Churches Inc in Ukraine 2019 -- Day 2
The Through the Roof Churches Inc team are hard at work in Ternopil, Ukraine until the 13th August. Please keep praying for the team, as they bring a message of encouragement and inclusion to the area. We'll bring you updates on their work as often as we can. Thank you for all your support!
Day 2 -- Thurs 8th
Today we had our first leaders day in Ternopil. We had a group of people from the community, many with disabilities.
Mike shared about the global picture of disability. He compared the medical and social models of disability and suggested that an even better is the relational model which says that we all have limitations and gifts and that we are designed to live interdependently. We need each other and that is positive. Mike also challenged listeners not to give up or despair but to keep moving forward.
Trevor shared a Biblical perspective on disability. Disabilty can be used by God to show His grace and mercy. We can know God in our weaknesses, for example Ellen, his daughter has cerebral palsy. She is full of joy despite the physical challenges she has.
The group responded enthusiastically to the message. Many of them shared their stories. There was a common theme of people feeling extreme despair and depression about their disabilities but finding hope in the love of other people and God.
Vitalij was born blind. Life is not easy for him in Ukraine. He has succeeded in university and wants to be useful and help others. He currently works with computers and likes to take opportunities to talk to people and encourage them. He wants to be more independent but at the moment guide dogs are not allowed on the subway or many other places.
Paul was born with cerebral palsy. It is difficult to find work. In recent years Paul discovered a love for photography. He says it has helped him to see the world differently and bring employment. He told us that he saw all this as God taking care of him and he was actively seeking to help others.
Dmitri was one of our translators at the event. He shared with us that though he grew up in church, as a teenager he was not interested in God. When he developed epilepsy it made him think about what was important and brought him to God. He now is looking to open a cafe that will employ people with disabilities.
Another inspiring day in Ukraine.
Churches Inc in Ukraine 2019 -- Day 1
The Through the Roof Churches Inc team have arrived in Ternopil, Ukraine, following a smooth journey and will be working there until the 13th August. Please keep praying for the team, as they bring a message of encouragement and inclusion to the area. We'll bring you updates on their work as often as we can. Thank you for all your support!
Day 1 -- Weds 7th Aug
Today the team visited places that Pastor Igor and Pastor Volodymyr regularly visit and invite people to church. Pastor Igor shared a testimony with us of a gentleman named Stephen. He had muscular dystrophy and was close to suicide. He came to know the Lord Jesus through church visits. He said that he was now glad of his condition as without it he would not have come to God. He was so keen to share this hope with others that he hand-wrote letters to around 500 people with disabilites, even though it caused pain to his hands. This stirred Pastor Igor to reach out to people with disabilities.
Pastor Igor also shared with us how he visited one man at home who had a stroke. Igor kept visiting him but with little response. 3 months later he had a phone call saying he wanted to meet and gave his life to the Lord. 2 weeks later the gentleman died. We met his daughter, Tatyana, who was blind. She also came to know the Lord through witnessing the great change in her father.
Pastor Igor runs a camp every summer for adults with disabilities where he shares the gospel with them and now several people come to his church.
The church members are willing to drive great distances to pick up someone who could never get to church by themselves. We met a gentleman in a wheelchair who needs to be physically picked up and carried as the pavements and roads are not wheelchair friendly. He gets picked up by the church bus and said 'I cannot wait until Sunday'. He met the pastor at a disability event and had no experience of church before this. He became a Christian. He was very thankful that even though he is in a wheelchair, he can communicate his needs whereas others may not be able to.
We visited a state run hospice for 30 people, mainly people with cancer or had a stroke. This is the only place of its kind in Ternopil region (an area with a population of 1.2 million). We had opportunities to pray with people that they would know God whatever their circumstances.
We visited an elderly people's home. One lady Olga was so excited, she just started sharing her testimony. Olga shared how she had depression and was bed bound for 8 months. Now she is walking and free of her depression and praises God for it. She was so thankful for all the help she receives. The home was a run down building and many people sharing one room. We thank God for Olga and may her testimony speak to others there.
