mother can; she is in the kitchen."


They walked into the kitchen. "Mother, Dummy wants to be saved. We do not want to stand in his way, but we want to be sure he understands what he is doing. Can you ask him some questions about his soul and his sins, also about the Savior?"


The mother covered her face with her apron and sobbed. After some minutes, her face streaked with tears, she turned to the preachers. "Brethren," she said, "I am forty-eight years old. I have been a Christian since I was eleven and a church-member all this time. I can make my son understand almost anything about the house, but I have found it impossible to explain the plan of salvation to him. Perhaps his sister can make him see it. She is visiting from Sherman. She is in the garden."
The group walked out into the garden. "Sister," spoke Nelson; "Bud here wants to come into the church. We want to know if he understands the step he contemplates. Can you ask him some questions about Jesus Christ for us and make him understand."


"Brother Nelson," said the sister, "I am twenty-seven years old. I have been a Christian and a church member since I was eight. Ever since I was a little girl, I have brought picture cards from Sunday-school for Dummy. I've tried every way I know how to make him know about the Savior, but it just is no use. He doesn't seem to understand. Don't you reckon the Lord will take care of him anyway?"


"I do not know, sister," said the preacher, "but let's ask Him. Let us pray." The six of them got down on their knees in the garden. One by one the five normal ones lifted their voices to God for Dummy's soul. They then separated to their tasks.


That night the brush arbor was packed. The news of Dummy's problem had been broadcast over the countryside. Skaggs led the song service. Oby Nelson preached. When he gave the invitation, the first man to walk down the aisle was Dummy Walker. Nelson bowed his head in his hands and sobbed. The problem was beyond him. Dummy knelt at the mourner's bench. A deathly silence, broken only by muffled sobs, settled on the crowd. After some minutes the preacher felt a tug at his coat. Dummy, face lit up with an unearthly light, stood before him. The boy did not offer his hand as was the custom. Instead, he raised his two hands and made as though he were embracing the skies, then brought them down to his heart. He repeated the gesture, touching the Bible, touched his dusty knees, stretched out his hand to the preacher, and everybody in the crowd knew that Jesus had worked one more miracle and saved the deaf and dumb boy's soul.


Facing that Baptist Association crowd in Navarro County, Texas, Nelson finished his story. "Brethren and sisters," he said, "Dummy Walker won more souls to Christ during the remainder of that revival than any three of us." When the service was over and we all were out in the church yard, eating our association dinner, I questioned Oby further. "Oby, that surely was a great story, but, boy, didn't you put on the rousements at the end?"


"What do you mean, rousements?"


"Well, how could a deaf and dumb person lead souls to Christ?"


"That's all you know, Jew. Put your plate and cup down." I did, on the running-board of a near-by car. Oby did the same. He came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and spoke on.


"After the night of his decision, Dummy would do personal work in that crowd. He'd go up to an unsaved man or boy, put his arm about him, press him a little, point to his heart, point to his own heart, point to the heavens, point down the aisle, and gently compel them to the front."
Nelson and I left our lunches just where they were. We walked over to a barn almost filled with hay, burrowed into it, stretched out on our faces, and held a prayer-meeting. I do not know what Oby said. I was too busy getting right with Jesus about that time. When my friend has finished his prayer, I lifted my heart and voice to God, and this is what I said: "Lord Jesus, it is not in me to be a Paul. It is not in me to be a Wesley. But, oh, make me, oh, do make me a Dummy Walker. Let me use what You have given me for Your glory and the Salvation Of Souls.”

[larry2]

Thanks brother, this has to be the same story.