Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team Mission Access! With less than two weeks left before we elect our next President I urge you—nay I beseech you–to Think For A Change.
Recently I read a fascinating book entitled “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli which digs deeper into some of the cognitive cliffs we leap from so willingly to our peril and why. But there is a way cooler Bestseller that offers a preemptive plethora of wisdom about how best to employ those glorious minds that we’ve been entrusted with to Think.
I’m sure you’ve heard about it: we know it as simply The Bible.
Luke 10:27 “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’”
The other verses reinforce quite clearly that our minds are always on His mind, as ours should be on His. In fact as Christians Our Minds and His Mind should be one and the same.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of MissionAcess Inc.! I am honored to shine a well-deserved spotlight on my Good Friend & former DTS classmate Dieula Previlon. Wife, Mom and Evangelist, Dieula heads ElevateHer–an amazing ministry on a Mission To Empower The People of God to Heal, Find Purpose and Hope Through Jesus Christ.
Born in Haiti, Dieula immigrated to the US in the late 70s. After attending Rutgers University she taught Middle School but felt compelled to sojourn to DTS in 2004 to expand her education. After graduating with her MABC (Masters in Biblical Counseling) in 2007 she served as Missions Pastor & Director at Irving Bible Church. Later she joined Redeemer Evangelical Covenant Church as Associate Pastor to oversee Local and International Missions.
In 2008 Dieula boldly pressed forward with her new ministry delightfully named ElevateHer International. Now Dieula is unleashed to use her God-given talents to truly bless women worldwide:
ElevateHer International Ministries’ Vision is to help Women live in spite of past wounds and fear, dream without boundaries, and joyfully embrace all of life for the glory of God.
What a powerful message to all People & Families Affected by Disability! But especially to women who either personally or as caregivers often bear a heavier burden of disability. What Joy to break free in order to become everything Our Awesome God created us to be.
Thank You Dieula for your tireless efforts on our behalf! May God Elevate Your Ministry Worldwide!
Greetings Faithful Followers of Team Mission Access! Flashback with me to 1985: the year my beautiful Mom Geraldine “Gerry” Holt Shea dove headlong into the deep end of Disability. Diagnosed with a massive brain tumor, she was rushed into surgery to dislodge it ASAP. And though the surgery saved her life she nevertheless suffered with the disabling fallout for the rest of her life.
Still decades away from experiencing disability in my own life, I responded to my mother’s disability in the best (yet most maddening) way that I knew how: a “gift” of a walking cane complete with clever wrapping along with a card and of course an obligatory “healing” verse:
Jude 1: 24 NIV: To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—
And OH does that make a great-sounding Get Well card! Problem is that “naming and claiming” something over someone who is suffering can create the exact opposite effect of what was intended when prayers remain unanswered. How Loving is that? Being on the receiving end of a plethora of such prayers I can tell you emphatically: Not So Much!
So what’s a better response? Try a little good ol’-fashioned encouragement!
One of the most encouraging stories from the Old Testament Book of 2 Kings tells the tale of the prophet Elisha and his servant who outwardly appear to be facing certain doom at the hands of the King of Aram’s powerful army. Ah! But there’s something much more powerful playing out behind the scenes in the spiritual realm:
2 Kings 6:17 NIV: And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Speaking of Chariots of Fire…
Though I struggle with disability like my mother before me, I now wear a pendant complete with a direct connection to the Richardson Fire Department’s “Chariots of Fire” Team who remain poised ready, willing and able ready to rescue me at a moment’s notice. I Thank God for Them for they have Lifted Me Up…quite literally!
Harken back to 1969 with me when our fearless mother Gerry Shea loaded us up onto a westbound train in Cleveland, Ohio to visit Fam now living large in The Promised Land of Cali. Restauranteurs by trade, they took a chance and bought an unknown franchise named McDonalds which by the time of our visit expanded to four franchises in Bakersfield. Sitting motionless on the tracks we had yet to budge an inch when my brother Jim brimmed over with anticipation blurting out breathlessly “Are We There Yet?”
How like my brother I am when it comes to my Christian journey! And with the intense suffering that so many of our Christian Brothers and Sisters are enduring right now, I seek not just Good answers or even Better answers but press forward towards the Best answers that He has to offer.
Let’s try it out on this simple verse:
GOOD
Ps 119:50 NASU
This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me.
