By: Julie Nash
Mentally disabled elderly members of any society should be given the right to live in peace and comfort. So often though, they are forgotten, overlooked, even resented. Recently, in a Directors meeting at Hope of Life, Lourdes and Katie shared an urgent need for this group of precious people living at Hope of Life. Guatemala made international news several years ago when a government run elderly psychiatric hospital was compared to a concentration camp. The living conditions were deplorable. Carlos received a call from the government and rescued 50 of those residents with the promise of assistance. In all this time, no assistance has come.
Most of these residents do not have children calling them Grandma or Grandpa. Many individuals were cast aside from family members. It’s a hard pill to swallow. Our elderly society should be our crown of honor, not a group that we’ve forgotten and abandoned. I firmly believe that it is the church’s responsibility to right these kinds of injustices. Is it possible to turn a blind eye? Of course—we do it everyday. Every time we pass a hungry person on the street, we pacify ourselves with the thought that they could have plenty of food if they just worked harder.
Sometimes, if we are honest, it is hard to love the unlovely and it’s even harder to help them. How many people walked by the lame beggar everyday before He was healed? Some would have looked the other way, many I am sure would get agitated, and very few would have helped. Many times I have looked away when I saw a need. My friend Lisa asked us, “What is our Jericho?” Right now, at Hope of Life, our Jericho is a group of forgotten people—people who have the right to live with dignity. Mentally, they may not even know the significance of what that means. They were treated horribly until they were rescued and brought here. Now we need help… we need the finances to help maintain their living facility. We are circling our Jericho in prayer. We are marching around our Jericho asking for a miracle. We are trusting God that many of you will answer this call. Many times our hearts are stirred to action and then we get busy and forget.
Please let that stirring compel you to action—click on the link below to help us save these beautiful people that society has forgotten! Help us share the love of Christ in the most sacrificial way possible—by helping the helpless.
Deuteronomy 27:19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
