Hard of Hearing

How does one just hear well? They used to say get the cotton out of your ears. Listening is an active skill for me. I do plenty of hearing but sometimes I choose to not listen. I think my wife  is the first person to experience life with me when I have do not listen. Our ability to connect and sometimes just accomplish daily tasks is hard when I do not have my listening ears on. My travels in the Holy Scripture this week have brought me to  (Proverbs 6:22, KJV ). It instructs me how to give God the night key to my heart. That night key is the Word of God. Solomon states, “When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee” (Proverbs 6:22, kjv). This is a summary of the relationship between conscious meditation and subconscious meditation, and of its relation to our daily walk.

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How Joni & Friends Has Impacted My Life!

             I thought I was going to serve, but I ended up being served. I thought I was going to help the needy, but I realized I was the needy one and was helped. I realized that people with disabilities have value and many gifts that most of society overlooks. These are some of the thoughts I learned from my involvement with Joni & Friends (JAF). In so many ways, JAF has impacted my life.

 Let me give you a brief history of events that has lead to these life-changing moments in my life. When I was a junior in high school, the infamous question was, “What are you going to go to college for?” I really didn’t know and often replied, “Maybe Accounting?” I realized I didn’t have a clue and asked God to help me figure it out since he created me and knew me best.

Shortly after asking God to help me out, I had a strong urge to read a book. This was very unlike me, as I was not a book reader and hated reading unless I had to. However, for some reason, I had this strong urge that brought me to my parents’ bookshelf, looking for a book to read. I came across one titled Joni that had a picture of a gal with a paintbrush in her mouth. It looked interesting. I pulled it out and asked my mom if it was a good book. She told me it was, so I took it to my room and began reading.

Joni’s story captivated me and I could not put the book down. She wrote about her diving accident and her newly found life with quadriplegia. She wrote about her long road in rehab and the many challenges she faced. She wrote about her therapists that helped her regain function and retrained her how to do daily, as well as recreational, activities again.  One of those recreational activities included drawing and painting. Joni learned to draw with her mouth since she could no longer use her hands like she did before. At that point in the book, I said to myself, “Now that would be a cool job!”

From that moment, I pursued a degree in Occupational Therapy. I went to college for 6 years to obtain my Master’s at Concordia University Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. In 2001, I found out that Joni was going to speak at a conference in Wheaton IL. I had to go!

That conference changed my life. There were hundreds of people there with and without disabilities. I never have been in a place with so many people with disabilities before. It was powerful, especially as we sang. I saw people singing with all their hearts, uninhibited, and genuinely real. No fakeness, no facades.  I saw people full of joy and happiness even though their lives were full of struggles.  I felt a joy and a love fill the room that I never felt before. Joni spoke and also sang beautifully. I was able to meet Joni after the conference. I had her sign my book and told her that her story inspired me to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy.  She was excited for me and praised the therapists that helped in rehab.

Also at the conference, there was a recruiter (Jon Ebersole) at a booth recruiting people for their Family Retreats and Wheels for The World programs. I was very interested and took the information. However, being in college and working, I was unable to get to a retreat until after I graduated. 

In college however, pursued working in the disability community as a secretary of the Milwaukee chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. There I made several friends with disabilities and began learning what life was like for people with disabilities.  I also had my student fieldwork experience in a hospital with a spinal cord injury rehab unit.

In 2004, I finally made it to my first Family Retreat at The Oakwood Inn in Syracuse, IN.  It was one of the most life-changing weeks of my life. I was matched with a girl close to my age with Cerebral Palsy named Lauren. We hit it off well from the start. I learned she was a lot like me, with similar interests and struggles in life. She ended up teaching me more than I think I taught her. For the first time, I experienced first hand that people with disabilities had a lot to offer and value overlooked by most. From that moment, I would forever seek to surround myself with people with disabilities. Lauren and I grew our friendship over the years to come and we are still friends today.  JAF became a family to me right away and continued to grow stronger every year.

I would drive 8 hours from Green Bay, WI to JAF Retreats the every summer, being the highlight of my year.  I searched for opportunities in my hometown and home church to connect with people with disabilities. At the time, I struggled finding them. Eventually, my brother gave me a brochure for a camp for people with disabilities asking, “Have you ever heard of Camp Daniel?” I said, “No,” taking the brochure and seeing the address was in Athelstane, WI. Just an hour north of where I was living! This was in my own backyard! It was in during the winter months, so it was a long ways off until their summer camps. However, I looked on their website and saw that they met in Green Bay once a month for a church service called The Able Fellowship. It was a church service for and run by people with disabilities. That concept never crossed my mind before and it intrigued me.  I anxiously awaited their next meeting January of 2007.

My first time at The Able Fellowship was amazing. Two people with disabilities happily greeted me at the door.  Others with disabilities helped lead the prayer and singing. It was truly nothing like I’ve experienced before. It was most real and genuine church service I’ve ever been to. 

I continued to attend The Able Fellowship each month until finally the summer camp season began. That June, I served two weeks with Joni & Friends Retreat once again. It was amazing as always and so good to see my JAF family. When I returned, I couldn’t wait to serve at and see Camp Daniel’s summer camp.

That year, Camp Daniel’s camp theme was “Family”. It was a very fitting theme as it was during that summer that God led me to join the Camp Daniel family.  I joined their missionary staff, where I have been serving as a fulltime missionary within the disability community ever since.

            Camp Daniel was named after a boy named Daniel who had a form of muscular dystrophy and was called in to ministry at a young age. Daniel was friends with Joni and impacted the disability community in many ways, just like her.

After Daniel passed away in his young 20s, Camp Daniel was developed in 1996 with summer camps and Christian family group homes.  The Able Fellowship transpired after several years of having campers come to camp, beginning a relationship with God, and have no spiritual connection or church family to connect with when returning home. Summer camp ended up being most of the camper’s only church connection all year long. The Able Fellowship eventually evolved into a weekly church service called, The Able Church, in which I played a vital role in its formation. Its leadership of its members with disabilities continues to grow. It even has a pastor with an intellectual disability, naturally teaching the Bible simplistically so its members can understand.

Today, my husband and two-year-old son join me as fulltime missionaries in disability ministry. We run a group home and help run the summer camps with Camp Daniel. We are currently in the process of starting The Able Church in another community near by. We speak at churches, colleges, schools, and Bible studies about the value of people with disabilities and their importance within the church. Special Olympics have also been a huge part of our lives. We continue to serve with Joni & Friends retreats as leaders for the young adult group. Joni & Friends retreats have been a dear family for us with the relationships we’ve made with other volunteers and attending families.  We hope to someday serve on a Wheels for the World trip and also at a Warrior Getaway (my husband served in the Marines).

Joni & Friends has guided my life in so many ways. It has guided my jobs, my mission, my thoughts and most importantly, my relationships.  Without JAF, I would not have realized the value of people with disabilities, much less sought them out as friends. I would not have sought disability ministry as a full-time, life-long commitment. It would not be my mission to see churches filled with people with disabilities. JAF has played a huge role in who and where I am today, and I will be forever grateful! www.joniandfriends.org

Burys in MT

Hello from MT! Marceaux and I are coming to the end of our 2 weeks in Bozeman MT, Marceaux's home town and where his parents live. Here is MJ's first plane ride! All went well minus a diaper explosion right before take off and having them wait for us as we changed MJ on the smallest changing table and smallest bathroom ever!

 We are here for two reasons. A big reason is to spend time with family and, boy, are Grandma & Grandpa having fun with MJ!

We are also here as participants in the week long Global Out Reach Conference at Marceaux's home church, Grace Bible Church.

Here we are standing in front of our Camp Daniel display during the conference. We were among 24 other domestic and overseas missionaries personally attending the conference. Altogether, Grace sponsors over 50 different missionaries/missions.

We have had many wonderful opportunities to share about Camp Daniel and disability ministry. We were the guest speakers for one of Grace's home Bible studies. What we had to share helped them understand the need for people with disabilities within the church and challenged them to intentionally build relationships with people with disabilities. Many responded that they never considered the things we shared before, but now will have open eyes to build such a relationship.

We also spoke to the youth group at Grace Bible Church. This was an awesome opportunity to speak to middle and high school students about disability. We shared the importance of and how to make friends with people with disabilities. We offered the opportunity to come for our Counselor in Training program as counselors.

We had many opportunities to speak with other missionaries and congregation members through several luncheons and receptions. People were very interested in what we do and our conversations made them think about how to include disability in their lives/ministries.

Last Saturday was a full day of workshops and speakers related to missions. Marceaux and I attended classes on Missionary Care - 1) Dealing with loss in missions, 2) Dealing with stress on the missions field 3) Transitioning with cross cultural re-entry and 4) debriefing after a traumatic incident on the field. Even though, most of what was covered was related to overseas missions,  we were able to relate to a lot of it! Not only was this information helpful to us personally, we feel this training will be  useful to the rest of our missionary staff at Camp Daniel.

Gathering with other missionaries was very encouraging. We were able to talk about things like the struggles in fundraising, giving up traditional jobs and lives, and other struggles living the missionary life. Though we could not relate fully to an overseas missionary, we related in many ways. We also connected with many state side missionaries. One thing we really walked away with is a deeper appreciation for the Camp Daniel family. Most missionaries are out serving alone and it seems like many missionaries have to take on a "every missionary for themselves" attitude with little support from their mission's agencies. We are grateful that we have a staff that is family; watching out for and caring for each other deeply.

Connecting with missionaries from all over the world was insightful to us on how most countries treat those with disabilities. Most of them do not care for those with disabilities and if they do it is in very poor conditions. (Going beyond not caring, many outcast them or kill them at birth). We were approached by native pastor from Ukraine, wanting us to come teach the churches there that people with disabilities are valuable and are needed in the church. He said there was one church that had a separate service for people with disabilities but nothing like The Able Church where members use their gifts and lead functions of the church. He really wants us to come and share that. Most of the churches there and most of society there do not include people with disabilities.

A U.S. missionary to Ukraine also approached us to come work in the orphanages where most of those with disabilities are kept in cribs all day long. I kept asking her why they were kept in bed all day? She kept giving me different answers and expressing the severity of their disability. And I would reply, "And why are they kept in bed all day?" It came down to the fact they were understaffed and can't get everyone up. But the bigger picture is a lack of value. If they valued these people, there would be more staff and they would be able to get them out of bed. The only thing that should keep someone in bed all day is the lack of consciousness or the flu. Anyways, she would love to have us come and teach them what we do and take them on outings, etc, help bring up the value of people with disabilities. Definitely, something to pray about!

Other engagements we've had include meeting with family, friends, supporters and those interested in disability ministry.

We also had the opportunity to meet with the Mission's board in order to update them with our lives and the ministry happening at Camp Daniel. Grace Bible Church has been very supportive of us and what we do and we are grateful. Simply being recognized as missionaries is encouraging to us. We even got to cash in on some free marital counselor to help keep us sane and healthy on the field. Thank you!

Of all our meetings, the most dear to us was meeting with the short term missions team from Grace that came out to serve at Camp Daniel last summer! We had the team over at Marceaux's parents for lunch and to tell stories, share pictures and debrief from last summer's camp experience. It was a wonderful time. One of the gals said it meant a lot to her to see pictures and listen to each other's experience with disability since camp. She said eventually after camp and coming home she began to forget her experiences and this gathering was a great reminder of what she learned at camp and relationships she made. It was also wonderful to see Ray & Julie Gossack, the team leaders. Julie is preparing for a very intense chemo procedure March 24th. Please keep her in your prayers!!!

We are pursuing another team from Grace to come out and serve this summer. So amongst all the engagements we have had, we also have been recruiting another missions team to come serve this summer!

Though we hate to say good -bye, we are excited to come home to family and friends in WI, except for the fact its below zero weather remains! Thank you Camp Daniel for allowing us to get away and filling our shoes. Thank you Grace Bible Church for your encouragement and opportunities you allowed us! Thank you Mom & Dad Bury for your hospitality and all the free baby sitting!