Hey! That’s good! But let’s dig a little deeper with a Life Application I call “Good—Better—BEST.” Remember The Goal: we are Hurting & we are pressing forward towards the Best answer possible. One surefire technique is simply to Seek Out Different Translations of the same verse. Let’s try the New International Version:
BETTER
Ps 119:50 NIV
My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.
Yes! Better indeed. But wait! There’s more! Check out this version I was unaware of prior to my search:
Wow! That’s it! His Word not only revives and preserves me—it gave me New Life! So the next time you find yourself yet again in the Crucible of Sanctification—Fear Not! Take great comfort in abiding in His personalized promises meant just for You. And me.
Suffice to say that when it comes to Becoming More Like Christ the post-millenial phenom of The Selfie is proof positive that we as Christians are seriously steaming full speed ahead in the wrong direction.
According to a survey by Luster Premium White:
*95% of young adults have taken at least one selfie
*66% of Millennials primarily post their selfies on social media for their friends to see.
*On average, Millennials spend 54 hours a year taking pictures of themselves.
*Millennials will take 25,000 photos of themselves in their lifetime.
*Last year alone more people died in selfie-related incidents than from shark attacks.
OK so what should we as Christians do about it?
1 Cor 10:24 (NASU) says “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.” Wow. What if we took the camera off of ourselves and focused it on someone—ANYONE—else?
Betcha if Jesus had a Smart Phone nary a selfie would it contain. Just like my dear Uncle Frank (who single-handedly created the bulk of our family’s photographic archive) not a trace of his own likeness could be detected on his own hard drive because he was busy behind the scenes–not seeking the spotlight.
So Unselfies Arise! Here is your Challenge—if you choose to accept it–& I pray that you will:
Q: How Do We Transform From Selfies To Unselfies? As Individuals? As A Church?
Looking forward to sharing your suggestions about how best to take the spotlight off of ourselves and place it squarely where it belongs: on others.
ABC has a show called What Would You Do?that aims to catch folks in a variety of vexing social situations to capture how they react. Sometimes they catch real people being A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. But mostly—well, not so much.
In this season when we celebrate the death, burial & Resurrection of Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ we should ALL be caught red-handed being Amazing For His Glory, right? Because the real question for Followers of Jesus Christ is simply this: was His sacrifice worthless? Or Priceless?
Last week as we were locking up the church a young black woman entered the lobby claiming to be homeless and looking for the Food Bank. “We no longer have that here” I responded which is somewhat true because our precious 89-year-old Ruth is no longer able to run it (though we do stock some items for our members). “Well do you have any bottled water?” she asks however a search of the fridge proves fruitless. Now getting somewhat irritated she says “Well can you buy a bucket of chicken for me and my boyfriend?” to which I clutched my purse closer and sprang into full survival mode. “No I’m sorry we were just leaving” I said and heaved a self-righteous sigh of relief as the door finally locked behind her.
Seriously??! Suffice to say in that one shameful uber-selfish moment I rendered The Cross utterly worthless.
Time for a reset. Let’s head back to the Book of James (for the umpteenth time) in the hopes that perhaps this time it will actually make it from my head to my heart:
James 2:14-17 NASU
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
Suffice to say our discussion of Transformation remains Worthless until we put it into practice through Benevolence. Stay tuned as we dive deep into how best to do that with Brian Fikkert & Steve Corbett’s follow-up book: “Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence: A Practical Guide to Walking with Low-Income People.”
Awesome Lord allow our Faith to become Priceless as it travels the precious last mile from our Heads to Our Hearts & Our Hands & Our Feet For Your Glory! Godspeed!
Greetings & Welcome to Our Summer Series 2015! We are studying When Helping Hurts: The Small Group Experience based on the book by Steven Corbett and Brian Fikkert.
Our Goal is Transformation: “To restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to Be, people who Glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with Self, with Others and with the rest of Creation.” [i]
So this week we: DIVIDE & CONQUER!
We do that by dividing Poverty into different segments. Why? Because Poverty at different stages requires different responses in order to be as effective as possible at Achieving Our Goal of Transformation.
#1 RELIEF: Urgent temporary aid to reduce suffering from either a natural or man-made crisis primarily through a Provider-Receiver dynamic.
#2 REHABILITATION: An effort to restore people back to a pre-crisis state. People begin to contribute to improving their situation.
#3 DEVELOPMENT: Walking with people ACROSS TIME in ways that move ALL the people involved—both the “Helpers” as well as the “Helped”– closer to being in right relationship with God, Self, Others & Creation than they were before. It avoids “doing for” and focuses on “doing with.”
