Caring for those with disabilities in the Ukraine.......
Meet Carrie Moss, Christian Health Service Corps missionary to the Ukraine. Carrie’s role as a physical therapist is to care for spinal cord injury patient’s helping them gain greatest level of functional independence possible.
In Ukraine, there is little hope for people with disabilities, particularly those who require a wheelchair for mobility. They are often confined to bed in their small apartments because their family members are unable, unwilling, untrained, or lack the necessary resources to move them. For those who do have the ability to move their own wheelchair, architectural obstacles abound. They may go months or years without leaving their apartments. They often feel invisible, forgotten, and neglected.
“I spent several months at the hospital before doctors sent me home to continue to lie in bed. I didn’t know how to live in this state [quadriplegia] and my parents didn’t know how to take care of me at home. I just stayed in bed all the time and I was unable even to sit by myself. I had no opportunity to be outside.”
“I spent two painful years in depression after my spinal cord injury.”
When disability strikes a family, rarely do they turn to God or the church for support and guidance. But the hope of the Gospel has changed the lives of people with disabilities…
The CHSC partner with whom Carrie is working in the Ukraine is New Opportunities which is a ministry for people with disabilities begun by Fimiam Church in Lutsk, Ukraine in 2005. Among the many facets of this ministry is the Active Rehabilitation Center (ARC), which opened in May 2007 to serve adults and children with spinal cord injuries, stroke, cerebral palsy, and other diagnoses. The goal of the ARC is to show people the love of Christ and guide them toward the Living Hope while giving them physical therapy. The physical therapy is designed to help people with disabilities develop a lifestyle where they live and function as independently as possible.
Carrie provides direct patient care but also trains church volunteers and family members of patients with disabilities how to provide such care. God has been working through this ministry and now several people with disabilities are believers reaching others for Christ. Among them are five people with spinal cord injuries whose first contact with the ministry was as patients at the ARC. What a joy to witness God who can give them spiritual transformation when they were only seeking physical transformation!
To Learn more about Carrie the work she is doing with us in the Ukraine you can visit us at www.healthservicecorps.org
Meet Carrie Moss, Christian Health Service Corps missionary to the Ukraine. Carrie’s role as a physical therapist is to care for spinal cord injury patient’s helping them gain greatest level of functional independence possible.
In Ukraine, there is little hope for people with disabilities, particularly those who require a wheelchair for mobility. They are often confined to bed in their small apartments because their family members are unable, unwilling, untrained, or lack the necessary resources to move them. For those who do have the ability to move their own wheelchair, architectural obstacles abound. They may go months or years without leaving their apartments. They often feel invisible, forgotten, and neglected.
“I spent several months at the hospital before doctors sent me home to continue to lie in bed. I didn’t know how to live in this state [quadriplegia] and my parents didn’t know how to take care of me at home. I just stayed in bed all the time and I was unable even to sit by myself. I had no opportunity to be outside.”
“I spent two painful years in depression after my spinal cord injury.”
When disability strikes a family, rarely do they turn to God or the church for support and guidance. But the hope of the Gospel has changed the lives of people with disabilities…
The CHSC partner with whom Carrie is working in the Ukraine is New Opportunities which is a ministry for people with disabilities begun by Fimiam Church in Lutsk, Ukraine in 2005. Among the many facets of this ministry is the Active Rehabilitation Center (ARC), which opened in May 2007 to serve adults and children with spinal cord injuries, stroke, cerebral palsy, and other diagnoses. The goal of the ARC is to show people the love of Christ and guide them toward the Living Hope while giving them physical therapy. The physical therapy is designed to help people with disabilities develop a lifestyle where they live and function as independently as possible.
Carrie provides direct patient care but also trains church volunteers and family members of patients with disabilities how to provide such care. God has been working through this ministry and now several people with disabilities are believers reaching others for Christ. Among them are five people with spinal cord injuries whose first contact with the ministry was as patients at the ARC. What a joy to witness God who can give them spiritual transformation when they were only seeking physical transformation!
To Learn more about Carrie the work she is doing with us in the Ukraine you can visit us at www.healthservicecorps.org
