Winter Retreat

September 2nd, 2010

We now have dates and a location for the Winter Retreat!

When: January 6th at 3PM until January 9th at 2PM

Where: Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Cannon Beach is on the beautiful Oregon coast about 80 miles from Portland. We will be in the Pacific View Lodge portion of the conference center with ocean views and a short walk to the sand. We are excited about the opportunity to hold this Retreat in such a unique setting. We will have more details soon as the plans come together.

If you or someone you know would like to attend, please contact us soon at the following:

Email: info@theelishafoundation.org

Phone: 541-419-6007

JDR

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Elisha and Mr. Dave

August 26th, 2010

A short while ago I posted some thoughts about Eli on his birthday. In that post I shared about Eli’s first friend, Mr. Dave. You can read that post here. Just last month while in San Diego we were able to go spend the afternoon with Mr. Dave and his wife Katherine. They are a dear couple and sweet friends that we are honored to know.

Here are some pictures of Elisha and Mr. Dave that we took during our visit. While there Mr. Dave gave us a copy of his memoirs detailing his teenage years in Holland during WWII. What a gift to us to read the story of God’s hand of protection on this man who would become our son’s first friend.

Enjoy!

smilesbuddies

more buddiesbuddies3

JDR

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TEF Promo Video!

July 25th, 2010

It is finally here! After months of planning, days of shooting and a lot of coordination we finally have our first promotional video. Mark Ellis at Moonshine Park provided all of the excellent resources for the shooting, editing, directing, etc. of the video.

Please pass it along to as many folks as possible!

The Elisha Foundation from The Elisha Foundation on Vimeo.

JDR

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Retreat 2010 Slideshow

July 21st, 2010

Here is a little slideshow from this year’s Retreat. A special thanks to the ladies at TrueBlue Photography for the superb work. Also, a special thanks to Bob Kauflin for the use of the accompanying song. He wrote this song specially for those affected by disabilities.

Enjoy!

JDR

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Pray for Joni Erickson Tada

June 23rd, 2010

Joni Erickson Tada has often been the herald for disabilities in the church. Her ministry, Joni and Friends, does amazing things around the world. Please click here to read on and pray for her and her husband, Ken.

JDR

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Happy Birthday Elisha!

June 18th, 2010

eliball

13 years ago today Elisha Alexander Reimer was born to us in Anchorage, Alaska. How time flies!

Thinking back over Eli’s life we can see not only the impact he has had on our lives but also on the lives of others. From day one, seeing the nurses in NICU tend to him and us in unique ways, was humbling. Then to be embraced by our entire village community in Alaska was amazing. There have been many “standing stones” in his life where look back and see monuments of grace from our sovereign God displayed through his life.

One of Eli’s earliest friendships was with an elderly man from the church we attended in San Diego, Mr. Dave Rottenberg. Each Sunday after church Eli would waddle his way through the people and find Mr. Dave outside and sit down with him and “talk”. Eli new more sign language than he did spoken words then but Mr. Dave didn’t care he just enjoyed the light in Eli’s eyes and the melodic chatter Eli would offer up. Each Sunday Mr. Dave brought Eli those little “Smarties” candies and they would “talk” as Eli devoured them.

There is an interesting dynamic to this friendship between Mr. Dave and Eli. Dave grew up in Holland during WWII where his father was a Dutch Reformed pastor who was taken prisoner 6 months into the war and later died in a nazi death camp. At the age of 15 Dave was working with the Dutch underground. He was faced with many unusual trials as a teenager where his very facial expression while passing SS officers in the street determined life or death for him. What a contrast in teenage years between my son and his friend Dave.

Yet I reminded that the though nazi extermination machine has long since ceased due, in part to the indomitable courage of friends like Dave, there is still a pervasive culture of death in our country that would eliminate children like my son. With the prenatal diagnosis tools being used extensively in North America, around 90% of babies with prenatal diagnosis’ of Down Syndrome are being killed. The killing of what is essentially an entire civilization.

