Be Inspired by 14-Year-old Blind & Autistic Singer Christopher Duffley's Testimony

Christopher Duffley is the embodiment of God's healing grace.  For Christopher to release his new CD Believer is even a bigger miracle.  The fourteen-year-old singer, who is blind and has autism, not only has a new album, but he has been featured on the ABC television network special, The Year: 2015 and is also featured in this month's issue of Sports Illustrated Kids magazine. 

Christopher entered this world with only a 50 percent chance of survival. Born prematurely at 26 weeks, Christopher weighed just 1 lb., 12 oz. and tested positive for cocaine. Miraculously, he survived, but an eye condition, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a disease that affects the eyes of many premature babies, rendered him totally blind by the time he was 6 months old. Due to his birth parents' inability to care for him because of their drug dependency, Christopher was discharged from the hospital into foster care.

But Christopher's struggles were not the end of the story. When his biological aunt and her husband, Christine and Stephen Duffley, learned that Christopher was in foster care, they sought him out. Once they located the child, they brought him home to New Hampshire to be part of their family. By the time he reached 5 years old, Duffley had been diagnosed with autism. Although he had rarely conversed until he reached the first grade, Duffley's adopted mother, Christine, had noticed his ability to make rhythmic noises and keep beat, and he had begun to pick out songs on the piano by age 3. Because of this natural affinity, music therapy was a logical choice to help Christopher Duffley learn to communicate, which Christine Duffley says he did more often by singing than talking. And, when he sang, it was in perfect pitch. 

Duffley's story as a popular entertainer began when a video of the then 10-year-old Duffley singing "Open The Eyes of My Heart" at the Capitol Center for the Performing Arts in New Hampshire went viral, garnering more than 8.7 million views on YouTube. News of his remarkable talent spread like wildfire, culminating in Duffley singing the national anthem for the Boston Red Sox baseball team at Fenway Park. Demand for Duffley to release a CD swelled, propelling the young YouTube sensation Christopher Duffley's new CD, Believer, released on August 16, 2015. singer and his family to travel to Nashville to work with Dove Award-winning producer, songwriter and  arranger Steven V. Taylor (Michael W. Smith, Natalie Grant, Kirk Franklin).  The result was an 11-song compilation of inspirational, patriotic and sacred songs, titled Eyes Of My Heart, that reaches deep into listeners' hearts and encourages them to see with new eyes. Duffley's followup project, Believer, released Saturday, August 15, 2015. 

"Although the circumstances have been difficult and we have had challenges, we have found much joy and so many more blessings," says Christine Duffley. "Family life is imperfect and messy, and it has been a journey of love, forgiveness and abandonment. Through it all, however, we are grateful that Christopher's biological parents chose life and, now, God is using this life to touch the world for Christ." For more information about Duffley and Believer, visit christopherduffley.com, like on Facebook (facebook.com/ChristopherDuffley) or follow on Twitter (@ChrisDuffley ). 

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