Disability & Special Needs Ministry
June 2020
All are gifted, needed, and treasured!
BI-MONTHLY BIBLE VERSE
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6, NKJV)
“Welcome to the Twelfth (12th) edition of the of Gulf States Conference (GSC) “Disability Special Needs & Possibilities Ministry Newsletter”. The format of remaining issues will focus not only on secular disability matters, but endeavor to provide Spiritual sinew to endure these turbulent times. Future editions will continue to be published on a “bi-monthly” basis.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (NKJV)
David & Goliath
"And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance." 1 Samuel 17:42
Goliath dismissed David because he was a mere youth; Goliath made a big mistake. New Castle, Pennsylvania's Jerry Brown Jr. dismissed an 89-year-old woman when he stole her friend's purse. He also made a big mistake.
Now it's true, this lady didn't have David's sling and five, smooth stones taken from a riverbed. On the other hand, she did have her cane. Stones or cane, both can come in handy when bringing down a bad guy. This lady rather than standing there looking all frail and helpless, gave a whack to Brown's getaway car. She gave it such a whack she scratched the paint and left a dent in the vehicle. Between the dent, the scratch and the description of the robbers, the New Castle police were soon able to arrest Brown and an accomplice, Tatiana Vargas.
Over the years I've noticed the forces of evil tend to dismiss and discount God's people. We don't look like much; we don't sport halos like the saints do in the artists' depictions and most of us don't perform miracles. Even so, God's people, the young and old, the weak and the frail can accomplish great things when they put their trust in the Lord. According to Scripture, it was in the Lord -- not those stones -- that David placed his trust. Indeed, he said as much to Goliath when he shouted, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
Now I don't know which evil giant is coming against you. I don't know what force of evil is going to try and intimidate you, frighten, bully and terrorize you. I do know that when you stand by the side of the Lord, you need not be afraid. Indeed, as St. Paul said, it is because of the crucified and risen Savior's victory that the Lord's saved people are "... more than conquerors through Him who loved us". (Romans 8:37b)
Even when they're up against Goliaths.
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Isaiah 1:16-17 (KJV)
THE ORIGINS OF THE OPEN-AIR REGIMEN (Extract)
By the time of the 1918–1919 pandemic, it was common practice to put the sick outside in tents or in specially designed open wards. Among the first advocates of what was later to become known as the “open-air method” was the English physician John Coakley Lettsom (1744–1815), who exposed children suffering from tuberculosis to sea air and sunshine at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Kent, England, in 1791.20,21 Lettsom's enthusiasm for fresh air attracted little support at the time, and the next doctor to recommend it met with fierce opposition. George Bodington (1799–1882) was the proprietor of the first institution that could be described as a tuberculosis sanatorium, at Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham, England. He treated pulmonary tuberculosis with a combination of fresh air, gentle exercise in the open, a nutritious, varied diet, and the minimum of medicines.
Bodington had noticed that people who spent their time indoors were susceptible to tuberculosis, whereas those who worked outdoors, such as farmers, shepherds, and plowmen, were usually free of the disease. He reasoned that patients should copy the lifestyles of those who appeared immune to tuberculosis. They should live in well-ventilated houses in the country and spend much of their time outside breathing fresh air. According to Bodington,
The application of cold, pure air to the interior surface of the lungs is the most powerful sedative that can be applied, and does more to promote the healing of cavities and ulcers of the lungs than any other means that can be employed. 22 (p17)
George Bodington had anticipated the principles of sanatorium treatment that were to become the main line of defense against the disease. 25 By the 1850s, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was writing about the importance of sunlight and copious amounts of fresh air in the recovery of hospital patients, 26,27 but her ideas were slow to gain acceptance. And so it was in Germany that the open-air regimen reemerged, most notably at the Nordrach-Kolonie in the Black Forest, a sanatorium established in 1888 by Otto Walter (1853–1919). It was so well known that “Nordrach” became the term for open-air sanatoria. By 1908, there were at least 90 of them in Britain, many of which were enthusiastic imitations of Nordrach.28
An open-air recovery school for tubercular children, founded in 1904 at Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin, was the first of its type and, as with Germany's open-air sanatoria, was widely imitated.29 In 1884, Edward Livingston Trudeau (1848–1915) opened America's first sanatorium at Saranac Lake in New York State.30 The first open-air orthopedic hospital was set up in the Shropshire village of Baschurch in England in 1907.31 In the two decades before World War I, charitable associations, leagues, and societies dedicated to preventing and eliminating tuberculosis among the poor flourished, as did sanatoria.32
CREDITS:
"Big God, Little Stones" (By Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of "The Lutheran Hour")
[Minor editing]
Chris Long, Laugh & Lift Ministries, http://www.laughandlift.com
24. Keers RY. Two forgotten pioneers—James Carson and George Bodington. Thorax. 1980;35:483–489. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Published by
George Hamilton
Assistant Disability Ministry Director
Gulf States Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
H. 256-883-7751
C. 850-543-1398
Disabilities & Special Needs Ministry Goals
Email: gsc-disability@gscsda.org
Website: https://gscsda.org/disability-ministries
Location: 10633 Atlanta Highway, Montgomery, AL, USA
Phone: 3342727493