Have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever wondered, even in what you try to do for God, whether it is doing any good? I remember a story about a little girl nicknamed Annie who in 1876 was ten years of age. Her actual name was Joanna Sullivan. She was put into a poor house for children...called the Tewkesbury Alms House in Massachusetts. Her mother had died and her father had deserted her. Her aunt and uncle found her too difficult to handle. She had a bad disposition, a violent temper...stemming in part from eyes that were partially blind due to the disease Trachoma, which left her without reading or writing skills. She had been put in the poorhouse because no one wanted her. She was such a wild one that at times she had to be tied down.
But there was another child named Maggie who cared for Annie. Maggie talked to her, fed her, even though Annie would throw her food on the floor, cursing and rebelling with every ounce of her being. But Maggie was a Christian and out of her convictions she was determined to love this dirty, unkempt, spiteful, unloving little girl. It wasn't easy, but Maggie also had been abandoned, so she understood Annie's pain. Slowly, Maggie, got through to Annie that she was not the only one was suffering. And gradually Annie began to respond.
Maggie told her about a school for the blind and Annie began to beg to be sent there, and finally, consent was given and she went to the Perkins Institute. After a series of operations her sight was partially restored. She was able to finish her schooling and graduate at age twenty. Having been blind so long she told the director of Perkins that she wanted to work with blind and difficult children. They found a little girl seven years old in Alabama who was blind and deaf from the age of two. So, Annie Sullivan went to Tuscumbia, Alabama to unlock the door of Helen Keller's dark prison and to set her free.
One human being, in the name of Christ, helping another human being! That's how God's kingdom comes, through small acts of kindness!
Note: We were not able to verify the friend Maggie's part of this story. The rest is pretty accurate. The Tewkesbury Alms House was investigated for reports of cruelty to inmates including sexually perverted practices, during the time that Annie Sullivan was there as a child.