The time: August, 2002
The location: Ghana,
West Africa
The mission: Deliver & fit wheelchairs to disabled
individuals of the country; equip & train the individuals and their
families in manipulating & maneuvering the wheelchairs; share God’s love
& hope with those we encounter.
A dear friend encouraged my husband and I (and several others) to go on this
trip to Ghana with the organization Wheels for the World, and despite a list of reasons not to go we took a leap of faith and went. My biggest fear in going? I asked, “What if one of us gets hurt there?” The response: “You hope and pray a doctor
from the Peace Corp happens to be in the country.” I’m not gonna lie – I had certain reservations
about going. What would I eat? Would I get sick? Where would I sleep? What would the bathrooms/toilets be like? Questions we all have, but don’t want to say
out loud.
I have funny stories to go with each of those questions that
were floating around in my mind back then, but those are not for this
writing. Let’s just say God extended His
mercies and grace to me in all sorts of ways during this trip.
This trip was filled with so many amazing experiences. There is one in particular you need to hear
today.
Let me set the stage for you. The majority of Ghana functions as a third world
country. The villages are constructed of
mud huts and locals sell bananas from baskets they carry on their heads. In 2002 (Sadly, I have not kept up enough to
know if things are different now.) there was no Polio vaccine in the country
which meant that many citizens would become infected and lose mobility of one
or more limbs. In addition, the disabled
in Ghana
are greatly looked down upon. If you
cannot be mobile, you cannot work. You
are considered a second class citizen.
Wheelchairs are almost nonexistent there, unless brought over by some
type of humanitarian organization. So,
people crawl, scoot, and are carried places.
The disabled become beggars. I
remember the first drive through Ghana. There were disabled people everywhere begging
for money. People lying on the ground,
crawling on all fours -- it was unbelievable to me.
When a wheelchair distribution happens, the government
announces it over the public radio weeks in advance with the time and
location. This is done so that people
have enough time to get there. It sounds
unreal, but many crawled for over
three weeks to get to the distribution location! Others had family members that would carry
them for miles and miles to get there in hopes of getting a wheelchair. Having a wheelchair in Ghana
immediately changes a person’s social status.
They go from immobile to mobile; unworthy to worthy; shunned to part of
society.
So here we are at our second distribution. Miraculously the previous days work left
exactly as many people as wheelchairs.
We were on a spiritual high for sure.
The logistics worked like this: There were roughly a dozen
Americans. Two worked registration. Two were physical therapists that performed
the physical examinations. Another two
to three worked on customizing the chairs to the recipients. Four trained the family members and
recipients in how to move around in the chair – turning, braking, etc. The remaining played with the kids and
visited with others that came out to see commotion. There were also local preachers there. Once an individual received an examination, a
chair, and training – they were taken to the Reverend. He prayed over each person and gave them
Bibles.
Well, the day went on and we all assumed that again, we
would miraculously end up with the same number of people needing chairs as
chairs that we had to give. It was so
close to the end of the day that all of us Americans were sitting in the van
ready to crash. Our days consisted of
breakfast and dinner only so we were ready to find food and sleep.
We heard some commotion.
“What are they saying? What’s
going on?” we all asked. Our driver
said, “This man has come and was not given a chair. There is not chair for him. Even so, the doctors told him that a chair
would bring him too much pain. He cannot
sit in one.” We were crushed! How could this be? This man…was devastated.
The sweet Reverend Newton would not let this man leave. He beckoned for him to come and talk with
him. (Mind you we are all watching this from
the van.) They prayed together. The Reverend says – well we don’t know what
he says, but the man…GETS UP AND WALKS AWAY!
Can I say that again? The
man. Got up. And. WALKED away.
We went crazy! There
were shouts of “NO WAY!” and screams. We
were moving so much the van was rocking non stop. We might have high fived. We definitely threw our hands up in the
air. “What just happened?!” we
shouted. Reverend Newton very calmly
came over and said, “God told me He would heal this man. There was no chair for him because he would
not need a chair. I told him that he was
healed and that he could get up, and walk home.”
None of us had seen anything like this before! It was truly amazing. We had witnessed something right out of the
Bible. It was incredible. A moment I will never forget. A moment I look back to whenever my faith
wavers. “Our God is healer, awesome in
power.”
Luke 5:17-26
John 5:1-15
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