At about the time of the Great Depression, a woman attempted to deal with her unwanted pregnancy by what has been called a “back alley” abortion. She botched the attempt, and somewhere in New York City a baby girl, named Beverly, was born, the only child of a blind mother and blind father. The mother would succeed in her next abortion attempt, ending her pregnancy of what would have been a baby brother or sister to the sighted child of blind parents.
Bev’s mother was an accomplished pianist, at the level of a “concert pianist,” and her father was a skilled musician who played in a band, so their blindness was not such that they were unable to rear a child; the mother just did not want to. Nine months after the birth, the couple divorced, and her father took Bev to Indianapolis to live with an aunt and uncle. Bev’s father, who had remarried, returned to Indianapolis when she was four, and he and his new wife, also blind, cared for her until she graduated from Arsenal Tech High School. At the age of 17, Beverly met and married the man with whom she would bear four children—three girls and a boy. Her husband was a “functioning alcoholic.” After years of abuse and unfaithfulness, Bev was advised to seek a divorce. She did not know the Lord. At that time in her life, she was fighting life’s struggles with little to no help.
Custody of Bev’s children was awarded to her alcoholic husband in what appeared to be a legal “set-up,” in which all she was asked to do was sign her name on the dotted line. Leaving the courtroom that day, she was without a house, without custody of any child, and without a car. Because she had lost three days work at her east-side place of employment—spent in preparation for her appearance before the judge—she was also without a job.
She was lost and alone. Having attended a church occasionally, she had been “baptized” by a cult that taught that baptism had saved her. But she knew nothing of the Lord, nor of His saving grace.
At this low ebb in her life Bev picked up a Bible and began to read it, but she did not understand what she was reading. On one of these sessions, throwing herself upon her bed, she cried out to God:
“Lord, take over my life.”
He did!
In grace, God brought into Bev’s life, in time, Harvey B, a strong believer from Alabama whom she married and with whom she attended a church where the Word of God was proclaimed. It was at this church that a faithful Sunday School teacher, teaching from John’s gospel, chapter 3, carefully explained the meaning of the new birth. For the first time, Bev understood what had happened to her when God answered her plea to “take control of my life.”
Bev and Harvey moved back to Indianapolis and eventually found themselves under the Bible preaching ministry of Pastor Fred Moritz—who, upon her confession of faith in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, baptized Bev scripturally. In 1972, she became a member of Thompson Road Baptist Church. When Bro. Moritz resigned seven years later to enter full-time evangelism and I followed him at TRBC as senior pastor, Beverly was serving Christ, alongside her devoted husband, Harvey (leader of the “Amen Corner”).
So, for the next 40 years, I was granted the privilege of being Bev’s pastor. Harvey was called home to glory in 1984, and eventually Bev would marry a third time, exchanging vows with a dear friend of mine and long-time song leader at TRBC, Lonial Wire. The two would serve Christ faithfully until God promoted Lonial to heaven in 2010. Bev continues to serve her Savior devotedly week after week.
It would be a lengthy list were I to enumerate all the many ways in which she has ministered to others. Just a few would include: visitation, summer camp trips with the deaf to the Bill Rice Ranch, teacher, sign-language interpreter, choir member, bookkeeper, special music contributor, and on and on. It really would be simpler to list the ministry that Bev was never known to do: the nursery!
Because of the fractured home resulting from the court’s removing her four children from her custody, Bev’s son and daughters were, for all practical purposes, brought up by a stepmother; and their exposure to church ministry and to anything spiritual was (as with Bev for many years) a blank page. One summer, for instance, they attended the People’s Temple for Vacation Bible School. That was the church founded by and pastored by the cultist, Jim Jones, who eventually moved his church from Indy to California, then finally to Guyana, where he would mandate the mass suicide of 900-plus followers after his henchmen had murdered California Congressman Leo Ryan and a group that had traveled to Guyana to check this maverick so-called church leader out. Eventually, Bev would be able to re-establish relationships with her offspring, and she has tried to lead them and love them to Christ.
So, by the grace of God, this unwanted, almost cast-away baby, born to blind parents and reared by a step-mother who showered little if any love Bev’s way, was a trophy of grace to His glory all the while in the making. For the past almost six years, though I am not now her pastor, Ellen and I have still joyfully served alongside this godly woman at the same church in which she has served now for 53 years—and counting.
Bev Wire is now 92 and still seldom if ever misses an assembling together of God’s people. She is a bright light for her Lord, causing many to glorify Him for her good works.
Her life story serves as a reminder that regardless of how dark and dismal the days of your past have been, unloved and unwanted by even your father and mother, you can have hope and a reason for living. Just do as Bev did: find a place you can cast yourself upon His mercies and cry out, “Lord, take over my life.” It is no secret what God can do; what He’s done for Bev, He’ll do for you!
“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” (Ps. 27:10)
YOU and GOD 