January 18, 2025
Mike Thomas, a longtime WEI Internet teacher, is legally blind and uses a white cane and seeing-eye dog when walking outside. Mike says, “I maintain about 40 active students. I could probably do more than that, but instead, I try to recruit new teachers.”
Mike writes, “During my retirement years, I have found a sense of peace and belonging in working with WEI as an Internet missionary.
“From the comforts of my home, I travel every day to such far away places as Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Philippines, Albania, Egypt, Africa, Pakistan, India, and many other places in the world to plant the seeds of salvation in the hearts of our foreign students. To me, it is a fulfilling experience, something I could never do in real life.
“When Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and teach,’ I never realized that the Internet would be my mode of transportation. WEI has changed my life and given me something worthwhile to do.
“I am classified as ‘legally blind.’ The onset of Macular Degeneration has taken away my central vision and made it nearly impossible to read anything. When I first began losing my central vision in 2011, I was still working and driving. By 2015 I had to stop driving. I also cut back on many things, including my work with WEI.
“One day, I realized that my problem was not my level of blindness. My problem was not realizing the potential for better using what I had left. Technology became my best friend. I was introduced to enhanced magnification tools and computer software that could magnify everything on the computer screen and have it read to me. It opened a whole new world to me—a new world of WEI possibilities.
“For those of you living with blindness or low vision and would like help with using technology to help you with WEI, I would be happy to share what I know. Blindness does not define us. It is merely an inconvenience that requires a change of direction.”
Contact Mike at mikethomas46@gmail.com.
If you are interested in a short-term mission experience, contact Tom Langley at tom@worldenglishinstitute.org for more information.
