Imagine a modern day Lazarus. Well, we met such a man in Uganda.
I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and I heard the most amazing story from our Wheels for the World team who just returned from delivering wheelchairs and Bibles in Uganda. The final day of distribution was held in a mud-and-stick house in a small village called Nyarushanje.
Well, Mrs. Dimbirwe brought her husband, Semu, for a wheelchair. Some years ago, Semu had fallen from a tree, breaking his right leg and hip and incurring a severe brain injury. Well, when Semu came into the distribution, he looked pretty poor, he did; his chin was on his chest, sitting there on the floor, the dirt floor -- silent, almost catatonic. It was like everyone around him didn’t exist; he sat there shrunken and frozen. No one talked to Semu, not even his wife. No one ever talked to him (maybe that’s why he seemed to be so withdrawn within himself). But while they were waiting for his wheelchair, one of our Wheels for the World team members, Dana Croxton, began explaining to Mrs. Dimbirwe how important it is to keep up communication with a brain-injured person.
So, Dana approached Semu. There he was sitting, frozen, head on his chest. Well, Dana lifted Semu’s head and began to ask him to do things, simple things like squeeze his hand, resist a push. Then the Spirit of Christ inspired Dana to speak directly to Semu and tell him that Semu was a man like anyone else, an equal and a brother; and that God loves Semu and Jesus died for him and that God was not angry over this injury, but actually values Semu.
Well, this went on for about two, three minutes and then suddenly, Semu became animated: he started smiling, he looked up laughing, and then began speaking in a firm voice back to Dana. Soon the two men were weeping and hugging as Semu squeezed firmly both of Dana’s hands. And finally just before Dana began the wheelchair fitting, Semu reached up and pulled Dana to him to hug him hard. He then said to Dana in perfect English, "You are my brother, my friend and God loves me." Wow! Everyone was stunned; everyone – especially Semu’s wife – they stood back amazed. They had not ever heard him speak. Just moments earlier he had sat there shriveled and silent with no one relating to him, probably because no one believed there was really “anybody” inside that shell of a man.
In the Gospel of John, the 11th chapter, there’s a story of Jesus and a man called Lazarus. There’s a remarkable moment when Jesus calls forth a dead man, and says, “Come out!” And you know the story from there – Lazarus walked out of his grave to the utter amazement of everyone.
Well, that day in the small village of Nyarushanje, a man with severe disabilities – and probably in great pain – a poor disabled man shut up within himself, a man named Semu came forth. Maybe not from physical death to life as did Lazarus; but most assuredly, a man who was called out of spiritual death to life by the Son of God Himself. All because a member of our Wheels for the World team took the time to not only notice Semu, but with his compassionate touch and words of kindness, he inasmuch told Semu, “Semu, Come forth.” Dana reached out and treated him with respect and dignity, knowing full well that, yes, there was somebody inside that dead shell of a man: a man whom Jesus loved.
It’s a beautiful thing when a wheelchair provides an opportunity like that, and if you’d like to be a part of a team that gives respect and dignity to people with disabilities, not to mention the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, then come visit us at joniandfriends.org and click on our wheelchair ministry page. So you, too, can meet a man like Semu!
Used by permission of
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