Why?

She lives in a mud hut, cooks over an open fire and was joyfully anticipating the birth of her first child.  The joy slowly turned to a nightmare as she realized her child was different.  Her daughter wasn’t crawling, walking or even talking.  She looked for help, but there was no one; no rehabilitation facility or special programs.  People stared. Even her husband, as his culture had taught him, blamed her for the deformities. What could she do?

One day she heard about a program in a distant village that might be able to help.  Grasping at any ray of hope she got up at the crack of dawn to begin.  First she strapped her now teenage daughter on a chair and began the half hour hike just to get to the road.  Thirty minutes later she loaded her daughter and herself into a dirty smoking cattle truck – the “bus” for her area.  A bumping, bruising thirty minute drive brought her to ASELSI where she found caring people, hope and genuine help.

One of many lives changed forever

Today, the daughter walks short distances with braces and a walker.  For longer distances, she uses a wheelchair.  With much persistence and persuasion, she was admitted to a local private school and is rapidly catching up to her peers – a life rescued and changed. This is just one of many wonderful stories of hope that was made possible by the physical therapy program I started in Guatemala five years ago.

Ten years ago I was discontent with my job and plagued with the question, “Isn’t there more to life than being a physical therapist?”  I had no way of knowing that God had placed this discontent in my heart to launch me on a thrilling journey, a journey that has taken me through Bible school, serving on staff at my church and numerous short trips around the globe.  But it is time to take this to the next level and expand the families helped and lives changed.  It is time for me to give full-time to the growth of Therapy International.

Moving to expand those helped

In June, I will relocate to Guatemala enabling the program to expand by providing adult services, home visits, and teams of rehabilitation professionals who will go to other areas to start similar programs.  I will continue the work in Uganda by traveling there once or twice a year.  In order to do all this I need your help.  If you’re currently giving, thank you.  Your help means so much to me and those I am serving.  If you aren’t currently part of my support team would you prayerfully consider a twelve month pledge?

Together, we can bring hope to those without hope.