Wheelchairs, Homes and Love

DICK RUTGERS

It all started with a week and a half misison trip to Guatemala about nine years ago. Dick Rutgers witnessed a need in this poverty-stricken country, and knew that he could not simply return to America and forget all that he had experienced. And so, instead of coming home to the U.S., he moved to Chimaltenango, Guatemala, the place he has now called home for many years.

Dick works with Hope Haven International and Bethel Ministries, distributing wheelchairs to individuals who might otherwise have very little chance of accessing these medical devices that we take for granted in America. As an extension of this wheelchair ministry, Dick also works to provide education, necessities and love to children in orphanages and local villages. Many of the children Dick lavishes with love have medical diagnoses that, in the United States, would be manageable with quality medical treatment (spina bifida, club feet, tethered cord, etc); sadly, though, in Guatemala, a lack of resources and medical care often confines these precious lives to cribs in orphanages for 23 hours a day.

One little boy on Dick's blog captured (and broke) my heart. Sam Sam was labeled autistic by the orphanage, because he rocks back and forth and consistenly bangs his head. Dick, however, believes this behavior is a direct result of spending all but one or two hours a day locked into a crib. As much as he can, Dick visits Sam Sam, removing him from the crib, and taking him out into the fresh air, where he can play and be loved.

Consider the story of another child - a young lady whose home caught fire when she was an infant. An older brother heroically rescued her, but the devastation of the fire left her without her entire right leg and arm. With only one arm, she was unable to maneuver a traditional wheelchair, so the only way for her to attend school was to be carried 4 blocks each way on a daily basis. Imagine the feeling of giving her the first chance of her life to experience independent mobility! That is precisely the gift Dick gave her by providing her a power wheelchair. Dick describes that day by saying, "Not only did we get the opportunity to give her the first opportunity of her life to move around on her own but while we were working we were able to share with her and her family about the love of Jesus. Was it a good day today? Yes! Even if my house burns down by this evening it was a perfect day."

If you are seeking motivational, faith-inspiring reading, might I encourage you to read Dick's blog in its entirety? He has journaled his experiences and thoughts on life in Guatemala, and I can guarantee that reading his blog will both inspire and convict you. Take a month at a time on his blog and read them like chapters of a book. The videos he has included will no doubt require at least one box of Kleenex, so be forewarned.

Here I sit in my comfortable home in America, during a winter storm, with warm heat, a pantry full of food, and a health insurance card which guarantees my family access to medical services for any ailment that might plague us. Meanwhile, children like Sam Sam and millions more, live life in the confines of physical and even worse, spiritual poverty ~ without even the most basic dignities of life, not to mention love.

You can help these children and families being served by Dick and his team in Guatemala. In March, my husband, Scott, and our dear friend Brad Clark, will be joining Dick for a week to build homes for local families. If you would like to send supplies, shoes, clothing, medicine, etc., please contact me and I will gladly send you a list of wanted items that Scott and Brad would love to transport when they go.

I will close this entry with a powerful quote from Dick. "Please remember if you are fully content with whom you are and what you are doing perhaps it is time to take a good look at your self. There are people physically and spiritually suffering and dying all over the world. If God has put you in a position where you can reach out to even one of them and you are not doing so something is wrong."

May God break our hearts with the things the break His, and may He reveal to us tangible ways to show others the love He has given us through His Only Son Jesus.