Makes sense, right? I know only too well from going through a major MS relapse in 2013 (aka My MS “Splat”) what those feel like. But I also tasted true Transformation through good people working alongside me and not simply doing everything for me.
The Poison of Paternalism
PATERNALISM: Habitually doing things for people that they can do for themselves. [iii]
So many of us are dealing with disability! And we ALL need a little help. But NOTHING is more disabling than never allowing someone to DO for THEMSELVES whatever needs doing to the best of their ability. Otherwise well-meaning and compassionate people may actually make things worse and hamper or prevent altogether people ever becoming what God created them to be. What a shame!
Is Transformation easy? Nope. But is it worth it? Priceless!
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
[i]Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor—And Yourself (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), Kindle edition: Location 74.
More than 50 years ago President Lyndon Baynes Johnson declared War on Poverty. However now more than half a century later and trillions spent to “alleviate poverty” in America suffice to say that sadly little has changed. So what’s the answer? Poverty is a complex issue with no easy answers.
But there are better answers.
Journey with me as we begin our quest towards discovering those better answers.
Because whether we are rich–or whether we are poor– we are ALL broken. And we ALL need to WORK TOGETHER to help each other reach The Goal:
“To restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to Be, people who Glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others and with the rest of creation.” [i]
That’s from the book “When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor—And Yourself“ by Steven Corbett and Brian Fikkert who have dedicated their lives to answering that question about how best to alleviate Poverty based on Biblical principles.
Caution: We are NOT talking Prosperity Gospel here! Far from it! We are talking about helping other achieve lasting change through Relationships!
Isa 58:10 NASU
And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
Q: Do you see ANY mention of money in that verse? A: NO!
Well what DO you see? A: “Give Yourself”! Hmmm—just like Christ!
After World War II the World Bank’s efforts to rebuild war-torn Europe were remarkably successful—yet in the 1990s doing the same for India did little to alleviate the problem of Poverty. So they tried something different—asking “the true poverty experts—the poor themselves.” [ii] The result was a 3-volume series entitled Voices of the Poor where in their own words people answered the question “What Is Poverty?” What they found was that poverty was described in largely psychological terms—NOT financial!
Why is that important? Because the diagnosis determines the “cure”–and if we misdiagnose the problem we will arrive at the WRONG conclusions!
So let’s apply that to the issue of Poverty—because though we may be materially rich or poor we ALL have what is defined as a “Poverty of Being”—i. e. as a shared brokenness due to our fallen nature:
For The Poor—as we’ve seen their Poverty of Being is expressed in a hopelessness rather than a lack of material resources.
But For The Rich—their Poverty of Being is rooted in what’s called the “god-complex”—
“a subtle and unconscious sense of superiority in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth through their own efforts and that they have been anointed to decide what is best for low-income people whom they view as inferior to themselves.” [iii]
The Central Point Is This:
“one of the biggest problems in many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the Poverty of Being of the economically rich—their god-complexes—and the Poverty of Being of the economically poor—their feelings of inferiority and shame.” [iv]
WOW! THAT IS POWERFUL! This realization brings me great Hope! But it also brings me great shame—in that my attempts to materially bless people may be the very thing that is preventing them from becoming ALL that our Awesome Lord has created them to be.
OK so how DO we do that? Nothing short of a total shift from Poverty Alleviation to a new paradigm of Transformation Investment! So stay tuned…’cause here’s The Deal:
Because my tagline for Mission Accessible is: Transforming Disability Ministry Worldwide
The ONLY way to accomplish that lofty goal is to first Transform PEOPLE!
I am feeling that crazy kinda hope when I think about the Opportunity we have before us—to truly help each other Transform the lives of people & families affected by disability!
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
–Isa 43:18-19 NIV
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
[i][i] Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor—And Yourself (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), Kindle edition: Location page 74.
Lately the Lord has been showing me a particular facet of Disability that ALL of us dealing with it are all too familiar with: feeling invisible.
There’s a video on YouTube called The Freezing Homeless Child! (Social Experiment):http://goo.gl/NwGjju
What a powerful video about how we choose to ignore really glaring issues in our daily lives—this one about a child who appears to be homeless enduring hours in sub-zero temps in just a tee shirt and jeans being passed by until a HOMELESS MAN stops and without hesitation offers the boy his coat!
Though homelessness was the focus of the experiment, it could have just as easily been—DISABILITY.
Because though 1 in 5 people nationwide are considered Disabled according to the US Census Bureau, circumstances surrounding our disabilities render us largely INVISIBLE to the general public. Out of sight and out of mind.
