Access-Life “East Tennessee Expo PLUS”: July 28, 2025 – 15 Year Anniversary Celebration of God’s Faithfulness!

Hey there boys and girls of all ages and abilities. We’ve been hard at work here going through waivers and photos and wanted to share some of the good news and highlights from our 15th annual Expo in East Tennessee! 

So, here’s what we know. This year’s outreach at Briarwood Ranch was at a different location with a different logistical structure but God was still there permeating the event with his presence, touching lives and meeting needs as only he can do. We’ve seeing God do some amazing things at our Expos and this year was no exception. From our wonderful volunteers at Shady Grove Church and New Freedom Missionary Baptist Church who helped the tent crew get things set up the night before and everything else set up in less than 2 hours on event day, you could see God working through the hearts and minds of his people to bless others in Jesus’ name. :)

Of course, as we’ve discovered in our 15 years of ministry God always blesses those serving more than they expect and His economy of blessed to be a blessing and blessing one another from volunteers to participants and participants to volunteers was seen throughout the day. It was especially encouraging seeing the way the Briarwood staff were so excited and accommodating throughout the whole process as God connected us with some wonderful Believers wanting to see God’s work done there that day.

For the numbers people, I can tell you that we raised the less money than last year, but we also spent less money than last year. We served over 200 more participants than last year with 130 less volunteers than last year. We also had around 300 vehicles dive thru the park, gave out around500 of this year’s Expo anniversary t-shirts along with tons of animal food, hand wipes, 15th year celebration goody backpacks and sack of lunches. 

I’ve uploaded about 50 pictures to the website that you can view on the East Tennessee Expo page located here: Expo in East Tennessee – Access-Life

Everything has also been posted on social media so you can check things out @accesslifeinc, too. 

Hope you enjoy this year’s photo collage and website pictures and THANK YOU to everyone who prayed, gave, networked and served, So, excited about our 15 year anniversary celebration event and know that Leanne would have been pleased. :-)

More Ministry in Belize!

So excited that God is still working through Access-Life and ministry is still happening in Belize with the help of Hearts of Christ ! Our batteries have been delivered and installed with the earmarked power wheelchairs being distributed. A ramp was even built for this gracious woman in need of one for the power chairs she just received with funds we raised for our outreach. Praise God for his continual good works. :-)

Access-Life “Leanne Life Legacy” Easter Baskets – Small Beginnings but Big Impacts!

Hey there ministry family and friends. I hope everyone had a God blessed Easter and celebrated the wonderful resurrection of Jesus that makes all things possible especially new life in Him with heaven as our eternal home. 

To celebrate this wonderful holiday and honor my precious Leanne we initiated our first Leanne Life Legacy project of giving out meaningful and impactful Easter baskets to individuals and families living with disabilities in the Central Florida area. 

These baskets included a food gift card, devotional book, our ministry art scripture book inspired by Leanne, Access-Life t-shirts, He Has Risen Easter bags full of items for kids like coloring books, crayons, stickers, etc as well as a special chocolate cross and kaleidoscope for everyone to enjoy. 

Each family was handpicked and the beautiful baskets that were donated and decorated with festive Easter coloring were hand delivered with a special ministry Easter card and handwritten note of encouragement. 

My vision was extra large as usual as I had hoped to give out five baskets in all six areas in which we minister but the cost and logistics were a little overwhelming for our first delivery. Hopefully, other individuals and churches will come alongside us so we can expand this project to other areas during the Christmas season. 

If you would like to be involved in the future or donate to this specific fund just let me know and/or go to our website (www.access-life.org) to click on the donate button selecting Leanne Life Legacy for your gift.

Attached is a small collage of the recipients of this initial distribution that include families with children with down’s syndrome, cognitive and physical delays, amputation, severe burn challenges and traumatic brain injury. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers, gifts, service and support as we kick off our Leanne Life Legacy project program and prepare for future projects that would be close to her heart and please her dearly.

Access-Life “Spring Flings”: March, 29 2025 – Victory in Jesus!