In Ukraine, parents who have a disabled child are often encouraged by medical professionals to 'give them up' to an orphanage so the parents can still have a 'full life'. For families who decide to look after their child, there is very little support available to them. One christian lady who is trying to help has started a centre where families can bring their children with Downs syndrome and Autism for a few hours of input to help their development and encourage the parents not to give up. They are supported by churches and limited government support, but today we saw them trying to fundraise just to be able to keep the children warm through the harsh winters in their building. We saw a lot of love and community created for the families who face serious challenges.
We have had a very encouraging day and thank God for meeting His people in Ukraine.
See What God Has Built (Ros' Blog)
Just recently I’ve been having some interesting conversations with a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness. I’ve got to know him through a local voluntary organisation. He told me he had some questions that had been puzzling him. In particular, he said, for a lot of people, having a severely disabled child would be a challenge to their faith and might even undermine it, but in my case it seemed to have strengthened my faith, and he wanted to know why.
It was a joy to share with him my story of how God broke into my life and revealed Himself and His love to me through the experience of parenting a disabled daughter. He steered the conversation round to some of our theological differences, and I was able to explain to him why I didn’t agree with his faith’s explanation of some of the key Scriptures on which we have a different view. But that wasn’t the really significant part of the conversation. As Leonard Ravenhill once said, “A man with an experience of God is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.”
I was thinking about this as I watched a recent episode of DIY SOS, presented by Nick Knowles. In this episode, the family had a son who, like my daughter, was born very prematurely, and, like my daughter, experienced brain damage resulting in quadriparetic cerebral palsy. Their house was not at all suitable either for meeting the family’s needs, or for giving their other non-disabled child some freedom and peace in her life, problems I could readily identify with.
His mum talked movingly about how they had to go through a process of grieving for the sadness of seeing their son so limited in what he could achieve and experience, but how they then picked themselves up and set about giving him the best life he could have. There was a parallel in this with what Nick Knowles and his team were doing – assessing all the problems that the home presented, tearing down the parts that didn’t work for the family, and wreaking a lot of destruction before beginning to rebuild and make alterations and extensions to the property. It looked like chaos. But despite the apparent mayhem, there was a carefully-crafted master plan. And as always with this programme, every detail had been thought of, and the plan went far beyond what the family said they needed. The finished result not only met all of the family’s needs, but went far beyond their wildest dreams.
The reason this programme reminded me of the conversation with my friend was because in many ways that house was a parable of my life and, I’m sure, the lives of many others affected by disability. I had a reasonably happy life; it suited me and I wasn’t looking for more. Then the very premature birth and subsequent battle for life of my tiny daughter was like a demolition crew that came in and dismantled my neat arrangements. In those early days I couldn’t see the master plan. All I knew was that everything around me seemed to be falling apart. The devastating news of the extent of my little girl’s disabilities felt more like an end than a beginning at the time.
But, as I shared with my friend, this experience proved to be the opening in my world through which God was able to break in with His love and grace. The life I have ended up with, and the depth of relationship with God, has far exceeded the little dreams of domestic bliss that I had before my daughter was born.
I’m sure many other people and families affected by disability can tell a similar story – that through circumstances which seemed crushing at the time, God has worked out a master plan that exceeds our wildest dreams.
The Psalmist expresses this experience vividly in Psalm 66:
“For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.”
What’s your story of God’s abundance revealed through life’s difficulties? Here at Through the Roof we’d love to hear it. And maybe you too have friends who wonder why your circumstances have not demolished your faith. What an opportunity, to share with them what God has done.
Care and Compassion: The Summer 2019 Vital Link
The Summer 2019 Vital Link Newsletter is now available for download. This issue contains stories from our work in Eldoret and Kosovo, new roles for the team, a report from the Brunel holiday, and much more.
