“Will you be dancing today, Hope?” the leader asked the girl in her wheelchair.
“Wahoo!” she replied with a huge grin, then “Yes!” as she was wheeled to Young Life club. It was the second day of a weeklong adventure camp for kids in Capernaum, Young Life’s ministry for kids with disabilities.
My first thought was, “Dancing?” She can move her head and her arms a little, but that’s all. How could she dance?
As we entered the club, the music played loudly: “Ain’t no mountain high enough/ain’t no valley low enough …” Everyone began “dancing.” Mike was moving around with his walker, Chris was in his wheelchair moving his head and arms wildly and Hope wheeled all around. Next it was a few pies in leaders’ faces, some sing-along songs and then Jimmy Hagenbuch delivered the club talk — Jesus. God came to be with us. I was beginning to understand.
As the director of a traditional Young life area, and a former mountain guide, I helped Suzanne Markham and Pete Albert put together a work crew and high-adventure program for the local Capernaum group. Our goals were for the work crew kids to encounter Christ through serving others and to give the kids with disabilities an amazing week.
What an experience! It took a lot of people-power, but we managed to do it all with the kids: canoeing and kayaking, the zip line, hot air ballooning, a street luge and camping.
Capernaum volunteers give deeper shades of meaning to words like “tireless” and “compassion.”
On Thursday during that week, it was Hope’s 15th birthday, and we were going rock climbing. At the rocks, there were ropes anchored everywhere on the cliffs, which were a real challenge for the guides who were responsible for keeping these kids safe in an unfamiliar environment. Everyone got a chance to rappel off a cliff, with varying degrees of help from their guides. Hope arrived, and it was my turn to rappel down the cliff with her. When I asked if she was ready to rappel, she said, “Wahoo!”
Like many Capernaum kids, Hope needed me to basically carry her in my arms down the cliff, belayed by the guides at the summit. So I did, choking back tears the whole way because I had become aware of how precious this experience was to Hope, to me and to her leaders. Unable to voice her thanks, Hope kissed me gently on the head as I carried her up the trail back to her wheelchair.
There were many tears that week. Parents wept while the work crew changed and high-fived campers each morning. Leaders cried as their friends experienced new and great things. At one point during club, nearly everyone was in tears as a group of people lowered someone through a hole cut in the roof during one of Jimmy’s talks to illustrate the men in the Bible who brought their friend to Jesus’ feet. In bringing Christ to these kids, we had also experienced Christ.
I realized what we had experienced — because of our friends’ special needs — was a vision of Christ: love, incarnation, redemption and deep longing for the time when our friends with disabilities will reach their fullness.