A few years ago while taking the Joni and Friends course “Beyond Suffering,” I remember being captivated by this simple thought: Jesus went where love had not yet arrived. To me, that is what I want to do and where I want to go with the work of Therapy Clinics International. We want to go to places, usually rural, where others will not go, to demonstrate God’s great love for people with disabilities – people often hidden, forgotten, and rejected by society. 

The following pictures reminded me of this purpose. First, Sandra, one of our rehabilitation promoters received the above picture as a gift during our gift exchange. She has been working with us for nine years. In the picture we were returning from a house visit of a girl in the therapy program at that time. This girl’s mother didn’t want anything to do with her daughter. In fact, when we went to the house, we found the girl left alone in a bed in a dark room covered with a blanket. The mother seemed disinterested in any information we might share. 

Her dad faithfully brought the girl to therapy each week and had invited us to come to help show the family how to continue to care for her at home. To get to their house we drove two and a half hours, ending on a narrow, dirt mountain road and parked at a tienda (store). We walked almost an hour up and down the mountains even crossing a narrow wood plank several feet above the water. The journey wasn’t easy and Sandra feared the river crossing, but she persevered. She was willing to go where love had not yet arrived. 

Dani, pictured above, showed us the wooden parallel bars his dad had made for him at home. This was one of several house visits we’ve made to check on him when he didn’t show up for therapy for an extended period of time. On this visit, the family shared their struggles and concerns that the therapy wasn’t working and not worth their time and expense to bring him every other week. I asked them what he was able to do before he started therapy. The family shared he was just lying in bed not moving.  I then asked them what he could do now, since coming to therapy. As you can see in the picture, he was walking around with the help of the parallel bars. The family realized all their hard work and sacrifices had helped, family and friends who didn’t understand the value were just discouraging them.

These are just a couple of many stories we could share of how people with disabilities are marginalized in society, even by their own families. We want to go were love has not yet arrived and bring hope to people with disabilities.