- Follow this link to download the Summer 2019 Vital Link (including a donor form) - right-click and select 'save' to save the file for later. It's a 2.1MB PDF.
Or click on the cover image below to read the Vital Link online using Joomag - you can zoom in and swap between pages much more easily that by just using a PDF reader.
We're Recruiting: Team Administrator and Holidays & Events Administrator
He Knows Your Name (Ros' Blog)
I’ve just come back from a week at Center Parcs on a Through the Roof holiday, where we looked at some of the New Testament characters who were noticed by Jesus when other people didn’t notice them. None of us on the holiday are well known. Some have learning disabilities and live in care communities or supported living. And yet to watch the love and care everyone showed to each other was a real blessing. To hear people read the Bible, perhaps stumblingly, and pray simple but heartfelt prayers was the most uplifting experience. At least one person on the holiday found it life-changing and she said she had rediscovered her calling.
Some people in the Bible scarcely get a mention, their names hastily dropped into the list in a genealogy, or given a passing mention in someone else’s story. And yet they are included for a reason. Here are a few of them whom you might not have noticed:
Huldah is named as a prophet, the wife of Shallum (yes, I know, you haven’t heard of him either). Her name may not appear in lists of the Biblical great and good, but she was clearly a significant person in her day. When the young king Josiah was presented with the book of the law, and discovered the many ways in which his predecessors had failed to obey it, he sent messengers to enquire of the Lord. And in those days, when you wanted to know what the Lord had to say about something, you went and asked Huldah. She must have had quite a reputation as someone who spent time listening to God and knew what was on His heart.
Adlai only gets mentioned once in the Bible, and then only for being someone’s father. He was the father of Shaphat, who was the father of Elisha the prophet. We might perhaps wonder why it was important for him to be named in Scripture when we are told only this one fact about him. But we know a lot about the character of Elisha – his devotion and obedience to God, his loyalty to Elijah, his determination not to miss out on receiving a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Where did he get those qualities from? Surely these values must have been instilled in him by his father and grandfather while he was growing up. Without their influence he might never have followed Elijah, Naaman might never have been healed of his leprosy, the bitter water at Jericho might never have been purified, and the widow’s dead son might never have been brought back to life.
Then there’s a woman who isn’t even named, we know of her only as the wife of an unnamed man who lived at Bahurim. When Absalom was pursuing David to kill him, two messengers were on their way to warn David so he could escape. They were spotted and reported to Absalom, who sent men to capture them. They called at the house of a man in Bahurim, and his wife helped them to climb down into a well to hide, then spread a covering over the well and scattered grain over it. Without her action they would not have escaped to warn David, and he and his men would have been wiped out. Absalom, rather than Solomon, would have succeeded him to the throne of Israel, and the nation’s history would have been very different.
Then there’s the man who is named in our English Bibles as Ebed-Melek, although in reality the Hebrew Eved-Melech isn’t actually a name; it simply means the king’s slave. The king’s officials heard Jeremiah prophesying a warning from God, and they went and complained about him to the king, who shrugged and told them to do what they liked with him. So they took him and threw him into an empty well where he sank down into the mud at the bottom. Ebed-Melek went to the king and pointed out the wickedness of these men’s actions, effectively condemning Jeremiah to starve to death. The king responded by authorising thirty men to rescue Jeremiah and save his life.
All these people played a vital part in God’s plans. Like these Bible characters and the many more whom I could have listed, none of us who went on the Center Parcs holiday are household names. But God knows every one of us by name, and we matter to him. Just as God cared enough to mention these forgotten characters in the Bible, many of them by name, so He cares for each one of us, however obscure or unknown, and never forgets any of us. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, “Can a mother forget the baby who is nursing at her breast? Can she stop having tender love for the child who was born to her? She might forget her child. But I will not forget you. I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Your walls are never out of my sight.”
