Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 04:4 (Fall 1990)
Article: Working to Change Ideas
Author: John Maust

Working to Change Ideas

John Maust

Mariana Ruybalid describes herself as “a very independent person.”

The LAM missionary is a psychologist by training, with a working knowledge of Spanish, French and Portuguese plus a reading knowledge of Biblical Greek and Hebrew. Her speech is slow and fuzzy, but people tell Mariana she is easier to understand in Spanish than English. (‘Terhaps I am more careful”)

So when Mariana arrived in Costa Rica in 1984, she was in for a shock. She saw that people with physical limitations generally were given no responsibility for, or control over, their own lives. In some homes, people with physical limitations were kept “hidden away in a back room.”

She immediately set out to help persons with physical limitations run their own lives, excel and even serve others. In the process, she said, “God has opened doors.”

The National Council for Rehabilitation and Special Education asked her to start two groups for women with physical limitations, for instance.

Last November in Costa Rica, Mariana played a key role in a first-class conference to train leaders who have functional limitations.

Conference sponsors included the Organization of American States and the office of Costa Rica’s First Lady, dona Margarita Pendn de Arias. But people with physical limitations actually organized the conference, selected the speakers and found workers and sign language interpreters. Mariana gave one of the inaugural addresses.

“Works to change ideas”

“I’m working to change ideas,” says Mariana, Once she was invited to speak at a hospital where doctors expressed surprise that anyone with cerebral palsy could give a coherent talk. In their minds, a person with cerebral palsy also is mentally retarded, Mariana said.

“If parents of a child with physical limitations are told this,” Mariana said, “they won’t expect much, and the child won’t receive the [mental] stimulation that is needed. So maybe the child will become retarded—It’s a case of self-fulfilling expectations.”

Born in Denver, Colorado, Mariana moved with her family to Venezuela and then to Brazil, where at age 15 she committed her life to Christ.

At age 24 she entered a period of struggle with God and wound up studying at L’Abri in Switzerland and France, where she put her life under Christ’s lordship.

Mariana has questioned why she has cerebral palsy. But she has come to see the importance of her being a role model—that of a person with physical limitations but who is a Christian, manages her own life, and also helps other people.

Seeing progress

Mari...