Message Magazine Online - Vol. 54, No. 01, Spring 2006

In This Issue

• The Big Picture
  By Donna Messenger
• To the End of the Earth - Are We There Yet?
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• The End of the Earth - Are We There Yet?
  By Donna Messenger
• A DISTANT THUNDER
  By Bill Commons
• Sent Out from the Developing World
  By Craig Kennedy, Philippines
• The Missionary Family: MK Education Abroad
  By Russell E. Ebersole, Jr.
• Cultivating Heart Soil
  By Wayne Haston
• Reaching Farther Through Healthcare Ministries
  By Becky Davey
• Ministering to the Disabled
  By Diane Koroski
• Reaching Street Kids on the Sidewalks of Brazil
  By Tim Hoganson, Brazil
• Three Certainties: Death, Taxes, and Missions
  By Spencer Jackson
• Children's Corner
  

Ministering to the Disabled

An Interview with Larry Golin, International Director for Ministries to the Disabled

“One tenth of the world’s population is physically disabled,” says Larry Golin. “Mission agencies largely overlook the disabled, because they don’t know how to identify with them, yet this is the largest unreached people group in the world. Jesus made it a priority to go out and minister to them.”

While serving with ABWE in Bangladesh, Larry and his wife, Jane, began to understand more about the plight of disabled people there. While Jane worked in pediatrics as an RN, Larry served in a clinic as a physical therapist. Every day, he saw injured patients who were unable to support their families. A large portion of the Bengali population earns a living by farming, and because Bangladesh is a poor country, each family member must work in order to provide even the basic necessities. If one member is injured and becomes unable to work, the entire family suffers.

The most common work-related injury Larry saw in Bangladesh was the loss of a leg, which left the injured person unable to work the fields. Larry soon realized that the greatest physical service he could provide was to fit these people with artificial limbs so they could be rehabilitated and return to work.

Artificial legs made for this population have to be specially adapted, because farmers there work in their bare feet. The prosthesis designed is made of aluminum, sponge rubber (similar to the material used in flip flops), and rubber commonly used to retread tires, which are available locally at a low cost. Larry measures and fits his patients for prosthetics and the Bangladeshis make the artificial limbs. “The people of Bangladesh are gifted and use their hands to make these artificial limbs,” Larry explains. With sufficient funding, he can send trainees to Sri Lanka or India to learn the necessary skills.

Since 1992, Larry has sponsored portable artificial limb camps where people are fitted with prosthetic limbs. Not only does this ministry give Larry the blessing of restoring physical mobility to many individuals, but it gives him the opportunity to share God’s Word with them as well.

In 1998, the Golins left Bangladesh to go into international ministry. Larry now makes short-term visits to different countries, including Togo, Brazil, and Peru, specifically to minister to the physically disabled. He is currently the only ABWE physical therapist in missions, but wants to see more emphasis on getting other missionaries involved in ministry to the disabled. Larry would like to see a physical therapist on every mission field. Everywhere he goes, the people plead with him, “Stay longer—we need you!”