Hey there Access-Life family and friends. Just wanted to share with you that we had our annual East Tennessee Easter Spring Fling at Mt Vale Church in Jefferson City, Tennessee this past Saturday March 29th.

Hannah did a great job of managing things in East Tennessee and Amanda and the volunteers from Mt Vale church were excellent hosts serving nachos, popcorn, cupcakes and drinks. Yum! I was in town doing some Expo research and actually got to attend this year so enjoyed sharing the Easter story with all of the attendees myself. :-) 

We also held our second Easter Spring Fling at Grace community Church in Brentwood, Tennessee on the same day. I obviously was not able to make that event, but we had a great team of volunteers that served with excellence and met the needs of those who attended with the light of Christ. 

Attached is a collage of pictures from both events that I hope you enjoy and encourages you as we celebrate this wonderful season of Easter and all that Jesus did for us! 

With our Belize trip and to Spring Flings in the books We only have the Leanne life Legacy Easter baskets to distribute, and we will have finished the first part of our year, so we gear up for Expo season. 

Please join us in prayer for God to continue to bless our efforts to share His love and gospel with individuals living with disabilities as well as provide for all of our needs to bless people in Jesus’ name. :-)

Access-Life 2025 Spring Newsletter – Starting off the Year Strong in Belize!

Hey there Access-Life family and friends. We just mailed out our spring newsletter featuring our trip to Belize and I wanted to share it with everyone since there are not enough stamps to go around here at ministry headquarters. :-) Hope you enjoy the pictures and stories as well as the notice about our two spring flings coming up in East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee on March 29th.

The copies we send out in the mail have a response card and envelope for folks that feel led by the Lord to support the work that God is doing through Access-Life. However, here I have placed a link to our secure online giving system for anyone feeling that same leading by the Lord to give a gift to the ministry in general for any one of the areas in which we serve individuals and families living with disabilities. :-)

https://forms.ministryforms.net/viewForm.aspx?formId=6a91faee-c486-446c-9963-83e797ae0ae9

Currently, our budgeted goal for the Belize mission trip and outreach is quite tight as we just had to purchase seven sets of new batteries ($771.72 wholesale, praise the Lord Jesus) for seven power chairs down there designated for folks who came to appointments. Plus, we have to ship them down to the mission as well as have a ramp to build for a lady who received a wheelchair but has no way to get it into her house. So, if foreign missions is on your heart this is a great place to make a direct impact. Simply select Belize in the drop-down menu once you are on the giving page

In any case, I want to say thank you to everyone who prays, gives and serves to keep the ministry moving forward in Christ.

Access-Life “Belize Mission Trip Day Six”: February 24, 2025 – First World Reentry. :)

So, Monday arrived with a beautiful sunrise and everyone while extremely worn out was packed up and ready to go to the airport early! It was a sweet time of sharing the love and gospel of Jesus with so many In Belize, but we were all ready to get back to our own homes and families. :)

We had a great group of team members this year as always and I love seeing the body of Christ come together with everyone doing their part but with no part being more important than the other. 

Although, we still have seven sets of batteries that need to be shipped to the Hearts of Christ mission, over 60 wheelchairs were distributed along with countless rollators, walkers, crutches, canes, diapers, pads, Bibles, Gospel bracelets, food packets, faith-based kid items, candy and hygiene kits. So, God definitely made an impact in many people’s lives who live in Belize and I know from the thank yous and words of gratitude that hearts were touched as only He can do. We know that seeds were planted to expand God’s kingdom, and He worked in people’s lives doing things that only he knows need to be done.

Coming back to the United States is always a welcome for us but also a challenge coming from a simpler and slower paced word to the world of information overload and complexity. We like to call in First World reentry. Adjustments will come but the return to the sweetness of connecting with believer in a third world country will be welcome. :)

Access-Life “Belize Mission Trip Day Five”: February 23, 2025 – The Home Stretch!

