Rays of Sonshine: Our Royal Ambassador

Many of you know David Browne our Access-Life Royal Ambassador as he travels both near and far to all of our Expo outreaches in Texas, Tennessee and Florida and even some of our other activities like the Big Wheel Deal and Jingle and Mingle activities in Central Florida. Despite being on a limited fixed income, having a disability and approaching the ripe age of 63, He does all this “on his own dime”, with an “I can do all things through Christ” attitude and exhibiting the enthusiasm of a teenager!

For those of you have never met David, although there are not many of you out there as he introduces himself to virtually everyone he encounters, let me share with you a bit of our story with him.

We first met David at the 2011 Central Florida Expo. Dan and Faith Eriksen brought him with them to the event set-up as well the outreach the following day. They all attended church together in Deland, FL and as David lived alone in a retirement community where he and his mother lived before she passed, Dan and Faith thought Access-Life and the Expo would be a good experience for him. Boy were they right! After the event, we started receiving periodic calls from David not only sharing about what was going on in his life but asking questions on how he could help. He even started introduced himself as “David Browne with Access-Life”.

After a few months of the calls and occasional invites and visits to David’s community for lunch, it was clear that he had taken Access-Life to heart and had assumed ownership of whatever role he could to further the ministry’s mission. He was sharing the all he knew about Access-Life with everyone he knew and even some he did not. I can still remember him calling one day disappointed when he was told by friends he knew in New Jersey that they had never heard of Access-Life. He was befuddled that the news had not reached them yet as to him our small nonprofit ministry was like the biggest para-church ministry in America. :)

The amazing thing about David’s inspired sharing is that it is such a great example one of the underlying themes of Access-Life that God wants to see people living with disabilities integrated into the body of Christ so that we can all benefit from the gifts God has given them. It has been such a blessing to see how God has used David by him simply sharing with others like a true Royal Ambassador. It almost makes me laugh to think of the time David was taken on a cruise with some family friends and he called us asking about the North Texas Expo on Lake Grapevine. He needed the information to share with a couple he met at their evening dinner table from Grapevine, TX. Yes way!

Isn’t it awesome how God will work in our lives if we simply make ourselves available to Him? And sharing the Good News is what being an ambassador is all about, right?

You know as Christians, We are all royal ambassadors for Christ here on earth. Our job is to live a wholesome, holy and godly life so we can accurately reflect Jesus and His kingdom. We are to live abundant lives full of His peace and joy and share with others His gifts of faith, hope and love so that everyone we come in contact with will smell the sweet fragrance of Jesus in our lives.

That’s exactly what David does and why He is our one and only Royal Ambassador.