So if you’re feeling forgotten, overlooked or insignificant, this is a reminder that you are none of those things to God. You are never out of His sight. You are never forgotten. He wears you like a permanent tattoo, always embossed on his hands. The part you play in His great scheme for the universe can’t be played by anyone else. You are an essential component of the world he designed, and without you something vital would be missing. And just like those minor characters whom God ensured were included in the story of the Bible, some small action by you might make more difference to the course of events than you can ever imagine.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 8
Thursday 13 June
Well, our distribution is over and after an early night in the accommodation in Yumbe, we left at 06.00 in the dark, with rain falling making the roads very slippery, to head for the national park at Murchison Falls. At 09:30 we stopped and picked up breakfast in Arua before continuing the journey on a tarmac road for the next two hours until we reached Red Chilli Rest Camp.
What a brilliant and amazing afternoon we have had in the national park. We took a three and a half hour boat ride to the falls seeing hippo, crocodiles, elephants and giraffe on the way as well as baboons, warthogs and antelope. We were intending to do a safari drive this evening but time ran out so we returned to Camp and sat outside watching the sun go down before warthogs visited around our Banda huts and a huge hippo visited after supper.
Each team member will take away a different perspective of this trip, knowing that they have made a significant difference to many lives. The Nile river at the Murchison Falls tumbles through a very narrow gorge and then fans out on its journey through many countries. The need for mobility aids in Bidi Bidi Camp alone is vast but we have made a start to serve the 19,000 disabled people in the camp of 270,000 refugees.
Tomorrow is another early 06.00 start for a 6 hour journey to Entebbe for our flight home.
Once again, thank you for your interest and prayers for this trip. We feel it has been worthwhile, if not what we planned, as we have been able to mentor the local folks here so that they can continue the work and maintain the wheelchairs we have given.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 7
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the seventh report, as the team unloads the container, and travels to Bidi Bidi camp to distribute wheelchairs and change many lives! Please keep praying for the team as they pack up and head home over the next couple of days.
Wednesday 12 June
We woke early this morning at 05:00 and packed our vehicles with our belongings as we were leaving our accommodation today and moving onto Yumbe and the Bidi Bidi camp for the first and last distribution.
Our first job at around 06:00 was to unload the container and separate out the various chairs and walking aids as some were to be left in Moyo and the rest taken to Yumbe by lorry. The whole process was done in record time and by 07:40 we were on a dirt road direct to Bidi Bidi.
We arrived after about 90 minutes and stopped for a while at a church, but then relocated closer to town because we needed to be closer to the clients. We ended up in a good location under two large tents on a hill overlooking the area. There were already a few people sitting on the ground waiting to be seen and we soon got underway with the distribution as a steady stream of people came.
We saw several young children and some complex cases keeping the therapists busy all day. We used today to continue mentoring the HHA team and by the end of the session they were feeling confident to take on their own cases in readiness to complete the distribution without our assistance.
After seeing the therapists each client is given the opportunity to meet our pastor, Nathan, and receive a Bible and prayer. This was a precious time to be able to find out more about the clients themselves and understand how we can best be praying for them. Many were now able to get to church based purely on the fact that they had received a wheelchair. The stories varied greatly but they were mostly stories of immense sadness and suffering as people left their country of South Sudan, their homes and families. God was clearly at work during the pastoral time and it was a blessing to be able to serve the clients.
During the afternoon we had a visit from the local head of government who warmly welcomed us and thanked us for what we are doing for the disabled people in the camp.
At the end of the distribution we thanked our host partners, HHA, and after giving them small gifts and saying our goodbyes, we boarded the transport to our overnight accommodation in Yumbe town. We are all looking forward to a relaxing day at Murchison Falls and a safari tomorrow.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 6
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the sixth report, as the team travels out to work with people all around the area, meeting several people who they wouldn't have been able to help otherwise. Please keep praying for the team--they're unloading the container this morning, and will have a very full day of work!
Tuesday 11 June
Today has been another day out in the camps, but the container is on its way! Today we split into three teams. One team found a very sick lady who was not able to sit in her wheelchair as she was so ill. If we had not been looking for her she would not have got help through our partners. Another God coincidence or part of his plan?
