Written by Alfonso Roman
Alfonso Roman is a UCC retired Minister now living in his home country. A Local Church Ministry Board of Directors member, he serves in the United Evangelical Church of Puerto Rico, UCC Conference.
Sunday morning finds members of the United Evangelical Church of Puerto Rico Arzuaga Street in Río Piedras ready to participate in the intercession prayer. Suddenly Edgardo brings forward Sorimer. His smiling, healthy looking eight-year-old daughter goes into the praying circle. From her walking chair, in a firm but slightly unclear voice she tells the pastor, “Quiero que oremos por la paz” (I want that we pray for peace). The congregation bursts into a joyful ovation.
Sorimer states love for her Tata’s (maternal grandmother’s) church where the congregation’s poet has celebrated her in a poem. She participates in special celebrations. She is seen not as an invalid or disabled child but an angel sent to transform the member’s perception of the value of a human life. She is respected with dignity as a human being growing with them as a member of the family of God in Arzuaga Street.
They consider this fourth generation member God’s gift to them. Mirla, Sorimer’s mother, said, “Since she was in my womb they have been praying for her, sharing her development with apprehension and joy.” After her premature birth Sorimer developed severe cerebral palsy. She has to be always in her chair. Even with movement and communications difficulties, her normal, impressive intellect flourishes. To her parents, relatives and congregation, Sorimer is “God’s power manifested.”
While in the hospital during her first two months, her parents, both music teachers, played the flute and sang hymns to stimulate her still developing sensations and body functions. The local pastor and church members remained with them praying and singing in hope, as they did two years later during another lengthy hospitalization. Once again the faith of the parents and congregation grew. Sorimer left the hospital to participate as the Virgin Mary in the Christmas Pageant.
In Puerto Rico, where persons with disabilities comprise one-third of the population, Sorimer’s special education programs are limited and costly. Sometimes their perceptive child becomes impatient as she waits while the active intellectual section of her brain tries to use her speech muscles.
Sorimer prayed for a little sister, asking God that she could walk. She then challenged Yarimer, asking her to walk and to do things that she from her walking chair cannot do. Seeing her sister as God’s response to her prayers, Sorimer states, “Yo voy a caminar” (I am going to walk)! She tells her parents, “Pídanle a Dios que pueda andar” (Ask God that I can walk)!
Knowing that her development will be slow, her parents trust that God’s spirit will be manifested and that with her determination, their loving care, and the congregation’s prayers she will succeed. Her development in God’s hand, they select her training with care to guarantee that it is according to her potential and abilities. Their goal is to have a happy, loving and creative daughter who loves God and her church, and who functions at the peak of her potential by sharing what God has given her.
With her father at the piano, she shares the “corito” learned in Sunday School: “Hay una unción aquí cayendo sobre mi” (There is a blessing around me) “Sanando todo mi ser” (Giving health to my whole life).
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