Caring for People with Disabilities

By Anthony:

In February, Sara and I traveled for two days all the way to Kabale, Uganda, down in the south-west corner of Uganda, near the border with Rwanda. We were there for 6 days. God kept us safe on the journey but it was interesting. First, our brake pads completely wore down to nothing, but we were able to stop in Kampala and get them replaced (the photo below). And then on the next day of driving, we got stuck in a major traffic jam for two hours without moving while the police and the army were called in. It was the result of truck drivers who were protesting the arrest of another truck driver for driving an overloaded vehicle - they were blocking the highway until the army dispersed them with tear gas, and then slowly untangled all the stuck vehicles who had completely clogged the road and shoulders on both sides (people always try to pass on the shoulders during a traffic jam).

On Sunday, I preached at a local PAG church in both services, one time in English alone and one time with pastor Magambo translating for me. You can see it's a cold place because I was actually able to wear a suit! I preached about Joseph in Genesis, about God's sovereignty and how to trust in God's plan for our lives even while we go through suffering. Sara was asked to give a nutrition lesson in each of the services as well.

For two days I led a TLT facilitation training, equipping TLT graduates to go out and start new TLT groups of their own. I'm excited to see how God will use them!

But now finally to the theme of this post. For another two days I taught about caring for people with disabilities in the church and in the community. This topic was specifically requested by the PAG leaders. I had some of my own ideas and experiences about this topic, but the staff from the Disability Concerns ministry of the Christian Reformed Church emailed me a lot of notes and resources which were immensely helpful. The training was a great success, and I learned and re-learned a lot myself. I taught about 35 church leaders, mostly from PAG but also from other denominations. We examined different Bible passages that helped us to think deeply about disabilities in general, and how to care for people.

The discussions were very interesting, especially when reflecting on the cultural views about disability. In Uganda, most people, (even many Christians), view disabilities as either a curse, or a punishment from God on the parents or on that person with the disability, or a result of demons. Parents are often ashamed to have children with disabilities, and depending on the case, some children are simply locked away in their homes, or chained to their beds, so they don't shame their parents by being noticed by other people. I was also informed that most parents who have children with mental disabilities try to care for them for a number of years, but they eventually get tired of all the work it takes to care for them. They often view these children as "worthless" because they can't help with the work or contribute financially, and the parents eventually give up these children to live homeless on the street to fend for themselves. Living in Uganda, we see these people all the time, and it's still hard to know specifically what the church (or us personally) can or should do to care for them. They beg for food, and they get taunted and abused by many people. It's especially difficult since psychologists and the medications which might help them, are not common in Uganda.

One particularly helpful starting point was looking at how all of us have broken and imperfect bodies as a result of the Fall. This puts us on an equal level with people with more serious disabilities. We all have issues, (I shared about several very minor disabilities of my own) but we are all still made in the image of God, and we all have value and gifts from God. So even as some people with more serious disabilities need extra attention and help, we should not feel superior to them, nor should we think that they are all under a special curse.

Some other interesting points or discussions to share with you:

• We discussed how people with disabilities get weary of always being told that they don't have enough faith and that's why they haven't been healed. They can get tired of being prayed for, for miraculous healing, over and over every time they go to a church. 
• We looked at the body of Christ as talked about in 1 Corinthians 12, and how we need everyone in the church, with our different gifts and abilities. Even those who appear weaker may be the most indispensable. We were able to give practical examples of people with disabilities playing key roles to edify and bless the Church.
• We talked at length about the importance of real relationships and friendships with people with disabilities, rather than only trying to serve them.
• We discussed how difficult it is to have people with certain mental disabilities in the church service. We tried to encourage each other to have more patience and allow for more noise and distractions in church for the sake of allowing such people to participate.
• We went over a lot of practical ways to help including how the local church can help parents care for children with disabilities, how to make our church buildings more accessible, and things to avoid doing so as not to make people feel ashamed or inferior.
• We discussed demons. Is every disability caused by a demon? Are some caused by demons? Can a disability be both a biological problem but also made worse by demons? We discussed the danger of seeing a demon behind every problem, and how we may deeply hurt a person with a disability by assuming they have a demon.
• I learned about land inheritance. Because of all the programs that have been going on in Africa about gender, daughters are now often included as well as the sons at the time of land inheritance. Unfortunately, people with serious disabilities are usually overlooked and not given any land other than a reserved spot on the family's land for them to be buried.
• We had a vigorous discussion about whether a person with a severe mental disability can be saved. Can someone who has trouble understanding anything, truly trust in Jesus and believe in him for salvation? How much knowledge is necessary? Can there be more going on in someone's soul beyond what can be seen on the outside? How can we err on the side of being inclusive and relying on God's grace?
• This little story might illustrate best how these issues are dealt with in Africa generally, a place inundated with the prosperity gospel. After one of the days of the training, a leader from another church stopped by to say hello to some friends at the church where we were doing the training. A few of us met with him and talked and he said, "I think it's kind of funny you are talking about carrying for people with disabilities. At my church we care for them by praying for them so that they can be healed." Basically he was saying they wouldn't waste their time at such a training. He said, "At our church we pray for many of them at once, and sometimes they are healed." At which point I said gently, "so if they are healed only sometimes, don't you still need to be able to care for those who aren't healed?"

