Thank you so much Friends at Shady Grove Church for hosting another Access-Life FALL FUN DAY! As always it was a God blessed success with many individuals and families living with disabilities fellowshipping in a faith-filled and festive environment.
A special call out goes to our two board members Helen McLaren and Mike Mitchell who were instrumental in making things happen. Although, I know there were key volunteers and point people at the church that pushed it over the finish line! Here is a collage so you can see the smiles that the joy of the Lord put on many faces this past Saturday.
Enjoy and may God bless each and every one of you beyond that you could hope her imagine. HAPPY FALL Y’ALL.
Hey there boys and girls of all ages and abilities! Is with great excitement and joy that I am sharing with you our summer newsletter which is our 44th overall. It contains some great pictures and information about our wild Expo at East Tennessee, two Easter Spring Flings as well as our first Leanne’s Life Legacy project. I hope you enjoy it and are blessed by the words and the smiles!
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. :-)
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. :-)
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.
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. :-)
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. :-)
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.
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. :)
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.
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