PROSTHETICS as evangelical outreach
By Parker Rosenberger
Photo By Patrick McLendon
In 1990, the United States passed a comprehensive bill aimed at assisting Americans with disabilities to live easily in our society. This bill is known as the “Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA). It appears inconsistent and paradoxical that the United States, one of the most advanced civilizations the world has ever known, created jet engines, put a man on the moon, transplanted hearts and created a vaccine for polio before making sweeping reforms on behalf of millions of its citizens living with disabilities. Satellites beamed television signals around the world before many Americans in wheelchairs could safely cross the streets of their hometowns.
If America took so long to value citizens with disabilities, imagine the plight of individuals with disabilities living in developing countries. While Americans squabble over comprehensive healthcare reform that will offer more of the best medicine in the world, convicted US felons receive better treatment than most citizens in developing countries. Otherwise healthy individuals in these countries have their limbs amputated for simple injuries such as insect bites or broken bones. A 15-year-old boy with an amputated leg finds school nearly impossible to attend. Public transportation is certainly not accessible to someone on crutches, so the boy is left to fend for himself. Imagine the difficulty he faces just to survive in a community with no automatic doors, no sidewalks and no wheelchairs.
Numerous charity organizations help address this problem by providing wheelchairs, crutches and walkers to people in need of them. These devices are helpful but very limited in functionality for amputees. Suppose for a moment, however, that a better answer is available to address the needs of amputees. Suppose that the young boy mentioned earlier and others like him can be provided with the means and equipment to walk, run, attend school, work and lead a normal life. What would that solution look like?
Standing With Hope, Inc. is an evangelical outreach that provides prosthetics for amputees in developing nations. Standing With Hope trains and equips workers in targeted countries to build and maintain high quality artificial limbs in a low-tech environment. Developing countries have limited access to quality artificial limbs and ongoing treatment for large amputee populations. In the United States, there are 3,000 new amputees every week. In a developing country, amputation is often the first medical procedure prescribed for a limb that could be saved.
In James 2:15 Christians are urged, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”
In 1995, founder Gracie Rosenberger watched a documentary about Princess Diana and her work helping landmine victims in Southeast Asia obtain prosthetic limbs. The pictures on the screen moved Gracie so much that she decided to make it her life’s mission to address the needs of amputees in developing countries. This noble endeavor was even more special due to Gracie’s own medical condition. When Gracie watched the documentary of Princess Diana, she lay recovering in a hospital bed three days after relinquishing her left leg to the surgeon’s knife. She had fought many years to save it following injuries from a car accident. As painful as this decision was for her, it was not a new experience. Four years earlier she had surrendered her right leg for the same reasons.
Gracie Rosenberger is my mother.
From my mother’s own experiences as a double amputee, she and my father Peter desired to share with others the same hope that sustains them, so they founded Standing With Hope. The emphasis is to train and develop a local infrastructure in order to care for the patient and for life. Prosthetic limbs need adjustments and possibly replacement in long term use, so patients need access to ongoing treatment or they will revert back to a lifestyle without a limb.
My parents took a step of faith and launched Standing With Hope in Ghana, West Africa. Working with the government of Ghana at their National Prosthetic and Orthotics Center, Standing With Hope has taken them from carving wooden legs that took nearly three weeks to make, to producing long-lasting endo-skeletal legs of high quality in less than six hours.
Through Standing With Hope, I have had the opportunity to serve others in an incredibly unique way. I have witnessed firsthand the dramatic solution that this organization provides. I traveled to Tunisia to determine if Standing With Hope could begin reaching out to North Africa. I found a country in desperate need of a better healthcare system and a better process for amputees to receive artificial limbs. While in Tunisia, I met with a Muslim man whose wife lost her legs due to an accident in which a truck slammed into the side of their house. Her legs were severed in a way that made it extremely difficult to fit a prosthetic leg. The man continued to describe to me how the healthcare system only helps those in need if they have money. “If you have the money, you can get the leg. If not, then no,” he said to me in Arabic. Our religious differences were cast aside. Despite the fact that I was a Christian, the man told me, “You are like a son to me. You understand what I have been through, and this makes you like my son.”
At that moment, I decided to major in international relations.
Our medical outreach ministry succeeds where other forms of diplomacy are jeopardized due to economic, religious and cultural differences. Access to quality prosthetics is a concern that affects every country in the world. When we as Christians lead the way on an initiative like this, it provides a greater platform to share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Our ministry strives to train local workers to treat large numbers of patients. The US Ambassador to Ghana, Pamela Bridgewater, evaluated our work during one of our visits. “You are empowering these people to care for their own,” she concluded.
Standing With Hope is currently looking to venture into North Africa, the Ukraine and possibly China. Christians have the opportunity to lead the way to help the disabled worldwide. My mother trusted God with her loss and pain. She has taught me to do the same. There is always a greater plan that we can’t see, but if we listen closely and hold firmly to the cross, we will also be Standing With Hope.
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