Coffeegirl's Community

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: Picture Praise, 6/01/10

This is a small part of how God is healing the sick and how the gospel is being told in a RAC.

As a nurse, I go up to small mountain villages giving disabled children and adults physical therapy. I teach them and their families to do what they can rather than what they can’t do, to help with their daily activities. Together, we find tools and equipment in their local area. My daily thoughts go something like this:

How can I best help this mother and her child who has Cerebral Palsy? I could give him a wheelchair, but there is no room to put it on the side of a mountain. If we make a ramp for it, where would we get the cement? Can the house be remodeled for wheelchair access? Maybe not, I am told that if we take out the large beam in the doorway, the whole house would fall down. The child is getting heavier as he gets older, the mother is cheerfully willing to carry him on her back, but agrees that he needs something.

I pray for new ideas, and try to involve the family in any decision-making. At times, we have brought in used baby car seats from Canada, and have made some specialized seats from local bamboo. I show the parents and the caregiver who I am training, how to give the new exercises, draw pictures for them to follow, and have them show me back that they understand them. This is often done in three languages with two interpreters. They are so happy to have the help. We sit on low stools and have a prayer of thanks to the Lord. They know He loves them and are so grateful.

They usually want to prepare a meal for us before we go back down the mountain. But we don’t want to take their chicken, and say we have to go. Instead, they fill our pockets to overflowing with dried sunflower seeds and we keep saying “enough”! I think of that song “A Pocketful of Miracles,” knowing we have touched many lives today with the Love of God. We get back down the windy mountain trail, tired, our knees wobbling, so thankful to Him for this wonderful opportunity!

photographer: Lynn, RAC