There is something about people who have special needs that catches my attention. Whether it be the simple complexity of these humans, or their innate need for others, I’m still not sure.
My team and I have been working with Camp Hope in Quito, Ecuador for the past three weeks, a foundation that seeks “to reach the needs of the economically, physically and mentally challenged children, teens and young adults in order to enable them to attain the goals of independence and social integration.”
Remember that blog I wrote about roots? That is what I have been doing for the past three weeks, until this past Thursday. I got to work with the kids for the first time. I found out that my sweet gal, Mads and I were going to work with the class in whom all of the kids have some sort of mental paralysis. I was both stoked and nervous out of my mind.
(Read: kids is a really loose word. The girls and boys in this class range from the age of 12 to 29. Some of the “kids” are older than everyone on our team.)
The day went sort of like this: we got to the class and started massaging the feet of the students, emerging their feet into different textures (uncooked beans, uncooked rice, popcorn kernels, etc.) in an attempt to stimulate their senses and help them become more aware of different textures; we feed the kids snack; they rest; we feed them lunch; change diapers, brush teeth, change bibs; more rest; afternoon snack.
Their days are the same every single day. They require constant supervision and care. They actually can’t function on their own. They need the teachers and volunteers and orphanage workers to help them perform daily tasks.
Yet, something in that doesn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t (and partially still don’t) understand why the Creator of the Universe would create something that can’t function on it’s own, that relies so heavily on other people.
I asked Mads about it and she said she too wasn’t sure, but that maybe it was a result of the fall. Even still, I couldn’t comprehend why sweet Kevin or Alexander or Martita deserved this life and why it had to be them. I couldn’t comprehend why I was able to push them around in their wheelchairs, why it wasn’t the other way around, why the Lord chose me to have an able body and not them.
And then, it hit me.
Aren’t we all created to not be able to function on our own? The Lord created us with a need for Him, a need so great that we can’t deny it, that there is literally a whole in our hearts that isn’t filled until we know Him. The whole human race lives with the reality of imperfection, because of the fall, I just think that with some people it’s more visible than others.
I believe wholeheartedly in the Gospel. I think that people have disabilities because of the fall, but it’s not a result of their own sin. When Adam and Eve were in the garden and they disobeyed God, and part of His punishment was to subject all of creation to “decay”.
I know that one day, these friends will have new bodies, ones that are free of disability, ones that are perfect, and created solely in the eyes of Jesus. These friends may be helpless on earth, but they are certainly not hopeless.
I definitely don’t think I have all of the answers. I think that suffering is a really touchy subject, something that I still don’t fully understand, but I think that is part of the beauty of the Gospel, that we don’t have to understand it wholly to believe it and to walk in the light.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:16)
so much love,
car
