News/Stories

When 52-year-old Lance Campbell was baptized this spring there wasn’t a dry eye in the church.

“Lance was pretty excited about doing this. It was very touching,” says Dan Schoeffel, who baptized Lance. Dan is a staff minister for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Onalaska, Wis., and frequently helps with the Coulee Region Jesus Cares Ministries program where Lance attends.

Lance is developmentally disabled. He lives in his own apartment and has an exuberance for life that brightens everyone around him. Yet for many years he wasn’t receiving regular spiritual instruction. “I had tried to take Lance to our church but part way through he started crying. It was just too overwhelming for him,” says his sister Lillie Zoeller. “Then in 2005 we started going to Jesus Cares classes. He felt more comfortable because he was with people who also have special needs. He felt a sense of belonging and it was to his level.”

The Coulee Region Jesus Cares Ministries assists La Crosse area WELS congregations in reaching out to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Started in 1990, it serves an average of 20-21 students each week and is part of the national Jesus Cares Ministries (JCM) operated by The Lutheran Home Association.

Like Lance, many people with developmental disabilities have their physical and social needs well cared for, however, their spiritual needs are often overlooked. Vicky Kunz, co-director for the Coulee Region JCM, says their mission is to meet these needs by sharing God’s Word, law and gospel with students at their own level of comprehension. The Lutheran Home Association assists their mission by providing lesson materials, training and encouragement.

“Each week an area WELS pastor comes to give a devotion and assist with teaching a Bible lesson,” she says. “We also have 13 volunteers who help with teaching, assisting with music and crafts, offering rides, planning curriculums or helping in whatever way is needed.”

It was a Bible lesson earlier this year that prompted Lance’s desire to be baptized. “I had been covering the lesson of baptism and asked if everyone had been baptized,” says Staff Minister Schoeffel. “Lance had not. But he said he wanted to be baptized.”

And so, on April 30, 2012, Lance was baptized at First Lutheran Church in La Crosse, where the Coulee Region JCM classes are held. Interestingly, Lance now attends traditional church services there as well. “Lance has gotten to know the pastor through Jesus Cares classes and feels comfortable with him,” says Vicky. “He knows the building and sees familiar faces.” Vicky generously praises her dedicated coworkers and volunteers. She’s proud of the students when they sing at community functions or learn the tone chimes for playing in church. And she is thankful to know people so special as Lance.

“Obviously, we give all the credit to God,” says Vicky. “The love of Jesus has completely taken over Lance’s heart.”

If you would like to find a Jesus Cares program near you, please visit this page.