Churches Inc in Kosovo 2019: Day 1
The Churches Inc team are hard at work in Kosovo from the 29th April to the 6th May, bringing a message of inclusion for disabled people, and working with the church and leaders there to help communities welcome, encourage, and support disabled people. Please pray for them on their trip - we'll bring you blog posts from them as often as they're able to send them through. Here's the post from Day one of their trip...
Tuesday
We’ve had a busy day with 5 family visits. We learned that today’s plans had changed so Ray arranged for us to visit several people.
We began this morning with Dr Grezda Ilir, a psychologist in a local hospital. He works with drug addicts and people with depression. He told us that the government has no programme for drug prevention so he felt his work has little or no support as he was only able to give his patients medication until it ran out. Many go back into drugs soon after.
Our second visit was to a Roma family. Mum in the home with her 2 adult daughters, son, wife and 4 children. Her husband had died. The 2 daughters were both deaf and one partially sighted with additional needs. We took a food parcel and were able to leave some cash for further medication for the daughter. Ray was going to make a follow up visit. We felt this was a good contact and believed the family was encouraged by our visit.
Our next visit was to a lady from the church who invited us to come. We took a food parcel.
Next we went to Granita’s house. One of our young interpreters whose father and grandfather had just died. They were all in their 40 day traditional mourning period. Again we were able to encourage with food and an invitation to church on Sunday. (Ray built their house 2 years ago).
Lastly we visited a Christian physiotherapist who treats Christians for free. He was interested to hear about the work of TTR.
We very much feel that we are in God’s hands and are learning to be flexible with all the changes in arrangements.
Showing God's Love in Lagos -- The Spring 2019 Vital Link
The Spring 2019 Vital Link Newsletter is now available for download--it's full of stories about the Nigeria distribution, our new staff members, a new publication ('A Church that Cares'), and much more. It also contains a product order form.
- Follow this link to download the Spring 2019 Vital Link (including a product order form) - right-click and select 'save' to save the file for later. It's a 6MB 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.
What does the Bible teach about Disability?
Sometimes in discussion with antagonistic unbelievers a charge will be levelled against the Bible that it discriminates against disabled people. Frequently they will cite verses such as Leviticus 21:16-23:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He … shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”
This raises two questions. Firstly, is it true that the Bible discriminates against disabled people? And secondly (since I will argue that it’s not) how does the Bible portray disabled people, and what does it reveal about God’s heart for people with physical, sensory or cognitive impairments?
Priestly perfection
First of all, the passage above has to be dealt with. It’s there in the Bible and we can’t avoid it. But it has to be taken in the context of the rest of Scripture. Could the God who also said: “You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:14) really have meant that disabled people were inferior to others and unworthy to offer worship?
The descriptions of the tabernacle and the worship that was to take place there are redolent with symbolism. Many of the items and even measurements have been shown to have a meaning that points to something in the coming ministry of Jesus, the Messiah. And so this instruction about temple worship is not a declaration of the inferiority of people with impairments; rather it is symbolic of the perfection that God deserves from us – no half measures in our worship of Him – and also of the perfect, unblemished sacrifice that Christ was to offer in His death on the cross. I find it interesting that people with intellectual disabilities were not on the list of those debarred from priestly office. Could it be that we see as a disability something that God sees as an asset? More of that later.
A Creational View
It is clear from the opening of the Bible that humanity is God’s intentional creation, and is created in love. John, whose Gospel opens with an echo of the “In the beginning” of Genesis, emphasises this in his first epistle: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)
Just as humans are created in love, they in turn are to rule the world in love.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26)
It stands to reason that a God who creates in love and whose “mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9) would expect his people to rule with love, not with a harsh domination.
It’s also clear from the creation story that both men and women are made in the image of God. He is not confined to either gender; men are not more reflective of his nature than women (or vice versa!). It’s also clear that both men and women are now separated from God by sin, as illustrated in the story of God seeking Adam and Eve after the Fall: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[a] of the day, and … hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)
So the Bible has a very high view of humanity, both men and women. It is also very realistic about the evil and suffering that comes into our lives; it makes no attempt to minimise the extent of it or the fact that none of us is exempt from its ravages:
“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)
Suffering from God’s perspective
We are told that God has the tenderness of a father towards his children:
“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. ” (Psalm 103:13-14).