I can’t imagine my life without Elisha. His unconditional love is inspiring, his smile is contagious, his struggles bring me growth, his victories bring me elation, his love for Jesus is simple and precious. Why would we want children and adults like him eliminated from our lives, from our churches, from our society?!

The battle against this culture is one with few allies to be sure, but there is one that trumps all others – JESUS. Jesus spent much of His time on this earth with the disabled and infermed loving them and making them examples of His grace in the this fallen world. Do we approach those with disabilities in the same fashion? Do we shy from the controversial subjects in eugenics, abortion and the like? We should embrace these challenges head on and fully engaged with the Gospel of Christ. We need to faithfully proclaim the Gospel and engage in Gospel conversation those who oppose Him, those who advance ideologies of death, those who would eliminate ones we love. We need to do this with grace and love, but with the certainty of the brevity of our own lives – don’t neglect so great a salvation!

Mr. Dave was inspiration to us in our early parenting of a child with special needs. Our son had found his first friend in the least likely of peoples, but they shared so much that neither you nor I can really understand – an oddly common experience in life bonded by a Sovereign Providence. As I sit here I can picture Eli searching the crowd for Mr. Dave then finding him and moving as quickly as his barely-walking legs could carry him over to him. I see them sitting on a little flower bed wall, Eli just 3 years old and Mr. Dave silvery-white hair in his late seventies…they both have a gleam in their eyes and wide smiles on their faces. I am fond of those memories and the sweetness of the love they shared. Thank you Mr. Dave for being Eli’s first friend and for what you taught us who faithfully observed a friendship mostly without words but full of grace.

So my family and I will glory in Christ today at the celebration of another year of life granted my son, Elisha. Eli, we love you and thank Jesus for you every day!

From your father’s heart,
Dad

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Spring Retreat 10′ Complete

June 7th, 2010

Thank you all for your prayers! The Retreat ended at about 12:30 yesterday with a prayerful and song-ful send off of those we were blessed to serve over the weekend. Many tears of joy were shed in our parting.

It was a safe and beautiful time. The Gospel was proclaimed, lives were changed, families bonded, relationships were formed that will last a lifetime. There is much left to reflect on which will lead to more details later, but for now – THANK YOU!

What a mighty God we serve!

JDR

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Spring Retreat!

June 2nd, 2010

It is finally here! After months of preparation and planning this year’s Retreat will start tomorrow afternoon. We have 8 families we will be serving this year with about 20 volunteers to serve them.

Pastor Paul Martin will be leading our evening times in the Word with a series on the supremacy of Christ from Hebrews. In addition to that we have a lot of activities for the kids and families to enjoy together.

Pray for safety and a refreshing time for those we serve.

Thank you!

JDR

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“This Was Grace” Extended Version

May 10th, 2010

Several days ago we posted  the video “This Was Grace” about John and Dianne Knight and their family. The extended version just posted and we wanted to share more of their story with you…

“This Was Grace” Extended Version from Andrew Laparra on Vimeo.

JDR

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Wrestling with an Angel

May 7th, 2010

A father that I have come to know, love and respect has been sharing openly his family’s experience raising their son Jake, who has special needs. Much of what Greg shares is deeply personal and, in a good sense, raw. This morning he posted regarding the difficult decisions and transitions now working in his family.

I ask that you read all of his posts and reflect on the challenges the Lucas family and many others struggle through with grace and humility. But also to think of how many don’t have faith and thus do not have the greatest resource available to us all in the Gospel.

One final thought, families in the midst of these struggles do NOT need your pity. They do not want you to feel sorry for them. They do not want you to respond with the a “debtor’s ethic” of feeling that you owe them some encouragement. They DO need your love. Christ-centered, God glorifying, passionate and Gospel driven love. The deep love of Jesus in action. A love responding to the work of Christ in our lives and the need in the lives of those around us.

I John 3:16-18

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Be blessed and challenged.

JDR

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