There is a beauty in our friends with different abilities serving one another at Young Life Capernaum. Last Wednesday, I got to see it in action again!
We were recently given the gift of a van that has space to transport our friends who use wheelchairs and our friends who don’t. Club was starting in an hour and we still had 2 pick ups to do, rush hour traffic, and of course the process of securing each wheelchair in our van all made for a bit of a rushed evening.
“I help you, Christen,’ said Zachary. Zachary takes service seriously and does it with a smile like at our local grocery store where I run into him bagging my groceries or at home, or hanging out with my family, his attitude is incredible! As we pulled up to Joey’s house, Zachary, always aware of safety, carefully got out, walked around to the back and opened the back hatch, lowered the folding ramp and stood by with a smile of pride and joy.
As Joey’s dad wheeled him toward the van, Zachary stepped forward; he said to me, ‘I do it or you?’ We didn’t need many words that day, Zachary and I worked seamlessly together and got our friends in that van, secured, through town, unloaded, and to club and right to the feet of Jesus!
When club was over, Zachary quietly stood by the van, opened the doors, unfolded the ramp, handed me tie-downs and LOVED helping! As we drove and talked about the club talk, I asked one of our friends Joey, what his experience with church was and he responded “I heard that God is nice and takes care of people but I don’t know much about Him….” I listened as my reserved friend Zachary piped up “I know about Him. He loves me. He helps me. You want Him help you too?”
I was amazed by the boldness of Zachary who told Joey about how God has helped him at school with his grades and to do a good job at his work sites. Next thing you know, our whole van is listening to Zachary pray for Joey who struggles with the way kids look at him. Zachary was asking Jesus to be Joey’s best friend, to help him find nice friends, and to know love. I was teary eyed. The van was quiet.
As we folded up the ramp and Zachary took his place in the van again, I asked my friends if they remembered the story we’d used all last semester to talk about Jesus. Zachary recounted perfectly the story of the friends lowering their friend who couldn’t walk down to Jesus’ feet. He even opened his Bible to show find the story. We reviewed the characters in the story and I asked my friends which one they were like. There was a long silence and I wondered if they were still tracking with me. I looked in the mirror and caught Zachary’s ear-to-ear grin as he said “I the friend. I take friend to Jesus, even push wheelchair.”
Zachary is on a mission. He is a junior in high school and this is his first year at Young Life Capernaum, but he is on our team! He is praying for his friends’, who also experience disability, not just to know about Jesus, but to know Him! We aren’t talking about him coming to camp as a camper this summer, he already knows Jesus! Zachary wants to get more friends to Jesus’ feet and he will do all he can to make that happen! We are working on a plan to get Zachary to work crew this summer!
When club was over, Zachary quietly stood by the van, opened the doors, unfolded the ramp, handed me tie-downs and LOVED helping! As we drove and talked about the club talk, I asked one of our friends Joey, what his experience with church was and he responded “I heard that God is nice and takes care of people but I don’t know much about Him….” I listened as my reserved friend Zachary piped up “I know about Him. He loves me. He helps me. You want Him help you too?”
I was amazed by the boldness of Zachary who told Joey about how God has helped him at school with his grades and to do a good job at his work sites. Next thing you know, our whole van is listening to Zachary pray for Joey who struggles with the way kids look at him. Zachary was asking Jesus to be Joey’s best friend, to help him find nice friends, and to know love. I was teary eyed. The van was quiet.
As we folded up the ramp and Zachary took his place in the van again, I asked my friends if they remembered the story we’d used all last semester to talk about Jesus. Zachary recounted perfectly the story of the friends lowering their friend who couldn’t walk down to Jesus’ feet. He even opened his Bible to show find the story. We reviewed the characters in the story and I asked my friends which one they were like. There was a long silence and I wondered if they were still tracking with me. I looked in the mirror and caught Zachary’s ear-to-ear grin as he said “I the friend. I take friend to Jesus, even push wheelchair.”
Zachary is on a mission. He is a junior in high school and this is his first year at Young Life Capernaum, but he is on our team! He is praying for his friends’, who also experience disability, not just to know about Jesus, but to know Him! We aren’t talking about him coming to camp as a camper this summer, he already knows Jesus! Zachary wants to get more friends to Jesus’ feet and he will do all he can to make that happen! We are working on a plan to get Zachary to work crew this summer!