We are also told that He loves and cares for all He has made without exception:
“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:8-9).
God is also portrayed as participating in His people’s suffering:
“In all their distress he too was distressed.” (Isaiah 63:9, NIV)
And throughout Isaiah 53 a picture is painted of the God who suffers on His people’s behalf and bears their suffering Himself.
Suffering from our perspective
From a human viewpoint suffering often seems unjust, as it did to Job when his suffering seemed out of all proportion to anything he might have done to deserve it:
“What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high? Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does not he see my ways and number all my steps? “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit; (Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!)” (Job 31:2-6)
But the Bible also explains (and many of us can testify to this from our own experience) that suffering can be the very thing that drives us back to God when we have drifted away from Him:
“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word… It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” (Psalm 119:67, 71)
This is how C.S. Lewis expressed it: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”1 In this, we begin to catch a glimpse of the redemptive possibilities of suffering.
And it turns out, to everyone’s surprise, that suffering can even result in very good news indeed:
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
What Disability is Not
This gives disability a purpose which it lacks in almost every other religion and philosophy. For it turns out that disability is not karma, as some eastern religions would tell us:
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” (John 9:1-3)
It is not a curse, as some communities still see it:
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Affliction or disability are not hindrances to God’s grace in our lives – quite the opposite:
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me... For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
And, in contrast to the culture of Bible times, the culture in some parts of the world today, and the hidden culture that afflicts our own hearts when we shy away from disabled people (for a recent survey by Scope revealed that 67% of us say we are uncomfortable talking to disabled people), disabled people are not untouchable. Jesus demonstrated this when a woman with a haemorrhage crept up behind Him to touch the hem of his robe. She was healed and He singled her out for special honour because of her faith. (Luke 8:43-48) When a man with a contagious skin disease broke the law that excluded him from venturing into the city, and fell at Jesus’ feet imploring Him, “Lord if you will, you can make me clean”, the immediate response was to stretch out a hand and touch this man whom the law forbade Him to touch, and declare, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. (Luke 5:11-13). When God chose to incarnate Himself in the person of Jesus, his attitude towards disabled people was quite revolutionary in His day, and if we’re honest, in our day too.
In the Bible, disability is not seen as caused by God, even though God is sovereign over it. When Job suffered, it was Satan who caused it, even though God permitted it. In fact, when Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21) we’re told that He didn’t sin, but his unfolding conversation with God showed that he was mistaken; it was not, in fact God who had taken away, and it was God who restored to him more than he had lost. However, if disability is not caused by God, disabled people are created, valued and loved by Him:
“So the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?’” (Exodus 4:11 NKJV)
Disabled people in the Bible
Joni Eareckson Tada once observed:2 “Our Saviour chose to flash His credentials as Messiah through ministry to disabled people…. A disability magnifies God's grace.... We in our wheelchairs get to prove how great and how trustworthy God is.” But positive images of disabled people in the Bible are not confined to Christ’s ministry; they are found throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Perhaps the best known example is Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9. He was the son of Jonathan and grandson of Saul. He became disabled when his nurse fell with him in her arms as she was trying to flee from danger. We don’t know if he suffered injury to his legs or brain injury affecting the motor responses in his leg muscles, but either way he had a mobility impairment for the rest of his life. When David became king, he made enquiries as to whether there was anyone left from the house of Saul to whom he could show kindness for his friend Jonathan’s sake. When he found Mephibosheth, he did not single him out for his disability – he simply did what he would have done for any son of Jonathan. Nor, when he discovered his disability, did he recoil from honouring him; he treated him exactly as he would have done if Mephibosheth had been a powerful warrior. He welcomed him to his table, gave him Saul’s land and provided servants to farm it for him. This story becomes a powerful metaphor for the kingdom of God, where abled and disabled people sit together side by side as equals at the feast table.
Moses is another example. He was too frightened to speak to Pharaoh because he had a speech defect. (Exodus 4:10-16) We don’t know whether this was an actual speech impediment, or whether he suffered from a disabling degree of anxiety. Either way, God provided support for him in the form of his brother Aaron who was sent along to be his spokesman.
