What’s New At Capernaum?

An exciting opportunity has recently come up for Capernaum Pediatric Therapy! We are teaming up with Steve and Tanya Pankratz, missionaries in Bulgaria, to help get a school for special needs children up and running. Steve and Tanya have a child who was born with Down syndrome while on the mission field. After his birth, Tanya started a Down Syndrome Association in Bulgaria and began serving in a Christian school, which only recently has begun to invite children with special needs to enroll. Currently nothing like this exists in all of Bulgaria, and there are no occupational therapists in the whole country! Capernaum will be joining the school staff to set up the classrooms, provide assessments on the children, and provide training to the teachers, parents and other providers. Our goal is to spread the message that people with disabilities can learn and be employable and are valuable members of a community.

Tanya is also involved with an orphanage that serves children with special needs. Capernaum will be encouraging the direct care workers there—in their very busy schedules—to make their care for the children therapeutic and loving. Tanya has described them as being very devoted to the tasks of caring for the children (feeding, bathing, etc.), but their perspective is similar to that of our state hospital workers one hundred years ago! We hope to collaborate with them to make their care more developmentally and physically beneficial. We hope to help them find ways to continue to provide care for the children while providing a stimulating environment and establishing loving relationships with the children, which we know is key to every child’s development. We also hope to introduce the concept that all life has value, that people with disabilities can definitely contribute to the quality of our lives as well, and that Jesus loves us all!!

To accomplish this mission in Bulgaria, Capernaum will send two physical therapists, two speech therapists, two occupational therapists, and two construction workers from October 17-27, 2014. We will divide into two teams and serve both at the school and at the orphanage. Training will include sensory integration, understanding behaviors, parenting, integration of children with special needs into the classroom, and using the equipment they have to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Capernaum will return to Bulgaria in March 2015 to be the speakers at the Bulgaria’s National Down Syndrome Conference, which Tanya founded.

It is anticipated that this mission will cost a minimum of $16,000. If you would like to contribute, a tax-deductible donation can be made online using the following link: 
https://gracechurch.managedmissions.com/MyTrip/bonnaolson  

Most of all, your prayers for our travels and the sweet children that we will be serving are always appreciated!