The intentions may have been good, but it injured a disabled child in the process and now the mother is trying to draw a line between prayers for miracles, and those who falsely claim they can heal the sick.
Cayo resident, 16 year old Jeslyn Pinelo has been living with cerebral Palsy, and is confined to a wheelchair unable to move on her own. On Saturday her grandmother took her to a so-called healing sermon in Belize City. Somehow during that sermon, Jeslyn who cannot stand, walk or move on her own, was lifted from her chair, causing her to fall over and sustain injuries to her face. Here's how her mother explained what happened.
Jyselle Pinelo, Faith Heavens Educational Consultancy
"My mom took my daughter to get a healing prayer and unfortunately it was a twist towards the incident. I am not directly blaming anyone but I just want to give that awareness to the community itself and so forth and the problem is that she fell and she got hurt and her bruises are very vivid on her face and so forth so it is something I believe as a parent and as an educator you need to bring awareness to because yes we believe in God's miracles I am not anywhere against that but one thing is the protocols that take place especially in Seminars and in spiritual healings sessions like these we need to have that type of awareness and at the same time have that you know we need to be prepared and have that preparedness especially when dealing with individuals with disabilities especially."
"It was a working day for me yesterday Saturday and I had to go to work but my mom begged me and said please let me take her for healing and so she decided and yes I gave my mom that permission to take my daughter to the seminar for a prayer not knowing that they would have taken her out of the wheelchair."
"As it pertains to the particulars of the incident Im not sure exactly how they took her out of the wheel chair as I said I was not there you know but I believe that they probably lift her up off the wheel chair to pray for her and then try to have her walk or something and that was when she fell and hit her face on the floor."
In a statement to 7News her mother said, quote, "The family is now calling for greater public awareness and regulation around such events, urging churches and authorities to protect people with disabilities from exploitation."