And now that I am in a power chair I am definitely feeling the Invisibility Factor skyrocket! In fact I went to OfficeMax to pick up some color prints and waited—patiently—while the clerk helped someone else. Then a pretty young spandex-clad woman swooped right by me and was IMMEDIATELY waited on! Then an older gentleman breezed right by me also, cleared his throat loudly and HE got helped!!!
FINALLY I spoke up and asked for my color prints but not before feeling as invisible as a Superhero (but far less powerful).
However unlike the world, God Sees You in a uniquely personal way—and I believe wants for us to be able to see others in that same Christlike way also.
In the Book of Genesis we see Hagar (the maidservant of Abraham’s wife Sarah) who as a result of Sarah’s urging becomes pregnant with Abraham’s child Ishmael. Soon relationships sour and Sarah demands that Hagar and her son be banished to the wilderness to which Abraham reluctantly agrees. But Hagar cries out to the Lord and He answers!
Gen 16:13 NASBThen she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees (El Roi)”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”
Why? “Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.” Gen 16:11 NASB He’s saying “I C U! “—I Hear You, and I am ready Ready, Willing and Eager To Help You.”
So to all of you who struggle with disability like I do, I urge you to consider this: rather than see your limitations, try looking at yourself though God’s Eyes. Because for all the many-splendored things we lack, most of us have an overabundance of something that most of our able-bodied counterparts just can’t get enough of—TIME! May we invest that precious gift wisely! And like the homeless man in the video, boldly reach out to others overwhelmed by disability simply to say—“I C U! “—I Hear You, and I am ready Ready, Willing and Eager To Help You.” For His Glory! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Here’s my stunning revelation for the week: for the countless people affected by Disability worldwide we all share one profound yet simple spiritual similarity—we may all be just one accessible restroom away from Salvation.
Now hear me out—this week I ran into Calvin Rutherford (now that’s a Presidential name) whom Beloved and I met years before on our valiant attempt to Get Out to local churches and enlighten them on the Joys of Disability Evangelism. Though his tiny Church Plant no longer exists, its core group of members now attend another local Baptist church. Encouraged that our Awesome Lord may finally be opening doors for us closer to home, I inquired further about the church, namely the accessibility of their facilities.
“So Calvin does your church have ramps to allow people in wheelchairs to get into the building?” Yes! Hurdle One cleared.
“And what about accessible restrooms?” Since a perplexed pause ensued I continued “you know, a wider door and wider stalls with grab bars for people in wheelchairs?” Nada. Alas! Defeat from the jaws of Victory!
Bottom Line: if people with disabilities cannot “Go” at your church, they will not be able to Come to your church! A simple biological barrier to Salvation that’s relatively easy to remedy yet perplexingly eludes far too many churches today.
OK now here’s where all that Marketing Wisdom I’ve accumulated over the years FINALLY comes in handy for Ministry. It’s a simple concept alluded to earlier called “The Last Mile”:
“The last mile or last kilometer is a phrase used by the telecommunications, cable television and internet industries to refer to the final leg of the telecommunications networks delivering communications connectivity to retail customers, the part that actually reaches the customer.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile)
To apply the concept to Disability Evangelism, you simply must have a way for people with disabilities to use the restroom safely and with dignity in order to ever have a hope in Hades of getting a shot at sharing with them the Good News about Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, Our Accessible Savior.
I discovered an excellent video by a pastor with disabilities who laments about the widespread lack of sensitivity to Disability Ministry in the local church today.
THE DISABLED—ONE OF THE LEAST EVANGELIZED PEOPLE GROUPS IN THE WORLD http://goo.gl/xZHOCt
According to the unidentified speaker with a heavy Scottish brogue: “But the issue of inclusion for disabled people is not about ramps and loos (I.e., toilets), it’s about heart and attitude.” I must respectfully disagree! Because though you may possess a God-given heart of gold for Disability Evangelism, without accessible restrooms your efforts go straight down the “loo!” Making your church totally accessible–including a way for people with disabilities to safely and easily enter/exit your church, navigate successfully once inside and especially to use the restroom with ease and dignity–are simply a bare-minimum earthly down payment towards investing in Disability Evangelism efforts with a prayer of ever yielding Heavenly rewards in the Hereafter.
And IMHO there is simply No Room For Rest until every restroom of every church of every size is accessible to EVERY person of every ability nationwide.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of MissionAcess Inc.! I am honored to shine a well-deserved spotlight on my Good Friend & former 