Elijah was very impressive in public; he called down fire from heaven in front of all the people and shamed the false prophets of Baal. He had great spiritual authority and was unafraid to challenge the king’s wrongdoing. And yet the day after his great triumph he was in hiding, suicidally depressed, and begging God to take away his life. God’s response, in 1 Kings 19, is very tenderly to care for his physical needs (food and sleep) to take him to a place of safety, and to speak to him in a voice of the utmost gentleness. How is it, then, that so many Christians feel stigmatised by their fellow-believers when they experience mental ill health?
In 2 Kings 7 there is a curious story in which the heroes are four disabled men. The King of Aram has laid siege to Samaria. The people in the city cannot leave and no one can enter; consequently the people are starving. A donkey’s head changes hands for the equivalent of £70, and people are even reduced to eating the bodies of those who have died of starvation. God supernaturally causes the Aramean army to hear the sound of an approaching assault force and they drop everything and flee. Four men with leprosy (who have been excluded from the city because the laws do not permit them to live in the community with a contagious condition) are discussing their future. They decide that their only two options are to die a slow death from starvation, or to surrender to the Arameans who might kill them, or might in fact imprison and feed them. They decide the risk is better than the certainty of starvation. But on arrival at the Aramean camp, they find the place deserted and all the Arameans’ possessions and food abandoned. They eat their fill, and then realise that they can’t keep this good news to themselves; so they break the rules by returning to the city of Samaria from which they are banned and sharing the good news of their discovery. The food is distributed and the Samaritans are saved from starvation by the action of these four men. This, too, is a striking metaphor for the church, with disabled people contributing to the life and health of God’s people.
Of course, disability comes to most of us eventually; most of us are in our temporary non-disabled phase! There are examples of people who, by reason of old age, have lost their physical faculties, but that is no barrier to them playing an essential part in God’s plans. Isaac, by the end of his life, is too blind and too confused to be able to distinguish between his sons, or discern that a trick is being played on him. And yet the blessing which he pronounced on his younger son Jacob had lost none of its spiritual power, and the things which Isaac foresaw for his sons did indeed come to pass.
Similarly, Jacob, renamed Israel and, by the end of his life too frail to get out of bed, quite deliberately switched his hands over and placed his right hand, the blessing of the firstborn, on the head of the younger of his two grandsons. Joseph, the boys’ father, remonstrated with him, but he made it clear that this was no mistake; despite his physical frailty he had seen that God had particular plans for the younger boy, and like his father Isaac, the words he spoke in his weakness at the end of his life came to pass.
In the New Testament, as well as Jesus’ healing ministry to many disabled people, there are examples of disabled people portrayed in a positive way, and of God using disability for good in people’s lives. Zacchaeus was of abnormally small stature; so much so that he had to climb a tree to see Jesus above the heads of the crowd. He had a history of making himself feel 'big' by defrauding people when he went to collect their taxes. Jesus noticed him, valued him, sat and ate a meal with him in his home. Being loved by Jesus enabled him to change and become generous.
St Paul became blind as a result of his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. We know from his own writings, and from the facts that he did not recognise the high priest and needed to use an amanuensis to write his epistles, that even after Ananias had been sent to restore his sight to him, he had a continuing eye problem. He wrote to the Galatians:
“You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” (Galatians 4:13-15)
These are just a few of many examples of people vital to the purposes of God who had disabilities. Gideon seems to have had an anxiety disorder; Leah may have had a squint; Jabez was labelled negatively by others, but refused to be defined by that label; Naaman was more disabled by his pride than by his physical condition; Samson, despite being blinded, destroyed the temple of the idolatrous god Dagon; one of the first evangelists was the man who had been born blind (John 9). The Bible is full of people whose disabilities were no barrier to them playing a vital part in the history of God’s people.
Disability in the Bible
Disability is seen in the Bible as something that catches God’s attention:
“Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.’ And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to him, ‘Rabbi, let me recover my sight.’” (Mark 10:46-51)
This man whom others regarded as a nuisance and tried to silence, was noticed, loved and ultimately healed by Jesus.
