Passing it on
arr’s week is full. Bright and early on a Wednesday morning in October, Lisa stands before a small group of men and women at the Central Kansas Dream Center chapel. She shares a passage from the Bible about how Jesus healed a bent-over woman, and changed the way the world saw her. No longer was she the bent-over woman, but a child of Abraham, a child of God. The congregation is still, but as she asks if any of them have ever felt bent over or bound emotionally or spiritually, they begin to nod, slowly. She shares with them photos taken years earlier in Mexico. A man in the photo suffered from an unknown afliction to his back, forcing him to walk on both his hands and feet. She shared about her shock and outrage that the man had to live that way. The people of his community had given him a nickname, much like the bent-over woman. They knew of him, but no one had even known his real name. “Many times in our lives, we feel bentover and bound,” she said. “But God sees us. He can heal us, and we can discard the labels we have put upon ourselves, and reclaim our true identity. We are all children of God, and we have great futures.” The nodding increases. Lisa then asks the people to take some time for prayer, and that she is available to pray with and for them during this time. Many rise and ind places in the chapel where they can be alone. One woman approaches Lisa, full of emotion, and asks for her to pray with her. Then, she seeks out a few others, and sits quietly with them for a short time before inally inding a spot for her own personal prayer. As the meeting ends, the men and women head out of the chapel to their classes where they will continue their personal work in class. The discipleship program uses the Teen Challenge curriculum, which focuses on spiritual growth, their relationship with God, themselves, and family. With the program self-paced, each student is at a different place in the program at any one time. This is how Lisa starts her day every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday, while the men are learning work skills with Lisa’s husband, she and her assistant conduct interviews with Dream Center applicants, both in-person and over the phone, seeking to learn if they are serious, and if they are ready. The weekends are family time. House Leads, often former students, are available to keep things running smoothly.
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INSPIRE HEALTH
November § December 2016
Sh S ha harin i g ssome om me em orre ore Sharing more Between the two of them, Lisa and Randy are parents of ive children. Randy’s three children from a previous marriage all live in Great Bend. They are Angela Parr, Steven Parr and Sarah Love. Sarah is owner of Great Bend’s Skate Center. The couple also adopted two daughters from Mexico. Marissa recently received her Bachelor’s degree and she and her husband are starting a bilingual church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vanessa is a freshman at Hoisington High School, and enjoys playing basketball. With so much attention paid to her students, Lisa switches gears and focuses on her family and herself by creating cushions of time in the morning and evening. Finding time to do things together is a top priority for Lisa. She and Vanessa recently began working out together at a local itness center early in the morning. From there, Vanessa goes to school and Lisa heads to work, both awake and ready to start the day. Lisa also inds replenishment by getting away with her family to do something fun. They enjoy four-wheeling along the banks of the Arkansas River, visiting daughter Marissa in Tulsa, and now and then, they simply get away for the evening on a foodie quest for the perfect meal. The family attends church together at the
Dream Center Chapel. This way, Vanessa has the opportunity to spend time with her parents, and to get to know their students. The students, likewise, get to interact with her family, which is important because they can see what a healthy marriage and a healthy family looks like. Many, she adds, have never experienced one themselves. Rather than sheltering her daughter from the sadness in the world, she guides her through it. In this way, growing up in a missionary family has provided Vanessa with an education, Lisa said. Her daughter has witnessed the transformations of many of Lisa’s students, and understands how devastating life controlling issues can be, and how hard they are to overcome. But mostly, Vanessa has seen that through faith and hard work they can be overcome. Through faith and hard work and a willingness to accept change, Lisa knows, anything is possible.