At Bartimaeus Temple

New Van Will Increase Ministry to Handicapped

By John Rutledge
Baptist Standard Staff Writer

About 25 of the handicapped members of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple in Dallas joined in a celebration service May 22 to dedicate a new van specially equipped for wheelchairs. The purchase was made partly from $7,000 in donations from the members and $22,000 from Dallas Association churches.

With two of the wheelchair-bound members stationed near the door of the van, the other members held hands and prayed that the new vehicle might be as effective as “another vehicle of long ago, Noah’s ark” in bringing handicapped persons to salvation.

Pastor Don Whitmore—himself noticeably affected by a quivering left hand that is a result of encephalitis—pushed one of the wheelchair-bound members up the ramp and into the church while the others followed, accompanied by the clatter of braces and the tapping of canes.

THE CHURCH has ministered to the handicapped, their families and friends, Whitmore said, since 1959, first as a mission of North Dallas Church, then of First Urbandale Church. In 1977 the congregation moved to its present location, a small white frame building in Southeast Dallas, that Berl Cavin of Dallas Association helped them buy.

Although several Dallas churches have Bartimaeus Temple in their budgets, the church is almost self-supporting and consistently gives to the Cooperative Program, as well as to foreign, state and associational missions, Cavin said.

Perhaps the essence of Bartimaeus Temple is in the music. The blind organist blends her chords with those of the pianist, Whitmore’s wife, who is not handicapped. Don Potts, minister of music and youth minister, leads the singing.

Somehow the hymns take on a new meaning.

“Take my feet and let them be, swift and beautiful for Thee.”

Whitmore chooses his text from I Kings, the account of Elijah sitting under the juniper tree in discouragement and despair.

“If your back is turned away from the path God has chosen for you, someday you’ll be sitting under a juniper tree, too," he tells them.

“Take my hands and let them move, at the impulse of thy love.”

Blind Deacon Earl Webster rises to play Amazing Grace on his harmonica during the offertory.

“I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”

AFTER THE SERVICE. Whitmore explains that after he graduated from Howard Payne and Southwestern Seminary with plans to become a missionary, he contracted encephalitis while stationed with the military in Iceland during World War II. That experience damaged motor cells on the right side of the brain, leaving him with little control over the left side of his body.

He was eliminated from consideration for a career in missions, but his eyes were opened to the needs of the handicapped. Later a deacon of a church he served whose son had cerebral palsy suggested he start a church to work with the handicapped. That was the beginning of what became Bartimaeus Temple.

“The church is named for blind Bartimaeus,” Whitmore said. “He was a handicapped person who sought out Jesus. That’s what we want to be.”

He said the most difficult part of ministering to the handicapped is finding out where they are.

WE CAN’T get rosters from companies to find the handicapped, because of privacy reasons,” he said. “You would be amazed how many are just sitting in a room somewhere, trying to isolate themselves, too bashful to get out.”

Getting them to church is another problem.

“Transportation is one of our biggest problems,” he said. “We had a 48-passenger bus, donated by a lady who visited our church one time. But it was too old, too big for our needs, and cost too much to operate.”

The church has been praying for three years for a van like the one that was dedicated. He said when association director Robert McGinnis became aware of their need, he put a notice in the association page of the Baptist Standard, and that started contributions coming in from churches.

“I know God’s in this,” Whitmore said. “That van is one evidence.”

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