This month's newsletter comes from Whirlwind Wheelchair International, our Solutions partner at San Francisco State University. Their year end newsletter updates the many partnerships within the growing Whirlwind Wheelchair Franchise Network.
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International Mobility Solutions is proud to offer a link to Dick Rutger's journal to help our visitors and supporters to better understand and appreciate the effort it takes to provide sustainable mobility in a developing country.
Dick's complete journal can be found online at www.dickrutgers.com
Below is a sample of a day in the life of this Guatemala missionary.
About Me
- Name: Dick Rutgers
- Location: Chimaltenango, Guatemala
- I work in Guatemala with Hope Haven international and Bethel Ministries. Along with my friends Chris and Donna Mooney and their family, we share the love of Jesus in various ways. Although giving out and maintaining wheelchairs is our primary ministry, we are involved in many other things as well. Building houses, feeding the hungry, providing education to handicapped children in orphanages and villages, and hosting a camp for the handicapped are just a small part of the things that God has given us the privilege of getting involved in. For several years now I have been keeping daily journals. Once a week I try to post new journals and pictures. My e-mail is dick@dickrutgers.com Guatemala Cell Phone # 502 5379 9451 USA Phone # (Relays free to Guatemala) 360 312 7720
August 19, 2008, 9:22 PM
After getting the breaks adjusted on the van that we took to Xela we headed to the orphanage. We try to get here at least every three months to refit, repair, and replace the wheelchairs that the kids at this orphanage use.
This time it had gone way past 3 months so the needs were great. We had been sent a list of around 35 kids that had chairs that needed attention but with in an hour our list had grown by another 10 wheelchairs.
It helped that there were 3 of us repairing wheelchairs and that Hanna was there to do the needed paper work and make sure that we had a new person picked out once we had finished with who ever were working with. Hanna also worked on some of the wheelchairs with her husband Saul.
My first customer was an easy one it was a blind girl who has been there ever since I first came there close to 9 years ago. She had recognized my voice the minute that I walked into the place and after a few hugs she told me that her brakes needed adjustment. It looked like today was starting off to be brake adjustment day.
Perhaps I should have hoped for that anyway because this was a 5 minute job. At this rate we would be able to have everyone’s wheelchair done in no time. That is when (excuse the pun) the breaks really came on though.
My next customer was also an old friend that I had met on my firs visit to this orphanage.
I will never forget the day that I found Mario lying in a small circular cage with a body that was so bent and twisted that the heals of his feet were firmly planted on the back of his head. That day we did not have enough wheelchairs for Mario or many of the other kids who we found lying on the floor or tied in little wooden chairs with their hands behind their backs. I still remember both Chris and myself getting physically sick from the hopelessness of what we saw.
By God’s grace less than 2 weeks later we were able to return with wheel chairs for each and every kid in that orphanage. Things were not easy there at first. Often times we would return only to find that the wheelchairs were a handy thing to tie the kids in. I am happy to say though because of persistence and some caring people that work there this orphanage had made great progress. Oh yes there are still kids that spend far to much of their time locked in cribs but things are much better. Many of the kids now attend school and the girls that care for them are really starting to care about them as well.
Anyway back to Mario. The first time that I ever worked with him it took nearly 2 hours to get him out of the position where his back bent so far back wards that his feet touched his head. And it took over a day to set up a wheelchair that would hold him in a position where his muscles would not suddenly contract not only causing him possible physical damage but at one point actually snapping the frame of a wheelchair.
Now nearly 9 years later 17 year old Mario is sitting straight and tall 99% of the time. It is that other 1% that make it necessary to constantly be repairing or replacing Mario’s wheelchairs. Today we had brought along a new chair for Mario however I had not realized how much he had grown, so after looking thing over I decided that it would be easier to readjust and use his old wheelchair then to try and make the one that we had brought big
Enough. The only problem was Mario’s old wheelchair needed a lot of repairs. That is why in spite or the fact that I got done with my first wheelchair in record time the total number of wheelchairs that I got finished with today was two. Thanks to a slightly higher number of wheelchairs that Saul and Gustavo did we may be able to finish up some time on Thursday. That is as long as there are not to many Mario’s left to do. It was all worth it though because this evening he was once again sitting straight and tall in his wheelchair. He looked a lot happier than he did earlier today when I found him tied in his bed.
On our drive back to the motel we shared stories about some of the kids that we had worked with either today or with in the past few weeks. Saul and Hanna shared about the absolute joy they saw in the face of one of the children that they gave a wheelchair to today. Since she had evidently come into the orphanage after out last visit. 
Gustavo, who is himself in a wheelchair got a smile on his face that was as big as that of the little girl that Saul and Hanna had just put in to a wheelchair as he shared with us about a little girl that he and Carlos had given a wheelchair to when on a recent trip to El Salvador. He said that he had never witnessed so much joy in a child.
Not all of this joy is necessarily seen in those that receive wheelchairs.
Today I had to tell the only child at the orphanage that is in a power wheelchair that I did not have the parts to fix his powers wheelchair with me, and that I would have to take it back to Chimaltenango with me and repair it there. You would think that he would be in tears knowing that it will be at least 2 weeks before he gets his wheelchair back, but he was all smiles.
Why? Because he was busy helping me drill some holes so that we could mount some brackets onto Mario’s wheelchair. Yes, allowing him to help took up precious time but what is this ministry all about, wheelchairs, or sharing the love of Christ with people?
Some times it is so easy to get caught up in what we are doing to help someone that we scarcely have time for the person that we are helping. The kids that are always waiting at my gate when I get home from a long day at the orphanage are a constant reminder of that. It isn’t always easy to keep an even balance but it is my prayer that by God’s grace I will never get so busy doing God’s work that I do not have time for those that He places in my path.
Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick