The Works of God

We’ve seen a lot of news this past year about companies developing ways to identify genetic anomalies in the womb, mostly for the reason of preventing those little ones from being born.

So it is encouraging to see people thinking of ways to improve the lives of those who live with disabilities!  For example:

1. Smart Gloves Turn Sign Language Gestures into Vocalized Speech: The title says it all! Some Ukrainian students developed a glove that pairs with a smartphone to enable those who know sign language to communicate with those of us who don’t.
2. Adaptive Snowboard Reinvented: Raising the Bar: A group of guys decided they wanted their friend, who became paralyzed after a snowboard accident, to experience snowboarding again. They created a whole new way to do it.  Everyone wins!  (Caution: there is some mild bad language in the video attached to the article).
3. New Breed of Robotics Aims to Help People Walk Again: “Patients learn to walk in the robotic suits surprisingly quickly, said Eythor Bender, chief executive of Ekso Bionics, who previously worked at Ossur, a company that made artificial limbs. ‘People who come in haven’t walked for years and years,’ he said in an interview. ‘They are walking on their own in two days.'”
4. Danes develop eye-control software for phones, tablets: Thank you to @matttone for sending this one to me.  A Danish company believes they’ve found a way to have people control their devices simply through their eyes.  As Matt pointed out, this could have great benefits for many people with disabilities, even though the company threw that in as an afterthought!

From what I can tell from these articles, none of the above were started from a Christian perspective.  Now that these smart people have shown what perseverance, creativity and ingenuity can accomplish, let’s ask God to help our churches be just as creative and excited about serving and being served by their members with disabilities!