Disability is something that makes people deserve greater honour:
"Then Jesus said to the man who asked Him to eat in his house, ‘When you have a supper, do not ask your friends or your brothers or your family or your rich neighbours. They will ask you to come to their place for a supper. That way you will be paid back for what you have done. When you have a supper, ask poor people. Ask those who cannot walk and those who are blind. You will be happy if you do this. They cannot pay you back. You will get your pay when the people who are right with God are raised from the dead." (Luke 14:12-14, NLT)
This point is made even more clearly in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12:18-26)
Disability and Jesus
Jesus is one who can call upon His Father to annihilate His enemies, but instead chooses the way of weakness. In so doing, He identifies with all those for whom weakness is a way of life but not a choice:
“While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.’ And he came up to Jesus at once and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you came to do.’ Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant[b] of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’” (Matthew 26:47-54)
This in turn is presented as an example for us to follow:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
Jesus is also a Master who serves, again setting us an example. For the body of Christ to function fully, we must have an attitude and practice of serving one another, but we must also allow our disabled brothers and sisters to serve us, and must be prepared to learn from them and allow them to lead us:
“Jesus… laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it round his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped round him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterwards you will understand.’ …When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’” (John 13:3-17)
Jesus is also totally inclusive. In fact, for his time, he was absolutely revolutionary in whom He welcomed: infectious people (Mark 1:40-42); disabled people – the Gospels are peppered with stories of His disability ministry; adulterers (John 8:1-11); social outcasts (Mark 2:14); foreigners (Matthew 8:5-13); women (Luke 10:39). His life was reinforced by his teaching; in the Sermon on the Mount He turned the world’s values upside down and declared blessed those who society considered cursed.
People with learning disabilities – the foolishness of this world?
Jesus recognised that God’s profoundest communication came not in words to the minds of the wise:
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. (Or, as the Amplified Bible renders it, “the childish, unskilled, and untaught”.) (Luke 10:21)
Those of us who work with people with intellectual disabilities observe that they are frequently quicker to hear from God than the rest of us. They are often seen as foolish in the eyes of this world, but are wise towards God. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:25 that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
It follows that people with learning disabilities are specially chosen by God:
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
Importantly, how we treat "the least" of all is how we are treating Christ:
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:40)
Amos Yong summed it up superbly:3 “If people with intellectual disabilities represent the foolishness of the world, what hinders our viewing them as embodying the wisdom of God?”
This suggests that seen from an eternal perspective we should revise our whole view of disability. We who thought we had the advantages in life – the strong, the clever, the ones the world regards as gifted –find that on a spiritual level we have been severely disabled compared to our brothers and sisters who lack those intellectual giftings, but whose spiritual life is marked by abilities and giftings we never knew they possessed.
Disability and our Christian community
So, as a Christian community, whether an organisation, a church or a Christian Union, what can we do to ensure that the status of disabled people that we find in the Bible is worked out among God’s people today?
The first thing is to approach disabled people with humility, in the way that the Bible instructs us to approach everyone:
“For by the grace given to me I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” (Romans 12:3-8).
"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others..” (Philippians 2:3-4)
We should serve disabled people exactly as if we were serving God himself:
“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me... And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:40-42)
Crucially, we must allow disabled people to use their gifts to serve us, the church and the community:
“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)
The Christian disability charity 'Through the Roof' recently completed a survey4 of disabled people’s experience of church. One thing that emerged is that among the disabled Christian community there is such a wealth of spiritual wisdom and maturity, we can only ask why more of them are not represented in church leadership.
We must treat disabled people with more, not less, respect and honour. As we saw, they are to be given pride of place at the feast table (Luke 14. 12-14) and treated with greater honour (1 Corinthians 12. 23):
“Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed.” (Romans 13:7)
We must be clear that God takes unjust treatment of disadvantaged people very seriously indeed:
“I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals — those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted.” (Amos 2:6-7)
“Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’”(Isaiah 35:3-4)
This may mean that at times we have to fight for the rights of disabled people:
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
We must go beyond mere inclusion. Disabled people don’t simply need to be included (although that’s a good starting place) – they need to belong. And in the church, of all places, there must be no “them and us”. John Swinton explains this distinction very clearly:5
“The problem we have with society is a real emphasis — and a quite right emphasis — on inclusion. I think at one level that’s fine. However, inclusion is simply not enough. To include people in society is just to have them there. All we have to do is make the church accessible, have the right political structures, make sure people have a cup of tea at the end of the service or whatever. There is a big difference between inclusion and belonging.
