Profile Magazine Article

Serving God with a Disability

Phillip Aaron was born in 1932 with cerebral palsy.  Cerebral palsy is a birth injury, which limits the motor functions of the individual.  In Phillip Aaron’s case it was the use of his legs.  Born in Athens, Ga. without the ability to walk, Phillip Aaron did something most others wouldn’t: he never let his inability to walk hold him back from life.
Phillip grew up facing great adversity.  Phillip said, “I wondered why I couldn’t go out and play like all the other kids.”  He often sat alone and dwelled on these thoughts and why he was the way he was.  As a result, people thought he was mentally challenged, and his family took him to see a psychologist.  After a few sessions of interviews with Phillip, the doctor concluded that there was nothing wrong with his mind.
From the outset, Phillip Aaron had difficulty going to school due to his handicap.  Phillip said, “I couldn’t go to school because the schools of that time were not properly equipped for handicapped people.”  With no law saying he had to attend school, his parents let him stay at home.
When his father was offered a job at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla. his parents felt that the change in atmosphere would be better for Phillip’s health.  There was also a school there that accommodated him, so at the age of 10 Phillip began attending school.
During his time in Jacksonville, Phillip met a man who was with the Kiwanis, an organization focused on helping children, who helped him get into a hospital to have surgery on his legs.  The surgery consisted of straightening out his legs and feet.  Although his legs were straightened and held in place by braces, he was still unable to walk very well.  While in the hospital he learned to read, and jumped from the first to fourth grade in only 14 months.  At this point, Phillip made a critical decision for his life.
Phillip said, “I told myself that unless the Lord decides differently, I’m going to be this way for the rest of my life.  So I’m going to learn to do the best I can for myself.”
Phillip said he took off his leg braces because “I couldn’t move fast enough, and I needed to move faster if I was going to go to school like everybody else.  That’s when I began to take charge of my handicap.”
Phillip realized that he was going to have to compete with everyone in the world, and not only people who were handicapped.  “I’ve got to learn to get around in a world that’s not handicapped.  So I decided to go to the regular high school,” said Phillip.
He then spent the next few years pushing his limits and making decisions on his own instead of relying on help from others.  There was even a point where his neighbors thought his parents were abusing him by forcing him to go outside or into town.  However, these were all Phillip’s choice, as he wanted to be outside.
Around this time, Phillip decided he wanted to go into Bible ministry.  Phillip graduated from high school when he was 20 and began to preach regularly.  He went to junior college in Jacksonville and then went to Mercer University in Macon Ga., to earn his bachelor’s degree.  His major was in religious education, and he earned a minor in psychology.
He preached his first revival in an African-American church in St. Augustine, Fla. in 1952.  “I had more people outside, looking in the windows, than I had inside.  It was very unusual for a white man to be preaching in a black church,” said Phillip.  From the success of the revival, Phillip was invited to preach at many other churches and eventually was offered a position as pastor at one of them.
After a few years of successful sermons and establishing himself, Phillip approached the Southern Baptist Mission Board and told them he would like to be a missionary.  He was approved and he moved to California.  Not long after, he met his future wife at a revival, and it was not long before a romance developed.  Phillip has been married to his wife, Jeannie, for 43 years.
For the last 20 years, his column “Pastor’s Corner” has been published in The Sanger (Calif.) Herald.  In the past year, he has submitted his column to The Hanford (Calif.) Sentinel as well.  He allows The Hanford Sentinel to publish his article without remuneration.  He has also written a few articles by commission for the Southern Baptist Convention.
In his time preaching the Gospel, Phillip has worked in various media, including radio and television.  For many years he aired a radio show and also gave a closing devotional for both ABC and NBC at the end of their broadcasting day.  He even recorded an album of his preaching and distributed it in migrant camps.
Phillip feels that the biggest message that there is in his life is: “To the parents of the handicapped person and to themselves as well.  There is something you can do, and what you have to do is find out what you can do.  It’s obvious that I am severely handicapped, but I have never thought of myself as being handicapped.  I have never sat down and felt sorry for myself because I was handicapped.”
Phillip’s goal is to publish a book before he dies.  Phillip said, “A book is something that will stay on the shelf, and people will have it as part of my testimony even after I’m gone.  If you’re going to write or preach, say something.  It’s possible to talk all day and not say anything.”
Phillip has always known he would have to work harder than most people.  “I have to be better than most just to keep going.  Anytime you do anything, you have to prove yourself.”  However, he always remains humble.  Phillip relates this when he said, “I need to say, I praise god for my family.  My wife and kids have all participated in the ministry.  We truly had a family ministry, and it still is.”