Jill and Rob walked 5.6 km in hot sunshine through maize, avoiding goats, ducks and chickens and all sorts of obstacles. At one point Jill sat down on a log to take a drink and found she was on a pigsty!
They passed the local hospital, so being a nurse and a therapist, their curiosity got the better of them. So they washed their hands, had the soles of their feet sprayed, and went to reception. They were welcomed by the Clinical Officer and given a tour.
They found there was 1 doctor for 7 villages and 12,000 villagers. How we take the NHS for granted. Lots of epilepsy, maleria, depression and PTSD. Jill was able to give out more puppets and then brought out pots of bubbles. Initially kids were very shy but finished up laughing and popping bubbles as the group of kids got bigger and bigger.
Dave was paired with Lynne and Pastor Shadrack. We first saw a girl who had cerebral palsy and we managed to adapt her wheelchair slightly to improve her seating position and provide her mother with advice on sleep positioning to stop her scoliosis.
Then we saw an old man who had had a stroke. He was able to stand and walk a little. The tyres on his wheelchair needed pumping up and we adjusted the length of his walking aid to suit his height. Pastor Shadrack gave him a Bible which delighted him filling his face with a smile. We really value seeing smiles on people’s faces as, in this environment, life is really tough.
Unfortunately the plans have changed yet again, which no longer surprises us! Instead of unloading the container ready for the trip to Yumbe tonight, we will be doing that at 06:00 tomorrow and then off to Bidi Bidi for our first and last wheelchair distribution as they have never had wheelchairs there.
Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts over theses few difficult days. It was not what we planned, but we have seen and made a significant impact to over 50 people so far.
Wheelsblog -- Uganda 2019, Day 5
The Wheels for the World team are in Moyo, Uganda from the 5th to the 15th June. We'll be bringing you their stories and news as often as the internet connection allows. Here's the fifth report, covering the work they're undertaking and the people they're reaching while they attempt to plan around the late delivery of the container. Please keep praying for the team!
Monday 10 June
Today has been another interesting day. At breakfast we were told the the shipping company wouldn’t accept the cash payment we planned to give this morning to get the container on the way. There have apparently been discussions between Through the Roof and the carriers and the latest at 15:30 local time is that the container is being loaded in Kampala and will be driven here through the night; so it might mean we have an early morning unloading at 02:00 or so,but this will at least mean we will have some to distribute in Moyo area before we head off to Yumbe tomorrow afternoon with part of the load of chairs on a lorry.
Earlier we went to some homes and met children with various disabilities, including cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Some had been given wheelchairs and trikes and others had nothing and are unlikely to get anything on this distribution.
We have been continuing to mentor the HHA staff to support them with skills for their future wheelchair provision work. It was great to see them involved in the decision making, contributing their ideas, practising handling skills and looking at how poor posture can be improved.
We continue to be in awe of how resourceful these people can be with absolutely nothing. There have been so many smiles as puppets were distributed with the insistence that they need to SHARE: a very hard concept when you probably own little. Whilst waiting for the other team and writing this blog, Lucie and Jill were ‘hemmed in’ by half the village children who are just wondering what these crazy white people are doing. The toddlers were in danger of getting trampled so Dave came to the rescue by showing them pictures of themselves on his iPad.
At dinner we found out the latest with the container. It appears that it was loaded onto the lorry, but the security guard in the compound refused to allow it out as the company policy is that lorries should not be driven overnight. So we have another delay as the lorry will not leave until until 08:00 tomorrow morning; arriving in Moyo hopefully tomorrow evening. We have decided to stay an additional day at the Multipurpose accommodation and leave for Yumbe the following day, allowing a day at Bidi Bidi camp which has never has a Wheels distribution.
Please continue to pray for the team as they try to adapt to the ever changing situation and especially for Jill and Rob who have the task of remaking plans.