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May 2002
Dear Friends,
Not Many Noble Are Called
Perhaps it is especially true that the great truths of the Bible
are demonstrated in the less sophisticated parts of the world.
It may be because these peoples are less buffered from the hard
realities of life by Western man’s social and mechanical
inventions. Could it be that this is the real world?
Daniel was born about 40 years ago to the first of five wives
in a nomad family of the Maasai tribe. His mother had long been
barren and was little regarded by husband or greater family. Now
things seemed to be improved, however, until two-year-old Daniel
developed polio with severe paralysis. The father was angry and
rejected the boy as useless in a tribe that counted the worth
of an individual by how well he could herd sheep, goats, and cattle.
The boy was relegated to sitting on the dirt floor, or boma,
surrounding his home while other children played, raced, danced,
fought, hunted, and cared for the animals. Life is hard and harsh
for a child growing up in rural Maasi land and all the more so
for a child with disability and an unloving father. As Daniel
describes it, "My dear mother also became my childhood playmate,
friend, and soulmate."
It was a Kenyan government directive that changed the course
of Daniel’s life. It was decreed that all families must send
at least one child to school. His father eagerly seized the opportunity
to get rid of the useless son. With a smile of relief the boy
was handed over to the chief, and the second phase of his life
began. Pain both emotional and physical was the lot of this disabled
child in the early years of school. He was struck by the teaching
of Jesus that a man was born blind, not because his parents sinned,
but because God had a purpose. When he finished school, Daniel
learned the skill of shoemaking and set up a rudimentary shoe
repair on the streets of Kajiado town, barely eking out enough
shillings for his daily food.
He was then touched by an angel in the form of a Scottish missionary
nurse with the nickname of Naado who launched the young man into
a basic course of making braces and artificial limbs, first in
Tanzania and then in South Korea. Now life suddenly had meaning
and a purpose. Daniel says, "Had I not been disabled I would
have been where all my able-bodied brothers and sisters are, right
there in the jungle with hunger, diseases, poverty and, worst
of all, ignorance."
Two years ago, Daniel’s father took ill. His and all the
greater family’s cattle were finished because of drought.
Now dependant on the crippled son, Daniel was happy and blessed
to be the one to offer that father care and love. In turn, the
father blessed him and before the old man died he put Daniel in
charge of the whole family. In Daniel’s words, "God
does work in mysterious ways. I feel that I am a role model not
just to my family but also to the young ones, disabled and helpless,
over 500 of whom have gone through the Child Care Center since
1979." Daniel has now been the director of this center for
the past six years.
Any Monday or Thursday we may see Daniel, tall and smiling with
long staff in his left hand, limping into the orthopedic clinic
with up to ten patients in tow. Crippled children and adults are
evaluated, with many admitted for surgery, others for bracing
or artificial limbs. We consider it a privilege to be in partnership
with this man of God. Last week Daniel was the honored one at
the Kikuyu Rehabilitation Center’s annual award banquet for
work among the crippled children of Kenya.
I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Corinthians of the
first century, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are might; and base
things of the world, and the things which are despised…to
bring to naught things that are."
S.C. Topple, MD
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