Category: Devotions

Jean Malacko is a true advocate for people living with disabilities. As the mother of a daughter with a disability and a key volunteer on our West Palm Beach Expo team, she stands in the gap for those in need in many ways. She is straightforward and bold but has the heart of a golden marsh mellow.

In fact, she single handedly by God’s grace secured 1,000 hot dogs, 600 hamburgers, 1,600 buns and $600 in donations for the outreach there on February 18th! All of this despite having no food service experience or special training in fundraising. How then did she accomplish such a monumental task? Simply by answering God’s call, being available to serve and willing to ask for what was needed.

You see God equips the called. When He asks us to step out of our daily routine and even comfort zone to serve Him, He gives us all we need. We simply need to follow and obey. He is the miracle worker not us and as we make ourselves available to Him, I know we’ll be amazed at the results. Just ask, Jean this month’s Access-Life Rays of Sonshine.

P.S. I would have included a photo or two of Jean but she was so busy behind the food table all day at the Expo that we don’t have any pictures of her. Go figure!

As we just finished our 3rd annual outreach to Belize (see the previous 2 posts and photo collages), I thought it was appropriate to highlight, Jimmy Chestnut, one of the many hardworking and faithful volunteers who made the trip as this month’s Ray of Sunshine.

Jimmy was a great addition to the Access-Life Belize Team this year as he brought a genuine servant’s heart and the enthusiasm of a first time short term missionary to Belize. He also, brought a great deal of experience. This experience is not something most folks have or to be honest would even want on their resume. You see, Jimmy is a person living with a disability. He has Cerebral Palsy and uses a manual wheelchair to get around. Like many folks living with disabilities, he does not let these extra challenges slow him down but relies on the Lord with a Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ” attitude to move mountains in his daily life.

His quiet and innocent smile made most of us serving along side him forget that the mountains of life are even bigger in Belize as the muddy roads, rough inclines and multiple transfers in and out of his wheelchair each day never changed his rough but boyish grin. This overcoming attitude is what made his presence so important to those we met as it inspired many to see that “with God all things are possible”. Yes, even in the inhospitable conditions of Belize someone with a disability can serve God and be used by Him in a mighty way.

That was Jimmy’s testimony from the start as he jumped right in with helping to prepare hygiene kits to give out to people in the villages and cleaning crutches and walkers to distribute at the Expo outreach. He was always eager to help with whatever tasks needed to be done. At some of the sites where our team built ramps, Jimmy was able to interact with people in the community, allowing them to see firsthand that disabilities don’t have to limit a person’s ability to serve God and others even in Belize. This message was again seen as Jimmy was able to work with Sharyn and Mike King at the Adaptive Fitness booth during the Expo and met several people in wheelchairs who came by that day, including a man who was a double amputee and another man who had been wounded in the military. 

On the way home from the Expo, the team stopped by to visit Eli, a man who we built a ramp for in 2016. Mike King had a hand cycle to give to Eli and several from the 2016 team were looking forward to seeing Eli again. Jimmy admitted that when we stopped in Eli’s village, he really didn’t want to get out of the van because he was tired and was hurting from all of the activity of the day and week. Jimmy told the team that he sensed God telling him that he needed to get out of the van and visit with Eli, so he did, and he received a blessing in his life from being obedient. Jimmy encouraged Eli to continue in his faith journey and told him that he didn’t need to have “can’t” in his vocabulary. It was a moving experience when Jimmy voiced a prayer over Eli and ask God to help him to stand firm in his faith.

All in all, it was so encouraging to see God faithfully helping Jimmy overcome every challenge and being a blessing to others around him. From his fellow team mates to those who were surprised to see someone in a wheelchair coming to serve them, Jimmy brightened up the days of hard work and uplifted new friends all week long.

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.