The Geography of Miracles 3-2-10

Anderson, South Carolina

Can a miracle really be a click away? With the advent of the Internet, high resolution satellite imaging of the entire world, and wireless digital communication of all kinds, distance has lost much of its meaning. Gone are the days when it took two years for a letter to be delivered by a ship’s captain to a recipient on the far side of the world. Now it takes but a fraction of a second for a long letter with photos to be sent to a thousand people simultaneously in dozens of countries. Our world seems far smaller than it once did. Recently it became even smaller to me in a numinous way. Sometimes God works in ways that defy explanation, even by systems network engineers.

For eight years I have been involved in an intercessory prayer project that is found in twenty four countries and as many American states. On Thursday night a large file is e-mailed to me. It contains Christian teachings, answers to prayers, and petitions for new prayer needs. Friday morning after editing it, I return it to the sender. On Saturday it is forwarded with photos to recipients in two dozen countries. As a result of this prayer network, six hundred children in Kenya are now getting an education that includes safe drinking water, sanitation, solar lighting, and school supplies. Kenyan men are gainfully employed cleaning banks and hospitals to augment their meager incomes as ministers. A young gospel singer in South Africa had life saving cancer surgery two years ago because of this network. A hundred orphans and leprous widows in India eat every day and have clean safe places to live because God is able to send his mercy through this worldwide congregation of intercessors. It goes on this way in twenty-four countries because one woman has a vision and reaches out and clicks others a lot - everyday.

A very different kind of network is in Atlanta, this one also discovered through an Internet link between two of God’s people on our Internet prayer team. Childspring International has special connections in a hundred countries. Children born with congenital defects or having experienced catastrophic injuries find their way into this network. It gives them a real chance at life through the miracle of reconstructive surgery offered to them at no cost. One hundred and fifty children a year come to America to receive extensive treatment and rehabilitation. Airlines, stewardesses, hospitals, physicians, and hundreds of volunteers donate their services to bring these miracles to pass for children who have drawn the short straw in life. Childspring International is a grass roots state department creating good will in dozens of nations every day.

A thirteen-year-old Bulgarian girl has retino-blastoma and it was only a matter of time before she would lose all of her eyesight. Attempts at treatment failed to arrest what is considered a progressive irreversible disease.

Two years ago I was asked to find some kind of facility that might be able to teach Kalina the life skills that would enable her to navigate in her growing darkness. I was asked to find one in the southeast United States, perhaps even in Georgia where Childspring has its offices. It is really important to be able to connect host families with these special needs children and a facility here in the southeast would make these logistics much easier. I am in South Carolina so was in the dark about what might be in the Atlanta area, if anything. Walgreen’s and CVS build pharmacies on every corner but benefactors don’t put up schools for the visually impaired on every corner, or even in every state. I was not optimistic but kept my thoughts to myself.

Clicking and drilling through the findings Google produced was hopeful. A highly rated residential school for the blind is in Alabama but it seemed one had to be a state resident to gain admittance. Another possibility was a couple hundred miles away. A thousand miles away was another option and an institute turned up in Canada. From the web sites it was difficult to determine if these schools could or would provide services to a foreigner and at what cost.

The Center for the Visually Impaired turned up on virtual radar. I had a subliminal feeling something important was about to happen. From the web site it was not possible to tell if the Center could help her or would, or at what cost. But I had a feeling our searching was over. Further research and contact with the gracious staff proved there would be a good fit for Kalina in this Center. It would be able to provide a full range of services at no cost. There are incredible benefactors who have made this magnificent program possible.

As it turns out, this fine facility is located a mere ten blocks from the Childspring offices. I can walk from one office to the other in twenty minutes or less. I started out hoping to find something in the western hemisphere and ended up finding the best possible answer, within walking distance. An advertising slogan for the yellow pages says, “Let your fingers do the walking.” In this case the slogan ought to read, “Let your God do the clicking.” Perhaps apt also is, “We get God’s best when we let him do the choosing.”

I am in South Carolina and was asked by an agency in another state to find very specialized resources for a child from Bulgaria, resources about which I knew nothing. I was asked to find services anywhere. She ended up in the neighborhood, just down the street.

Kalina was able to enter Atlanta’s Center for the Visually Impaired and learn those skills so essential to her having a full and meaningful life. This Center proves to be a premier facility at teaching independence skills to the visually impaired. In fact, this is the primary mission of the facility. Kalina lost her remaining vision and she graduated from this program on a Friday almost two years ago, along with fifteen other children who make their life journeys in physical darkness. However, they travel in the brilliance of the love of God and those generous benefactors who made this opportunity possible. I was invited into this sacred space to see the baton of God’s love handed to these children by volunteers and staff who have found a consuming passion. Watching this graduation program in the basement of a building in downtown Atlanta was every bit the equal of any of my awe-inspiring experiences in the great cathedrals of Europe. I remember it as clearly as if it was yesterday.

If one is uncertain if the world is a warm friendly place, then one merely needs to visit Childspring International or the Center for the Visually Impaired and watch the volunteer staff work with these children. There are people in America doing grand things and not getting paid for it with the currency of this realm. They are piling up their treasures in other places.

Kalina will make the journey back from Bulgaria this month to be with us in Atlanta as our ‘poster child’ for Childspring’s annual black-tie fund raiser at the Georgia Aquarium. Five hundred well-wishers will be there to greet her. Kalina will demonstrate the vision of her benefactors was more than enough for her to see the Way into successful living; that the universe is a friendly place after all. Perhaps I can even beg a dance from her.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.