SonLife: Miracle Van

Hold On, Here We Go!

SonLife’s FIRST testimony of God’s Love!

Yes, Dail and I were preparing to move to Jax (May 1st '08) to start this new church… but God said, “Why wait, let the ministry begin. What if we provided a fully handicapped accessible van to a quadriplegic artist in Jacksonville? Sound doable? No problem for God, and those who believe.

Dail and I were at the Florida Sportsman’s Boat Show in Sarasota (imagine?), and we saw this guy, Tony Ryals, a quadriplegic (has no use of his arms or legs) painting by mouth – not something you see everyday – so we went over to talk to him. He had a booth at the show and was painting and selling his paintings, with his wife and 15 yr old son. Guess where he’s from? Right. Jacksonville. He has an art gallery in Jax.

We talked to him for a little while and told him our plans to move to Jax and start a church, talked a little “theology” with him, bought a couple of small paintings – assured him we’d see him in Jax and walked away. End of story? Oh no… this is where God takes over.

As we’re leaving at the end of the show, we noticed Tony (quite by “accident”) getting into his van, an older van, with no wheelchair lift of any kind.

It appeared that he wheeled up beside the side doors, and with the help of his family, worked himself into the van (w/ no use of his arms or legs). We believed right there, God was going to doing something to help him with transportation/transfers. We started talking about doing fund raisers, fishing tournaments, etc… to try to get some huge cash together to help this family.

I’ll be brief… I talked to a friend of mine at First Presbyterian Church in Lake Placid, who uses a wheelchair and asked him if he had any ideas of how we could help this man in Jax. Short of it… he tells me he bought a new handicapped accessible vehicle in October and has been trying to sell his other ’97 van since then, completely handicapped accessible with a wheelchair lift, raised roof and lowered steel floor (costs new? $80,000+). He and his wife prayed about it, called me back that same night and said… you guessed it,

We’re going to GIVE Tony the van.

Miracle. I called Tony, talked to his wife, reminded her of when we met, and told her about the offer. She was, shall we say, ecstatic.

Because of the financial contributions already received for our fledgling church, SonLife was able to put a new battery and a new set of tires on the van as well! After a lot of planning, cleaning, and paperwork, Dail and I delivered the van on Good Friday to Tony and his family in Jax. (see pics)

Is God incredible, or what! Who can measure His love? Who can understand His grace? Is God ALREADY working through SonLife? What will He do in the weeks, months, and years to come when we all get together to glorify Him? What can’t He do?

Like I said, “Hold on – Here we go!”