Joy Fellowship Team in New Zealand—October 2003 October was a special month for a team of five
Joy Fellowshippers. David and Merrill Stocks, Sarah Brown, Lezlee Bachand,
and Joy Gregory traveled to New Zealand with an aim to be a blessing to
those in disability ministry that we know there. We spent time with Di and Hugh Willis, Debbie Kennedy and family,
Dianne Vincent and those from Christian Fellowship for the Disabled and
Joy Ministries (the NZ arm of Joy Fellowship). In addition we spoke at churches (Salvation Army, Anglican,
Congregational…), at a Joy Ministries Day Retreat (a one day extravaganza
attended by 85+ people), at the CFFD National Camp (375 people with all
abilities, gifts and disabilities, from all walks of life and all ages—a
magnificent glimpse of heaven for many of us). "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members
do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one
body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts,
according to the grace given us" (Romans 12:4-6 NIV). The idea of how we belong together was the theme of many of the times
that we spoke as a team in New Zealand. Each of us would find photos of
people in Joy Fellowship that we belonged to and tell stories about them,
putting the photos on the overhead projector. We became wonderful story
tellers, describing each person and their gifts from God. During our 3 1/2 weeks in New Zealand, another group of three people
came from a disability ministry in the Philippines. So, we were also able
to meet with Briccio, Ed and Monica and here their vision and dreams for
the children and families that they are reaching out to. One of the highlights of our time was spending six days at "The
Center," the hub of the ministry of the Christian Fellowship for the
Disabled. At the Center are the offices, a tape and Braille lending
library, a book library, a swimming pool, a recording studio, the
photocopy room, and a large meeting room. Tuesday thru Thursday people
come to the Center for Bible Study, Prayer, Counseling, Worship and
Fellowship. But in the Center it is the people, the loving, laughing, compassionate
people who serve and work there that make the difference and who are
making the difference in people’s lives. Everyone does what they can:
organizing drinks, cleaning up in the kitchen, making photocopies, helping
those who need help to eat, writing the newsletter, organizing camps,
phoning to get drivers, appealing for glasses and hearing aids for those
disabled in Third World Countries. We are thankful for the generous people who hosted us providing
everything from a car, a house to live in, our camp fees, homemade frozen
dinners in the freezer, our morning coffee, meals out, rides to places we
didn’t know how to get to, an electric razor and even a new toilet seat
when the one in our house broke. We are thankful… "We give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father" (1 Thessalonians
1:2-3 NKJV).
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