To belong, you have to be missed. There’s something really, really important about that. People need to long for you, to want you to be there. When you’re not there, they should go looking for you. When things are wrong, people should be outraged — absolutely outraged that people are doing things against people with disabilities.”
We are the body of Christ, and so we should do everything that Christ’s body did when He was here on earth. Where disabled people are concerned we should touch, embrace and love them as He did. Even after His ascension, Jesus gives us an astounding but clear example of physical love in action. In Revelation 1 the risen and ascended Lord appeared to John, His closest earthly friend. John saw him clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. So awesome was the sight that John fell at his feet as though dead. And then Jesus did something truly remarkable. This towering figure placed His right hand on John. The only way He could have done so is by getting right down there in the dust and dirt where John lay. May we be willing to go to where disabled people are and be right there with them, touching them and showing God’s love and care.
1 C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, (1940; Repr., San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), p.91.
2 Joni Eareckson Tada, in a video message recorded for the Enabling Church Conference, Bethel Convention Centre, West Bromwich, 3rd June 2014
3 Amos Yong The Bible, Disability and the Church, (2011; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
4 http://www.throughtheroof.org/whats-your-experience/
5 John Swinton http://www.ucobserver.org/interviews/2013/02/john_swinton/
Janet Eardley – Mission Programmes Manager
Janet oversees TTR’s mission programmes and also volunteering across the charity. Her whole working life has been alongside disabled people, including church inclusion roles among people with learning disabilities and people with sight loss, and also as a social worker for Deaf people and managing a local sight loss charity.
Janet works from home in Seaton, East Devon. She and her late husband Graham have three grown-up children who are spread across the UK. Janet has personal experience of living with hearing loss and tinnitus – which she says improve her listening skills! She would love to hear from you if you are interested in getting involved with any area of the work of TTR.
Email her by following this link.
Honour Restored by Jesus (Ros' Blog)
I’ve seen quite a few posts on social media recently written by people who feel stigmatised for their disability. It sometimes goes beyond being marginalised and overlooked in society, which in itself is bad enough. People feel targeted for disapproval, or seen as worthless if they are not able to make a net financial contribution to the country.
It reminded me of George Osborne’s disparaging remarks about people whose curtains are still drawn when the rest of us go to work – thereby stigmatising people with conditions like ME or cancer or recurrent migraine, and people who rely on the visits of carers to get them up in the morning. It also reminded me of a woman in the Bible who knew what it was to live with stigma.
She wasn’t allowed in the presence of her husband any longer. She wasn’t allowed to sit on the family’s furniture – anyone who sat on a seat she had used made their clothes ceremonially unclean and would have to burn them. It was twelve long years since she’d felt a human touch.
The loneliness, the hunger for human contact hadn’t abated over the years since her nightmare began, but she had become accustomed to living with its bite. Gradually her family’s affection had crumbled away into a sort of tolerance edged with contempt. Her daughter-in-law tossed some food into her corner of the room twice a day when she fed the family and they had grudgingly spared her a grubby mattress to lie down on at night.
Her son, the bright-eyed boy who used to run so eagerly into her arms when he was small, had grown into a masterful husband and father who gave his elderly father a place of honour in the family and his elderly mother a home of sorts. Yet even he avoided her eye contact with an embarrassment that was palpable.
When the day grew so hot that everyone with any sense was indoors in the shade, she would creep to the river bank to wash her clothes and bedding in the running water. She dared not go to the same spot used by the other women, but walked a long way downstream to avoid giving offence.
The ostracism and stigma were like prison walls around her. So it was very daring of her to creep into the crowd of people that day, pulling her clothes tightly around her in an instinctive attempt to avoid touching anyone. Nothing but a desperate hope, the resurrection within her of a dream she had believed was dead, could have impelled her to take this course of action.
