God Gave Me Legs...

"I can do ALL things through Christ..." Phil 4:13 

Hello, my name is Bruce. I want to tell you a little about myself. I was born with a birth defect called spin-a-bifida. This birth defect affects the spinal cord. I am paralyzed from the waist down. Since I was born, I have gone through many medical procedures to make my body as normal as possible. I had been raised to believe that I am able to accomplish anything I put my mind to...just a little differently then others.

Around the age of ten, we moved from Ohio (where I was born) to Arizona. Shortly there after, my parents were divorced. Over the next 3-4 years, both biological parents were remarried. I lived with my, Dad, brother, stepmother and her two boys while seeing my mother on the "every- other weekend plan". As time went by, I was saved at thirteen years old and became a leader in my youth group. Even though my parents were divorced and remarried, I was handling the changes well, or so I thought.

Then came the hard times in my life. I grew up in a Christian home, went to a Pentecostal church so I knew God, and was serving him as well as I could as a young teenager. Soon I began to question my self worth and was very frustrated with people always praying for my healing. For years people prayed for my healing but nothing. I began to be resentful for being disabled. I blamed my disability for all my problems from why I was not doing well in school, to why people did not like me or why I did not have a girlfriend or feel loved at all. Over time, I began to feel isolated and alone. Slowly, Satan was blinding me from the truth, which was that I am a child of God and made perfect in God's eyes no matter what kind if disabilities I have.

Over the next few years, I began to loose interest in the activities I once loved. I was into rock music and even to so called pure metal which was "Christian heavy metal." Music is one of Satan's strongest ways to get to young people... this I can tell you for a fact first hand. One day I went to my guidance counselor in my high school and told him I wanted to switch a couple of classes because they were to hard. One of these classes was band. I had been in band since I was in elementary school, so this was obviously something very important to me. This along with the fact that I was becoming more and more isolated, they began to take notice.

Up to this point, I had become very depressed, so my parents told me I had two choices to get help; either go to this camp for people with disabilities or go to Freedom Village USA. Well, my parents already knew that the camp for disabled people I did not qualify for but did not tell me because it had to be my choice to come to Freedom Village. Banking on the fact that I did not do many things with others who were disabled and that I already knew from experience that they would box me and limit my abilities based on some psychological or text book's wrong information, my parents knew that I would choose Freedom Village, and sure enough, I did.

When I arrived here, I found new hope and strength. Through the renewing of my faith and the character building I received here I was able to change my life for the better. Some of the things I learned were: 1. Character is not what you are it is who you are. Pastor Brothers taught this to me personally. I learned that whether I could walk or not, people would respect me and I could respect myself based upon who I was on the inside. Even if I had use of my legs or not, I had the nice car or big fancy house, none of this mattered if I did not have the respect from God and others. 2. I learned about healing here. I learned that God had healed me. He healed my spirit, my heart, and my soul but most importantly, he saved me.

An important part of the program for me was the horse program. I love horse and most of my life I admired them from a distance.  While here I was able to work on the horse barn for the two years of my program. While working with the horse I found that "God gave me legs." I can remember how I used to pray for healing all the time and remember how God heals and how we expect him to heal are two diffrent things. God healed every part of my life and through horse ridding I got new legs.

I can also tell you of a story of a women who did not know me but knew God and listened to him. Her name was Mrs. Schultz. She told me on my intake day that I would do great things here. I thought, "yea sure that's nice," never really taking to heart what she told me. Later in my life, I came to understand what she was trying to tell me.

These are just a few of many lessons I learned here. If I had not come to Freedom Village, I would most likely have not graduated high school and would have ended up being a part of the growing statistics of lost kids in the country with lost hopes or dreams. I graduated from Freedom Academy in 1991 and the program after achieving Jr. Staff and the "Christian Character Award". I had left with a sense of accomplishment, a renewed sense of self worth and confidence in where I stood as a child of God.

Over that past 15 years, I have had my difficulties, trials, and tribulations. However, God has restored my family, both my parents that had been divorced 18 years prior were reunited and remarried to each other once again. I have worked for companies like United States Military, MCI, Sprint, the government of Arizona, and as a male advocate/case manager in a domestic violence shelter for women. I am not, nor will I ever be, perfect but the skills I learned have always helped me get back to where I needed to be in my life. Freedom Village has taught me how to seek after God, have character, and to love me for who God has made me to be.

Now, I work full time on Staff here at Freedom Village. I am the Director of the Procurement Department and over see our website. I am giving back to the place that changed my life and taught me a better way through Jesus Christ. On a personal note, I would like to encourage all of those who read this to support the work that God and Pastor Brothers has started here. We all know of someone who is lost or has children who may (God forbid) need this place someday. Not once have we ever taken support from the Government because of the truth that is taught here. I am just one of many lives that have changed because of what Freedom Village USA stands for.

God Bless You, Bruce S.

Do YOU know Jesus?

PHOTO GALLERY