This is part II of an interview with Mr. Justin Reimer about a ministry he and his wife launched called The Elisha Foundation. Part I of the interview can be found here.
Describe your ministry a bit. What is your vision? Scope? Mission?
Our overriding mission is to encourage families of people with special needs (kids and adults) to a more intimate faith in Christ, lived out with passion and love. In our experience we have seen that relational intimacy, faith, passion and real love all commonly suffer in the lives of those affected by a disability or other complication. As the focus shifts from a mate or child to a disability, so goes the intimacy of those relationships. Focus goes from Christ for strength, to self. Focus goes from love to duty and passion for life can be lost altogether. We want to encourage that those focuses be redirected so that much is made of Christ in all things.
Our primary vehicle for this, at this point, is through hosting Family Retreats for these special families. We are also working on developing more of a community presence as it relates to providing child care once a month for families so they can go out, plug families in with churches in their area, provide counseling resources,etc. Working with the local churches to help meet the needs of these families is our immediate concern and is beginning to take shape.
Our vision is to provide resources for the local churches to build awareness of the special needs community and to be a supporting organization to that. Never far from our hearts is providing some international outreach opportunities as well, be that through orphan ministries or family ministries but all orchestrated through indigenous churches.
Our Board and counsel ultimately want to keep the brevity of life in mind (Eccles. 12), making much of Christ through all things (John 9) while being faithful to and purposed for and by the Gospel (1 Cor 9).
What forms does The Elisha Foundation’s partnership with local churches take? Do you partner with ministries like Joni and Friends, or do you see your venture as somewhat different?
Our goal is to simply have a point of contact at the local churches so that we can reference them specifically if we have a family that is seeking a fellowship or is in the area of that church. We want to know that a person will be enfolded when they walk in the door of the church; whatever we can do to facilitate a church in doing that, we will.
Prior to our first couple of Retreats the director of our region for JAF stayed in touch with me about what we are doing and was very helpful in providing resources and encouragement. The small and intimate environment is different than the conferences they hold and JAF appreciated and encouraged the differences. Joni and Friends is an excellent ministry and Joni has impacted our lives greatly – we would love to partner with them!
What suggestions might you have for how Christians could assist your ministry and/or people in their midst who have special needs, particularly children? What mistakes do Christians commonly make in this regard?
The most common mistake Christians make is that since they don’t know what to say or are uncomfortable upon seeing someone with special needs they chose to do nothing at all. These days we do this with “normal” people and pass on opportunities to share the gospel even. I would challenge Christians, even urge them, to simply approach that child or adult or their parents and ask what they can do to help. That’s it, just ask! They may or may not tell you but it means a lot to them to even be asked.
As for how Christians can assist us, the best and most affective assistance for our ministry is prayer. We are in the midst of some very important steps for the ministry and could use some prayers concentrated on our behalf.
Describe for us a typical Family Retreat. Where do these retreats occur?
A typical Family Retreat consists of a balanced schedule of teaching/worship, resources and free time for the families running over three days and three nights. We aim for a small intimate environment where we serve 6-8 families at a time with around 20+ full time volunteers tending to their needs – each family has at least one volunteer completely designated to them.
Each evening and morning we have a time of teaching and worship along with a program for the kids. The teaching at our last Retreat was on the book of Job and was excellent. The kids had an international missions theme.
Some of the resources we have had are educational consultants, music therapy and round table discussions for parents. We also arrange for a tea for the moms, we have the kids and dads do flower arrangements for the moms, a candle light dinner for the parents, a treasure hunt for the kids and other enjoyable activities. In an effort to keep the family focus going we allow for a lot of free time with nothing on the “schedule” to encourage the families to interact with each other or grow in that regard.
We utilize a corporate guest ranch here in Central Oregon for our Retreats. The ranch has private cabins for each family and sits on 40 acres of beautiful country with the Cascade mountains as a backdrop. A full complement of chef prepared meals each day and snacks in between is a favorite of the kids – and adults. On the grounds of the ranch you can fish, hike, play tennis, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong, etc.
Does your ministry currently serve primarily Christian families? Is there an explicit evangelistic component to your ministry, and if so, what does it look like?
Christian families are definitely more drawn to what we provide but we do not want to be exclusively Christian in our servicing these families. This is a major challenge to achieve balance on. At each of our Retreats we have had at least one family of non-Christians. We put up flyers in varying locations in our area and we are clear that we are “faith-based” but that we encourage anyone to come and be a part of what we are doing.
The teaching times are an obvious evangelistic component but we feel that our staff of volunteers are a very strong “component” as well. Our volunteers that are assigned to specific families are in a unique position to really bond with these families and it has been very rewarding to hear of the conversations that have taken place or to hear non-Christian families comment on the unity of our team. Or even hear things like “I don’t know about all this Jesus stuff?” I love to hear that as they are encountered with the Gospel.
Looking at the broader culture for a moment, many of us are concerned at indications that unborn children diagnosed with Down Syndrome are more likely to be aborted. What do you think is happening here, and is this a specific concern for your ministry?
Al Mohler covered this topic well as did Joni Erickson Tada last year. I don’t fully have the capacity to restrain emotive discussion on these developments but will try.
It is a concern of ours to understand what we can do to be used to counter this type of “medicine” and be used more directly. We have had discussions about how we could help the local Crisis Pregnancy Centers or even on how we could be an influence in the local/state medical community. Our local health care professionals have very little experience with pediatric or neonatal disabilities, as experienced by our friends recently. Could that be because the latest tests are being utilized more frequently in our state to prevent these births? I don’t know but it does concern me deeply.
Spend just 5 minutes with Elisha and you will wonder why they don’t have children like him part of their genetic counseling teams in the medical community. He lights up the room and is full of love for most anyone he meets, especially an uncanny and deep love for Jesus. A love that now, unfortunately, many parents will never experience from their own child with special needs because of the advice of these professionals.