Rise and Walk is an association of people with disabilities organized in Romania by George Uba, current president, and pastor of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and by Aurel Burcea, current vice-president.
The CEO of the Association is Daniel Costantin, who cares also for, other than the normal administration, the graphics of the Association to guarantee its visibility.
These commissions are a great support to all the participants who don’t hide their disabilities; in fact, they have learned to make it their strong point. I can tell you that these are great examples for those who don’t have physical disabilities. Let me share my experience.
I arrived in Bucharest on Friday evening, in order to be ready for the weekly Saturday morning meeting in the Adventist community. I knew it would not be a regular meeting, because we were expecting around forty members of the Association Rise and Walk.
As usual, I believed that they would have been “parked” on one side of the hall to help with the event, together with the others.
To my great astonishment, I noted that all of them, those with their wheelchairs and crutches, the blind, the deaf, every single one was positioned on the pulpit, in front of the rest of the community.
I found this style a bit strange and unusual, being used to seeing the usual preacher on the pulpit.
I had been given part of the program, about 10 minutes, to present a devotional. A shiver passed through my spine when I realized that there was no preacher, and I thought: could it be me? As pastors, we must always be ready for these kinds of invitations, but in certain circumstances, improvisations are not healthy.
So I asked Pastor Uba how he was running the program and who was the preacher. With a compassionate smile, he told me, “They will give the sermon this morning; you will be the last one and, please, no more than 10 minutes. With translation!”
Well, I relaxed and listened to the collective sermon.
You won’t believe it, Costantin does not have use of his legs, but he got out of his chair, on his knees and started to talk. He used only vowels and his wife translated. He spoke for 10 minutes using all his pleasantness and a smile that I rarely saw. At the beginning of his message, he boldly called attention to an assumption: “You believe that we are handicapped! No, I don’t see any handicapped here, I only see people who, in one way or another, manifest their personalities!” He continued encouraging all to accept the state in which they found themselves. I was speechless!
Others spoke along the same line. One blind woman (sadly, I don’t remember his name) and a visually impaired lady sang in such a way that it was difficult to express appreciation without applauding. Another blind woman accompanied the songs by piano. She might have been one of Beethoven’s disciples. What skill!
The whole liturgy lasted from 10:30am to 2:00pm, but no one complained; the entire community was more than attentive in absorbing the words, the pleasantness and the affection of these special needs people.
Lunch concluded the morning, and even then, there was a moving surprise. I should point out that a majority of them did not have use of their hands, because they were numb from disease. It was moving to see how they helped each other, and with such grace.
Has it ever happened to you that you return home after the morning events and you ask yourselves what touched you about the message received?
That day, I didn’t ask myself that, I only thanked the Lord for giving me one of the most beautiful messages I had ever heard in my 44 years of going to church.
Those responsible for the Association did a good job, giving a certain dignity to these people who had lost the use of words, legs, eyes, and simple hands. When I began to hug them, because it was the only thing I could do seeing as I didn’t speak Romanian, I saw their uncontainable joy that made them excited because their nerves were uncontrollable. One of them (unfortunately, I don’t remember the name), the most excited one, is the national chess vice-champion. He plays with 5 players at the same time and, with his mother’s help in moving the figures, always succeeds in winning against all of them.
When I found this out, my respect for him was, of course, doubled. Compassion? No, respect and, above all, admiration. They are an example of how no limit can halt their desire to exist and to manifest their existence very concretely.
On Sunday afternoon, after the usual meeting where ideas are exchanged along with performances (music, poetry, dialogues, messages) and the potluck offered by contributions that the association occasionally receives, things got more interesting. To my great surprise, we all went together, in a colorful group, to a nearby park to set up a humanitarian action with great social impact.
All were given a bunch of balloons with the writing: “Thank you for existing!” along with a little flyer that promoted the Association’s goals.
It was moving to see them meet with passersby and, with their excited and confused presentations, search to share this precious message.
This action could be inserted into a normal context of evangelism, but a great part of them are not Adventist, rather coming from other religious entities or not at all. Yet, they all felt involved in transmitting the most simple values, recognising that the other existed and there was no indifference.
Many times, we are attracted by the plight of a handicapped person who is awkwardly trying to conquer the step onto the sidewalk or simply cross the street.
Let’s be frank, sometimes, if not always, we try to avoid their look so as not to embarrass them or feel embarrassed ourselves. But when they come to you and thank you because you were not indifferent to them, then it no more has to do with embarrassment, but shame for dodging them.
The two days flew by without notice. Time is very relative when one is in the company of such special friends. We didn’t speak the same language, and for me it is difficult to not make contact with those who I meet along the way. However, it is not only words that give life to our desire to create a friendship. Frankly, I felt sufficiently handicapped for not being able to understand them and let myself be understood. What was enough, though, were the looks, the smiles, and the focused attention, but, most of all, the affection that Jesus felt every time that He hugged the disabled of His time, to break the barriers.
There are more than a billion people in the world who, in one way or another, are diversely enabled. To win all of them is only utopian, but fortunately many are the religious and otherwise associations that adopt them to give them back their dignity.
In Romania, Rise and Walk is a NGO that began in 2010, in Bucharest, with 5 people. After 6 years, over 20 offices were founded all over the territory and 10 are in the process of being legalized. More than 4000 people, including volunteers, meet each week to share a space where none feel different. It takes very little, a lot of good will and a positive attitude, to make you say without any hypocrisy: thank you for existing.
