Christian Record Celebrates 120 Years of Service

Story by Patricia Maxwell

This year Christian Record Services, Inc., (CRS) celebrates 120 years of ministry to the blind. “With the Lord’s guidance, it is the members, donors, volunteers and employees who have made Christian Record impactful all of these years,” says Diane Thurber, president. “To all of you, we say a hearty ‘thank you.’ And we invite those who are just now learning about who we are and what we do to join our community.”

At the very beginning, Christian Record was the name of CRS’ Braille magazine. It was the only Christian-focused Braille magazine published in 1899. The name carried over to the nonprofit organization that now also provides many services for people who are blind, along with its magazines. Christian Record is still published today.

Christian Record led the way for many other innovations and services that together inspire and transform lives. It was the first organization to offer a blind camp, beginning in the 1960s. The 10 camps give individuals who are blind an opportunity to be themselves and freely create and engage with the community.

Members such as Jordy Barnhart, a member of Pennsylvania Conference’s Waynesboro church, are still benefitting. Barnhart began attending blind camp in his teens before attending a Seventh-day Adventist church, and says the friendships he established there, as well as the Braille resources, have helped strengthen his faith journey.

Other provided resources include solar-powered talking Bibles and Adult Sabbath School lessons.

NEW WAYS TO SERVE

Decades after its founding, the organization was the first to pioneer a new kind of book in Braille that includes images, print and an audio CD for the entire family to enjoy.

Christian Record is still continually looking for the best way to serve its members. In 2017 it launched an online library of nearly 2,000 titles. Members may request many of these titles in formats specifically for them, including refreshable Braille, large print, audio streaming, downloading and on National Library Service’s digital cartridges. Through the online library, they may request Bibles, the new Discover Bible Study Guides in Braille and large print through CRS’ Bible School, select other books they wish to read and/or listen to and much more.

Catherine Thomas, a recently baptized member of Chesapeake Conference’s Baltimore-White Marsh church in Baltimore, is one of the many people to recently benefit from these services. Thomas learned about the church through a member who invited her to an evangelistic series. Church members soon requested CRS’s large print Discover lessons to help Thomas study further. When she got baptized, she smiled and said, “76 years of sin washed away!”

Since the 1980s, CRS (crsb.org) has also awarded college scholarships to students who are blind who demonstrate academic promise. The program was initially endowed by a former employee and continues to grow through gifts by people interested in the program. In 2018 staff awarded eight scholarships.

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