Sunday was a much slower paced day as we only had a few appointments in the morning, but we did spend quite a bit of time organizing all of the items that were going to be donated to a local non-profit hospital. I was amazed that we had so many items that hopefully they will be able to use as they have so little at the hospital and only a few clinics scattered throughout the country. 

Their education is very minimal, too and some of the items we have left in the past they weren’t even sure what they were. However, this year many of the items are basic mainstays for hospital facilities like oxygen concentrators, IV poles, standing tables, feeding tube supplies, tracheostomy supplies, etc that we hope they will be able to put them to good use quickly. 

After getting everything put away, we then went on a little outing to a local village to distribute more food packets, Gospel bracelet kits, Bibles, faith-based kid items, candy and hygiene kits. It is always extremely humbling to go into these places where some have electricity but most do not have water. However, there are many believers we meet along the way and the joy of the Lord is still overflowing from their lives. They even have such beautiful surroundings of God’s great outdoors that is an encouragement and there are many Christ honoring churches in the area that keep everyone moving forward in Christ. 

We always say there are first world problems and third world problems and while many times we look at third world problems as much more severe they are often much simpler and easier to navigate than the complicated problems we see in our culture and society of America today.

Access-Life “Belize Mission Trip Day Three and Four”: February 21 and 22, 2025 – People, People, People…

Now that everything from our two twenty-foot containers that came from Texas and Florida was sorted, organized, cleaned, repaired and ready to distribute, we started taking appointments at 9:00 a.m on Friday. People were at the gate before 7:00 a.m. ready to come into the Hearts of Christ mission facility but we still had a few things to get ready before opening the gate. 

Friday was a full day of seeing kids and adults with a variety of disabilities from amputations (diabetes is huge challenge in Belize so this is very common as they can diagnose but have no medicine for treatment), cerebral palsy, spina bifida, spinal cord injuries and other diagnosed and undiagnosed conditions. The health care in Belize is very minimal with only three small non-profit hospitals that are not very well equipped or educated so most people in Belize go to Guatemala for health care which is expensive and unobtainable for most.

In turn, our outreach is so valuable and needed to help them get the basics to make it through each day. Plus, we were blessed to be able to give out Bibles, hygiene kits, Gospel bracelet kits, faith-based kid items, candy and food packets to each family that came as well as pray with many!

By Saturday morning we had already given out most of our mobility items and much of our medical supplies, so we were really grasping to find items that were appropriate and adequate for everyone. However, God always supplied everything we needed even down to the last two appointments in which we basically had to fabricate two manual wheelchairs from the parts we had to meet their needs. Both were spinal cord injuries and what we had was not ideal, but they were thrilled to receive what we were able to give. 

I can still see the smile on the final gentleman we fitted who was a recently injured and had no wheelchair at all. His wife and family came carrying him in a pickup truck and out of the truck into a chair to sit in on the porch where we were distributing mobility items. In the end we were only able to put together a transport chair for him, but he and his wife were so thankful to have something in which she could push him around. They are on the top of our list for next year and excited about us coming back and us hopefully having something that will make his life even better.

With donations drying up here in the USA, we are looking a possibly having to purchase wheelchairs from other ministries who refurbish or fabricate basic model to have enough mobility items to distribute. So, please be in prayer for God to connect us to the right groups to make this happen. :)

Access-Life “Belize Mission Trip Day Two”: February 20, 2025 – Spring Cleaning. :)

Although we were all tired from the traveling excitement of Wednesday, everyone was up and ready to get going with our work on Thursday. 

We started the day like every day with breakfast and devotions and then went to work sorting, organizing, cleaning and repairing the items that had been shipped to the Hearts of Christ mission for us to distribute.

It is always one of the more difficult days as there’s so much manual labor involved and getting things done but our team of which I am one of the younger ones had the joy of the Lord strengthening us to get it all done.  There is just something about that wonderful older generation of Christians who have the mindset of working until the job is done and done well no matter how long or how tired you are.

It always amazes me how God works through the hearts and minds of his people to do such great things and while we were very tired and a bit sore at the end of the day, everything was ready for our appointments that started the next day. :-)