She squeezed through the crowd surrounding Jesus, ashamed at touching people who she knew would recoil if they heard the truth about her. But there was no other way to get near Him, so she pressed on through. As soon as she was within arm’s length, she reached out and touched his tunic’s hem. She was instantly healed from the haemorrhage that had rendered her ceremonially unclean, but old habits die hard, and she tried to creep back unnoticed the way she’d come.
Jesus was having none of it. He knew her spirit was as much in need of healing as her body. So he called her forward and, when she hesitated to respond, insisted that she make herself known. Trembling with fear she came and fell at his feet, the words of apology forming on her lips. To her astonishment, far from reprimanding her, He publicly honoured her for her faith.
Jesus knew that it was more than just her body which had suffered during those twelve years, but that the stigma of other people’s revulsion towards her had inflicted deep wounds on her spirit. And to Him it was essential that she was restored to wholeness, the wholeness that came from knowing that she was loved, valued and honoured by God. Indeed, the honour that Jesus bestowed on her swept away all the shame and humiliation and she left Him with her head held high; whole, secure and loved.
If anyone reading this feels stigmatised by attitudes in society, the words of politicians, the tone of newspaper articles, the looks of passing strangers, here is good news indeed. There is healing for your spirit, there is honour instead of stigma and an assurance of being treasured instead of shame. And for us today, as for that woman two thousand years ago, it’s found in one place: in an encounter with Jesus.
So I encourage you to reach out to Him. No matter how wounded your spirit or how damaged your self-esteem; reach out to Jesus. He will welcome you, honour you and restore you to the sense of the full value and worth that you have in God’s eyes. See yourself as He sees you, and find joy in His love for you.
Wheels in Nigeria 2018: Day 7 & 8
A Wheels team of ten people are hard at work in Nigeria this week - they'll be there from the 14th to the 24th November, and we'll bring you stories from their trip as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for them as they work!
Day 7
Today the team were transported 1 and a half hours through Lagos to our other partner, Graces’ distribution after a long delay for a puncture. Our drives through Lagos have been eye opening - today several of the team noticed a disabled lady literally rolling through the muddy road at the market - we could not safely stop to help her and had no equipment with us as the wheelchairs had been sent ahead - it was a profound moment that broke our hearts - how could this be happening in 2018? So many broken lives, so much suffering ....... come Lord Jesus. The distribution was v busy with lots of people being assessed for wheelchairs today. We were all particularly touched by the story of Demilade aged 12 who was abandoned by her parents at an orphanage 5 years ago. She is blind and has complex needs. Today we were able to fit her with a wheelchair which will enable her to be pushed around the home and cared for more easily - praise God!
Day 8
Today we returned to the Government Compound in Festac, Lagos. We were able to fit many children and adults with wheelchairs, buggies and crutches. In the afternoon many young athletes turned up who are training hard and would like to be in the Paralympics - weight lifting, basketball, volleyball too. They were all in need of new wheelchairs and were very grateful. This is Aberi- she had a stroke 10 years ago but also fell five years ago and hurt her back. Her sons were with her and clearly love her very much but were concerned about her being left alone in the house. She uses a stick but was very wobbly - we were able to give her a wheelchair for which she was very grateful- although she was most grateful of all for her Bible.
Wheels in Nigeria 2018: Day 5
A Wheels team of ten people are hard at work in Nigeria this week - they'll be there from the 14th to the 24th November, and we'll bring you stories from their trip as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for them as they work!
Today was our second day in Festac, Lagos. The team had a very busy, chaotic (at times) but amazing day. Two particular recipients stick in my mind. Fawasi is 18 years old and is cared for by his elderly grandmother. He is unable to speak or walk due to cerebral palsy. Due to her frail health his grandmother is no longer able to lift him. They travelled a long distance to the distribution today. Lynne fitted Fawasi with a wheelchair so Granny can take him out and about and care for him more easily. She also educated Granny as to how to position Fawasi in bed with the mattress and pillows they would take home with them. It was wonderful to see Fawasi so very relaxed and almost asleep with his new sleep system. His Granny was completely overwhelmed with gratitude to God for His blessings.