We set aside time for each person to make action plans for how they would put into practice what they learned. They gave me permission to share these action plans with you. I promised that some of my supporters would be willing to pray for them as they undertake these wonderful plans. Because of that, I'm including all of the plans that people shared with me, so that they will all get prayed for, even though some will be repetitive. Thank you in advance for your prayer support!

Individual plans:
1. One person is going to find a person to do sign language during their church services.
2. One person is going to try to find faith partners for the mentally disabled church members. A faith partner is someone who travels to church with this person, and sits with them during the service. The goal is a strong and real friendship.
3. Another person has a neighbor with a disability he has been ignoring, and he really wants to form a real friendship with this person.
4. Many people made plans to teach their local church all that they learned in my teaching.
5. One pastor repented in front of us. He has a church member with a mental disability who is always the first person to arrive at church on Sunday. But he hadn't been seen for a few weeks. Since he was a person with a disability, this pastor did not bother to go looking for him. But he repented and said the first thing he was going to do was to find this person and see if he is okay and invite him back to church.
6. One church is going to try to provide glasses to everyone in the church who needs them.
7. One pastor wants to restructure their church building to make it accessible for those with physical disabilities.
8. One leader wants to take more time to visit church families in which a member has a disability, and sometimes help them by buying food.
9. Another leader wants to find a way to teach deaf children in their community how to use sign language.
10. One pastor is going to ensure that the church members with disabilities who have trouble journeying to church will be picked up by church members who have the ability to transport them.
11. One leader is going to talk to the parents in his church who have a child with a disability and find out what the rest of the church can do to show their support of this family and help them to care for this child.
12. Several pastors each have a mission to form a deep friendship with a new person, someone from the community who has a disability.
13. One pastor had already started a whole program years ago to care for children in the community who are orphans with no parents or only one parent, including some children with disabilities. He was strengthened by this training, and he is going to give more particular attention to helping children with disabilities. He plans with his church now to start a special Sunday school class for these many children, so they can learn at their own pace. We had discussed that it's not good to segregate people with disabilities from the rest of the church, but that sometimes for the sake of being able to learn at their own pace, they may need some special attention in school.



Assembly church plans (an assembly is a group of churches near each other, so each of these are plans for a group of churches):
1. Kabale PAG Central - Will teach all the church members about this topic through the cell group structure.
2. Rwakaraba PAG - They want each local church to identify church members or acquaintances who have disabilities, and try to find faith partners for them to befriend them and help them to attend the church.
3. Kyanamira PAG - They have identified one man with a mental disability and another man with elephantiasis. They are going to try to befriend them and see how they are able to help and care for them.
4. Kibuzigye PAG - Teach the churches about this topic, and then try to identify any church members with disabilities who the churches might be able to help.
5. Katuna PAG - Teach the churches about this topic, and then try to find faith partners for those members who have trouble coming to church because of their disabilities.
6. Ntungamo PAG - Teach the churches about this topic, and then they will identify members who have impaired vision and see if they are able to help them get treatments.
7. Kisizi PAG - Teach the churches about this topic, and then try to identify any church members with disabilities who the churches might be able to help.
8. Ihunga PAG - Will teach the church members how to love people with disabilities and try to give practical help to people with disabilities.
9. Kitwe PAG - They will identity people with disabilities in their churches and community, and then discern what small things the churches can do to help them.
10. Kayanga PAG - They will identify blind people and deaf people in the community and then give them some material assistance to share the love of Christ with them.
11. Kabale Baptist church - Will teach the church about this topic, and make changes to the church service and church culture so that people with disabilities feel welcome and accepted by the church.
12. Shalom church - Will provide some basic needs to people with disabilities in their church, and also refer them to more expert helpers. They will also try to do some advocacy for people with disabilities in the community and government.

Closing in worship: