Joni and Friends

September 23, 2014

The Wheels are Turning

walk n roll

This past week, I got emails from three different people telling me that they have wheelchairs to donate to Joni and Friends! This was wonderful news, however, it was the furthest thing from my mind since we are such a small group here in Portland, and we’re just starting out. I couldn’t think of any place to store the wheelchairs. So I called a friend from another chapter and he told me what I needed to do.

It got me thinking, there are a lot of things like that when I think, “No, I can’t do it!” It is my first response to new projects, but then after awhile, I think, “How can it be done?” Then I take one step, and then two steps, and before I know it the path is opening up! Fear is usually the first response, a knee-jerk reaction to anything outside of my comfort zone. But then the wheels within my brain start turning and one thing leads to another.

Sometimes, when I can’t do something, I find out who can! I have done that all of my life, and am known as the #1 networker among my friends! When I was first blogging, I was doing it by myself and I said, “God, look at me typing with two fingers!” It wasn’t because I didn’t know the keys, I just can’t do it any other way because of my withered hand due to Cerebral Palsy. It was so tedious and I said, “God, you have to be kidding!” But He wasn’t, and after two years of persistence, God provided a helper. This reminded me of the story of Moses and Aaron in Exodus 4:10-15

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” 14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.

So it is natural at first to think, “No, I can’t do this!” But when we are open to saying “yes”, God will surprise us by providing us with the means to stand up when we’d rather sit down. It is so humbling to watch how God provides us with everything we need to do what He’s called us to do.

June 30, 2014

Fixing Leaky Faucets

Joyce Meyers was talking last week about how Satan is a deceiver, and she went onto say that there are nagging thoughts in our mind like, “You are not good enough, or you are not performing well enough,” that are most certainly from Satan. It caused me to think about John 10:10 in a completely new light. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

When my focus is wrong, negative thoughts eat away at me and rob me of my peace of mind and creativity. Some thieves, are blatantly overpowering, others are quiet yet just as disruptive. Thoughts that start with the phrase I wish or I should are like a leaky faucet; always in my mind and always needing attention.

I’ve realized that when I hear these phrases, it’s because my focus is wrong. Just like it is important to take care of the plumbing in your house, it is necessary to interrupt the lies that want to filter through our minds. Even one drip at a time raises your water bill, so it is important to take care of fixing that leaky faucet. Acknowledging that my focus is wrong is the first step in receiving the grace God has given me to move forward.

As I watch my daughter and my friend Jill prepare to have their babies, I have a similar sense of anticipation over the growth of our Joni and Friends Portland Area ministry. I find myself thinking, “Is anything I can do to help this to be more fruitful?” I can always think of things I should be doing better, but I have to press through the drudgery of the everyday by looking at the promise of things to come!

For example, I keep meeting people who are like-minded in both my passion for disability ministry and my writing! The encouragement we share in these relationships help to break the spell of negative thoughts that creep in so quietly, but are as loud as a sonic boom if left alone!

As we get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July and we hear the fireworks booming, let us look for ways that we can dislodge our negative thoughts and quiet them with the encouragement of God and others!

June 17, 2014

The wait is on…

lady looking at clock

I’ve been doing a lot of waiting lately. Sometimes waiting can be torture, and sometimes it can be exciting! Farmers like my father and my brothers have planted seeds in the ground and then waited for months and months to see how the crop would turn out.  On one hand it is exciting to think of what may come up and on the other hand, it is nerve-wracking because they are dependent upon this crop for their livelihood.

Several months ago my daughter and my son-in-law announced that they were having a baby in July! They told me in December, and at that time, it seemed like so far away. But here we are today, about 5 weeks away from the birth of their precious daughter. This wait has been exciting more than anything else.

Another thing that many of my friends in the Northwest are waiting for is the Joni and Friends camp at Twin Rocks. Some of the people returning to camp have had such a good time that they start counting down the days months in advance! But in order to make the week a success, there is another group working to put the events together. I am in charge of recruiting volunteers for Pampering Day and a Couples Dinner. This wait has been similar to the farmer’s wait in that all I can do is tell people about it, and try to plant those seeds, and then see what happens from there. Some people may be too busy, and others won’t be interested at all, and that can be discouraging. But on the other hand, some people jump on board right away. The more people I ask, the more likely it is that people will say yes.

With all the waiting that’s been going on, I’ve been thinking a lot about Moses in Exodus 32. The Israelites waited for years and years to be led out of bondage and into the Promised Land. They were RIGHT THERE, but God told Moses to go up to the mountain to hear from Him. While he was gone, they waited and got afraid; eventually taking matters into their own hands. The results were disastrous on many levels. The Israelites missed out on hearing about the plans that God had for them because they chose not to wait on God’s timing.

Waiting isn’t optional, but our attitude is. We can either grumble and complain which usually leads to bitterness, or we can enjoy the process of developing the skills we need as we move forward. Sometimes we don’t know why we are waiting, it’s only when we look back that we see how God was shaping us for the tasks at hand.

What are you waiting on right now? Are you digging in your heels and taking matters into your own hands, or going with the flow?

June 3, 2014

Help…more then a four-letter word

 

helpinghand

For most of my life as a woman with Cerebral Palsy, I have tried to be as independent as possible. I got a college degree, raised a daughter as a single mother, and lived alone for several years after she went to college. Now I’ve got a roommate and I qualify for much more help than ever before. I feel absolutely spoiled.

I used to think that having people live with me would be confining, but actually, it’s freeing. I didn’t realize there would be so many hidden benefits to letting people do things that I used to struggle with. Besides having someone to visit with in the morning, it cuts down on the time it takes to do the monotonous, but necessary routines in life.

I thought that if I needed help to do these things, it would mean I was in bad shape, but I am finding out that this is not necessarily true. It just means that I can use the time and energy that I have in different and more productive ways. Rather than spending an hour and a half getting ready for the day, I can devote more time to things like sleeping in, my writing, my work with Joni and Friends, and keeping in touch with friends who are important to me.

Receiving help can either feel liberating or confining. It depends on your perspective. I’ve realized over the last few years that my perspective has changed. Instead of just being independent, I see the value of inter-dependence. A few years ago, there was a group of women at my church, Rock Creek Church, who formed, ‘Team Lyla’ and they brought food over once a month. That showed me the benefits of being inter-dependent with my church community. As they brought meals, I visited with them and got caught up on what was going on in their lives and our friendships grew stronger as a result.

It is another example of Ephesians 4:15-16, which says, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

We often think that receiving help makes us look like a victim, however, it is in receiving help, that we are given the opportunity to use the gifts God has given us to bless others. Living life with this perspective is the way to change our own hearts and others’ too, by showing them the benefits of living inter-dependently.

 

May 20, 2014

All Abilities Celebrated

disabilities_1_

This past week, my friend Jill and I attended the ‘Beyond the Ramp’ Conference, hosted by the Interfaith Disability Network of Oregon.  The main speaker was Bill Gaventa, the coordinator of the Summer Institute on Theology and Disability, the Associate Editor of Intellectual and Development Disabilities and former editor of the  Journal of Religion Disability, and Health. As pastors and lay persons from different faith communities in the Portland area gathered to talk about disabilities and faith, we were encouraged by words from Bill focusing on the theme, ‘from mission to member to mission.’

My interest was piqued when Bill stated that “People with disabilities don’t want to be the mission field or a project.” Wow, I wholeheartedly agree with this because when people feel like a project, it makes us feel like a victim of our circumstances. Unless there is a relationship between the two people, it makes the them appear unequal.  Even though the person ‘helping’ them does so with the best intentions, the individual being served can be made to feel frustrated because our gifts are overlooked.

The Church will flourish when they welcome people with disabilities not as a mission, but as members, because everyone wants to be a part of the greater community. We all have gifts and abilities that help the body to flourish and grow. We want to be involved in the mission of the Church as a whole once we have become members; we don’t want to continue to be the mission.

Another great thing about this conference was that everyone was from around this area and I am looking forward to networking with them. It is kind of like fishing, you have to know where the pods of fish are in order to catch anything! It was a great opportunity to connect with pastors and see what their congregations and communities are doing.  When I told some of the pastors that I was the Area Director of Joni and Friends, they expressed an interest in hearing more about it, and that was an encouragement to me.

One of my main goals for Joni and Friends here in the Portland area is to help people of all abilities realize their significance in the body of Christ. I was very encouraged to find churches in the area that have already started to create an awareness in their faith communities about the gifts and abilities of all of their members. If you know of churches or individuals who are interested in joining us in this mission, let me know by sending me an email at lswafford@joniandfriends.org; or share the good news with them that there are churches that are welcoming the abilities of everyone!

 

May 13, 2014

A Second Look

veteran

Yesterday, I met my caseworker for the first time after talking with her for months on the phone. She came over for a home visit and one of the first things she saw was a book on my table by Joyce Meyers called ‘Never Give Up.’ She commented, “Oh, I read her stuff all of the time!” There was an instant connection between us after she said that. This small statement opened the lines of communication and we had a delightful chat.

I’ve had appointments with caseworkers for years, but this one stood out because she really wanted to give me all of the help she could. It made me realize that when we make those small connections and learn to find something in common with other people, the desire to help them grows.

A few months ago, I saw a post on Facebook about a person who was raising money to go to a Joni and Friends camp, something I am really passionate about because of my own physical disability, so I re-posted it on my Facebook page. A few hours later, I got a response from another friend of mine saying, “That girl is my niece!” This just added to my desire to help her raise the funds she needed to go to camp. A lot of times, connecting with a person is not that easy; I have to decide whether to try or to just let the opportunity go by.

My friend Joanne is an RN, CHPN and a hospice nurse who has also developed curriculum to educate other hospice care workers on end-of-life care. She is now raising funds to finish her documentary called, ‘Honored to the End,’ a powerful film to help caregivers and family members of veterans everywhere be able to provide more intelligent, compassionate care to this very deserving special group of people. I have an increased interest in this project because I know both Joanne and her father, whose story is told in this film, and is a World War II veteran himself. Through this project, I found out that veterans often need specialized care when they are at this stage of life. As we approach Memorial Day in a few weeks, I think this incredibly important project is a way that we can honor the veterans that have served our country so selflessly.

It is interesting to think about the reasons we connect with some people on a deeper level than others. It always seems easier to just pass by instead of taking a second look and digging deeper into relationships, but if we take the time to connect, we can discover that each relationship brings a unique richness into our lives.