Big Mamma has been walking with extraordinary difficulty for the last 50 years, following an accident as a child. She cannot feel her legs at all, so it is amazing that she can 'walk' like this at all. She was so excited to receive this wheelchair, saying it would be life changing for her - she would be able to go to the shops, sing at Church, and nobody would stare at her any more. Helping this dear lady was a profound experience for Beth and Sally.
Wheels in Nigeria 2018: Day 4
A Wheels team of ten people are hard at work in Nigeria this week - they'll be there from the 14th to the 24th November, and we'll bring you stories from their trip as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for them as they work!
Today the team went to our local host church for a very lively service praising God. We were given a very warm welcome by the people there. Today was a special day in the church with a dedication of a new baby being celebrated with lots of dancing and praise. The service was also a thanksgiving service with offering of yam, potatoes and a live chicken. It was great to see everyone in their Sunday best, the woman of the church dressed beautifully in their glamorous dresses. Dave, one of our team members, was invited to talk to the church. He delivered a sermon on Acts 2:42-47 highlighting unity and love between churches and people across nations and between our neighbours. He also talked about when churches united their numbers grow, as they gain unity and strength from each other. At the end of the service all the people off the church were offered a meal in unity together.
Wheels in Nigeria 2018: Day 3
A Wheels team of ten people are hard at work in Nigeria this week - they'll be there from the 14th to the 24th November, and we'll bring you stories from their trip as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for them as they work! Today, the team divided into two, with one group taking a rest day, while the others visited the annual national conference of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone) Foundation of Nigeria. You can read each group's blog reports below...
Day 3 blog from Martin
Rest day. After some confusion with breakfast we managed toast eggs coffee and tea cereal without bowls then bowls then milk all back to front order. Juice arrived when we had finished everything else. However all were well fed and satisfied. Sally and Beth got away first to join Tarela at her conference while the rest of us took the minibus to downtown Lagos Island for an orientation experience!
After 45 minutes and a million people we arrived downtown. Huge contrast from street markets in our area to high rise offices and banks in the city. First stop Nike Art gallery full of contemporary works, sculptures made from anything from car tyres to large colourful paintings of people and streetscapes. Good guided tour with introduction from young prolific artist whose work was being hung. Inspirational works full of optimism and hope for a better future for his country.
On then to a tropical park experience at Lekki conservation centre. Cat walk through swamp with monkeys and warnings of snakes and crocodiles. Very green and lush with a climb at the end 75 ft up to a tree house.
Lunch at a chicken parlour on the way back to central Lagos and eventually to our hotel by tea time. Tomorrow is Sunday and a special Thanksgiving Service. We have all been given Nigerian costumes so that we won’t “stand out”.
Day 3 blog from Sally and Beth.
Today was the annual national conference of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta(brittle bone) Foundation of Nigeria which was founded by Tarela Asanti who is one of our partners in Nigeria. Beth and I had the privilege of attending the conference on behalf of the UK team. The conference was very well attended by families who are affected by children with OI. Government officials and local tribal chiefs also attended. A local king sent his apologies but did send someone to represent him. We were very warmly welcomed and enjoyed the talks as well as meeting all the families. One mother had travelled for four hours by bus with her four year old son who has OI. She was struggling to cope with the condition and had come to meet other families with children who have OI.
Wheels to Nigeria 2018: Day Two
A Wheels team of ten people are hard at work in Nigeria this week - they'll be there from the 14th to the 24th November, and we'll bring you stories from their trip as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for them as they work!
At 9am today the team arrived at the Distribution site to find many people already waiting for their wheelchairs in the already blazing hot sun. We quickly organised the process and invited them into the lovely air conditioned hall. There were numerous complex cases many of whom were children. The love and compassion of Jesus was clearly visible through the team as they worked tirelessly and meticulously, and without concern for their own discomfort to see that every disabled person who came their way received a mobility device, a Bible, and an opportunity to hear the gospel. Later on in the day one of the team tearfully spoke of her realisation and heartache for the great need, the lack of resources, and the number of disabled people whose needs might never be met.