Encountering Handicaps

What would you do if you couldn't use your hands or eyes? Performing simple tasks would suddenly become much more difficult. Imagine trying to get to work without hands or eyes. Imagine trying to make yourself a sandwich. Or what if instead your lost your voice. Imagine trying to communicate to someone who is blind, but you yourself have no voice.

These are some of the challenges our team faced during training this week when asked to do a simple task: Pick out some broccoli at Costco and make your way back to your shopping cart (which you left in another aisle). Oh, but here's the catch: One person is blindfolded. Only one person in the team can use her hands. And only one person can talk.

Suddenly, everything becomes harder.

handicapped in Costco
Tim (voiceless), Cierra (blind) and Hannah (arm-less) attempt to find their way back to their cart 

Slowly, we are learning about the value of teamwork. It's hard when we don't know each other well. It's even harder when we don't trust one another yet, or when personality quirks and preferences get in the way. So pray for us as we continue to learn to be a team, to support one another, and to listen to God over our own preferences.

We have 18 days and counting!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life in a Large Urban Community

Image
Here's an excerpt from our mission team training book: "Life in a big city keeps moving. It's always morphing into something different, which can make serving in the city difficult... Because urban areas are such diverse environments, it's not hard to feel flooded with all the sensory influences. The sights, sounds and smells of the city can easily overwhelm the most seasoned traveler. Population densities are much higher in the city, so there are more people, more shops, more cars... more everything. As we serve in urban areas, we may encounter cultural and ethnic diversity, various levels of poverty and the challenges that come from a lot of people living in a small area. But we will also experience how this blend creates unique pockets of community within the larger city. Because of this abundance of factors, we'll find that the stereotypes we've held about people -- or certain kinds of people -- may not hold true. Let's join together and con...
Read more

Day 4 (Tuesday): Serving and Playing

Image
Tim So today it was the second day of serving the people at the soup kitchen. It was cool, we served about 900 people, and some guy accidentally urinated on himself. We prayed for him, and I hope he’s doing well. Anyway, after that we ate and then went to Belmont Park, which is an amusement park, like Boardwalk. Wesley and I won 3 big basketballs and we were happy. I scammed them lol. Sorting plums at the San Diego Food Bank San Diego Food Bank feeds an average of 400,000 per month Some of the plums were really cool shapes (some people hated them) Eating Dole Whip Hannah and Cierra doing a ropes course "Option Night" means fun at the Boardwalk
Read more

Day 3 (Monday): First Day at Service Sites

Image
Ada Today, we helped out at the boys and girls club. We saw really cute kids like Isabella, Sophia, and Isaac. Later, we went to the senior home to eat lunch. The funny thing was that we forgot our cooler with our lunches. Thank goodness there were cup noodles in our car. It was really fun [[; I named all the leaders and made friends with them. Sunshine, Flower, Daisy, Kangeroo, and Jay.  Large Group Gathering (LGG): discussion groups Yasmine Hi, today was our first day working for the community,   we started off the morning helping at a boys and girls camp. Joni told me that the camp was for kids who   had a bad background, we loved playing with the kids, though there was some bullying. The afternoon we went to a senior home. It was a lot of fun talking to all the seniors. A little later we went to the Mexico border, but I stuck my hand through. We went down to the beach later, but we didn’t get wet.  Hannah Also, someone was mopping the...
Read more