1) In some parts of our world, being
disabled, in whatever form it might come in, is still considered a bad omen, a
curse and a reject in society?
FACT
2)
A
disabled person is not allowed to seen by the King in Swaziland
FACT
I was in
Swaziland recently for the launch of a project we are running there called the
‘Swaziland Disability Rights and Inclusion
Project’
Arriving in
a country where disability in any form is still considered a “bad omen” was a
very real reality for me considering I have a disability and faced the hard
hitting facts of it head first.
I really
mean head first literally and physically, let me tell you a story, out of the few I have.
Picture a
hotel foyer in the morning, I am on my way to breakfast, I step out the lift
into the foyer of the hotel and there was the perfect spot to trip and fall.
This is reality, so as I am flying through the air I know I am about to hit the
ground and be so embarrassed, but it’s too late to stop it.
The
embarrassment had no hold on what I experienced. As I am lying there one of the
employees of the hotel, dressed in his fancy suite, name badge, walking around
like he was really important, strolled past me. I literally saw his shoes walk
past my face. I made my way to my knees,
took my bag off my back, stood up, made sure all was still in place on my body
and went and had breakfast.
You must
realise this all happens in less than 60 seconds, but 60 seconds of hard
hitting facts.
I remember
sitting at breakfast thinking about what just happened. Now don’t get me wrong,
I have had this before. I fall its part of my DNA at the moment; a friend of
mine who hikes with me can tell you all about my hitting the dust stories. In fact a friend I met while in Mozambique in
2006 emailed me recently and had a good little giggle remembering one of many
days in Mozambique, here is a snippet of what she said.....
Sometimes
I think about the time you wiped out in the sand by our house in Mozambique and
we both just sat there and started laughing and laughing. I think the Lord was
healing on you perhaps? What else can you do after you have wiped out for the
40th time that day? Laugh or cry and what does crying do? May as well laugh!
Laugh at the devil, laugh with life, laugh that you are on an amazing adventure
with our Lord, Jesus Christ!!!
What I saw and
felt that morning in Swaziland was not about me falling, it was about the guy
who walked past me, it was about the other disabled person who has been walked
past, it’s about the blind person being shown the wrong bus to catch home, it’s
about the deaf person not being understood, it’s about the person in a
wheelchair not being able to move around freely, it’s about turning FICTION (FALSE
FACTS) into REALITY (TRUE FACTS).
The project
that is running there.............will hopefully be this turning point for
Swaziland.
I was
reading my bible the other day and had started in 2 Samuel, as I kept reading I
came upon this scripture, and I will end with it. It’s about David; He was king
at this time and Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth who was lame in his feet. The
scripture speaks for itself, but here are some true facts about how a king
treated a person with a disability.
2 Samuel 9
David and Mephibosheth
9 David
asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show
kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s
household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king
said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied.3 The
king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can
show God’s kindness?” Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan;
he is lame in both feet.”4 “Where is he?” the king asked. Ziba
answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 So King David had him brought
from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.6 When
Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to
pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth!”“At your service,” he replied.
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to
him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.
I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and
you will always eat at my table.”8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said,
“What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Ziba,
Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson
everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your
sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so
that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.”
(Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your
servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So
Mephibosheth ate at David’s[a] table like
one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son
named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of
Mephibosheth. 13 And
Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he
was lame in both feet.
