How God Raises Up Missionary Leaders Through Disability
“God uses all of us and our diverse gifts to glorify Him – we just have to make ourselves available…”
I entered this world 33 years ago, perplexing doctors as they searched for a diagnosis. I was born with a rare genetic disorder that requires constant monitoring and treatment. Hospital and doctor visits were routine experiences for me as a child. But they were also intriguing. During these early days, God’s plan for my life was already unfolding as I met other kids with rare conditions and heard their life stories.
When I went to university, I was compelled by the principle of missions, that ‘Every workplace in every nation is your mission field’. My passion was to use my unique gifts and talents to bring glory to God and share His love with others. So I made a conscious decision to acquire a professional skill that I could use to serve God on mission.
My studies led to certification as a Prosthetist and Orthotist. I worked for seven years in the mission field of my clinic and patient evaluation rooms, where God brought the hurting and hopeless directly to me. I was blessed to be able to make a physical impact on their lives by designing and fitting prosthetic and orthotic devices for them. But I was also positioned to see them grow in confidence and other ways.
Though I loved seeing God at work in my own workplace, I came to sense Him calling me to something new. I had no idea He was about to send me to a small country in northern Europe!
In 2015, I moved to Latvia with much to offer in the way of professional experience, but also much to learn. My plan: to use my skills and knowledge in prosthetics, orthotics, and disability awareness as a pathway to share God’s love; to build relationships, and to serve those affected by disability.
Only God could help me accomplish this plan!
Thankfully, the Lord had given me many godly leaders in the past, so I had some great examples before me. Drawing on all that had been vested in me to date, I began a ministry called Designed to Live. If I wanted to see it succeed in this new and foreign context, I knew I had to partner and collaborate with local organizations, churches, professionals, and people with disabilities. God allowed me to make those valuable connections, so the ministry could have the greatest possible impact on the lives of people with disabilities – those whom it was designed to bless.
By offering my life in service to God, He has opened so many doors of opportunity.
God has allowed me to reach patients with no previous access to care, instruct other prosthetics and orthotics professionals, work with local churches and leaders, lead seminars and workshops on inclusion of people with disabilities in the church, organize respite events for families affected by disability as an outreach to the community, and attend other organizations’ events.
Latvian disability organization leaders invited me to attend their summer camps for people with various disabilities. Here I have had the opportunity to provide prosthetic and orthotic consultations and custom-made devices. These connections I made with campers and camp leaders have resulted in deep relationships that last long after camp has ended.
These opportunities have been very valuable for my networks, in particular the development of new ministry partnerships. One relationship, in particular, is with Baiba. Baiba and I began to collaborate early in the development of my ministry in Latvia.
With her inspiring and encouraging perspectives and understanding of life with a disability, Baiba draws on her experience living with spina bifida as she shares Christ with anyone she meets.
I regularly call on her for insight into the life of someone who uses a wheelchair, for insights into the culture or the theology of disability, and for ideas about how to minister sensitively. Much of my ministry success and operation today is thanks to Baiba’s advice and collaboration.
A full-time missionary, Baiba leads a disability initiative, raising awareness of life with a disability. Most importantly, she is getting others with disabilities involved in serving. Her ministry is a reminder to me that helping people with disabilities is good, but involving them in using their unique God-given skills and talents to serve others is even better!
Despite having been here in Latvia for five years, I feel like my life and ministry are only just beginning. While I may have physical and technical gifts to make a physical impact on lives, I can see the value of relational gifts such as Baiba’s, which build up the Body.
God uses all of us and our diverse gifts to glorify Him – we just have to make ourselves available, and to do so with the greatest possible levels of collaboration, compassion, humility, acceptance, authenticity, and consistency.
If we are willing, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
Written By—Katie Leatherwood
Katie Leatherwood is the director of Designed to Live and serves as a missionary with Greater Europe Mission in Riga, Latvia. She is a Certified Prosthetist and Orthotist and Certified Adaptive Fitness Trainer.
Edited by David C. Deuel & Nathan G. John
Disability in Mission
Disability in Mission: The Church’s Hidden Treasure outlines a radical change in approaches to missiology, missions, and praxis for the twenty-first-century global cultural context. It explores a pattern whereby God works powerfully in missions through disability and not in spite of it.
Pray with Us
Heavenly Father, we come before you requesting a miracle. Lord of disability, please change our hearts. We confess that we doubt or dismiss people with disabilities. But worse, we pridefully make them objects of pity when instead we should see your calling and giftedness in their lives.
Please use this book’s testimonies of your sufficient grace. May the many missionary lives lived faithfully with disability remind us that called and gifted people with disabilities are platforms for your enablement, showcases for your glory. Remind us that disability is your stage for shocking a watchful world.
We believe that you can and will heal all disabilities. But on your disability stage, display your power by changing our hearts.
