Larry teaching at the International Christian Education Association convention October, '08

For the first time ever, Larry taught a class for the I.C.E.A. Fall convention on "Facing Your Giants".

There were around 16 attendees and we received a lot of positive feedback. Comments such as "great learning experience" and "I never really understood some aspects of disabilities - such as that we all have them, in some form or another. Larry helped me understand that, with the Lord's help, we can overcome them".

Larry at the International Christian Education Conference

On Saturday, Oct. 11th, Larry taught a workshop at the I.C.E.A. Fall Conference nin Northville titled "Facing the Giants". there were 16 people in attendance which was pretty good for a first-time workshop teacher.

Larry also made many good contacts while there as we had a table with resources on it all day so the attendees had an opportunity to stop by, meet Larry and get acquainted with Hurdling Handicaps.

Chicago to NYC to PGA

Summer began by Larry taking his wife and daughter to Chicago. He had a speaking engagement for the Fellowship of Christian Atheletes where there were about 200 in attendance, several of whom made decisions for Christ. Since this speaking engagement occured near his daughter Anna's birthday, he took her and his wife, Jenny, along for the trip.

Of course the main attraction in the Chicago area to a little girl is not her father speaking at a meeting - it's the American Girl doll mega-store! Due to a mis-comminication between Larry's aunt and uncle (who were supposed to take Anna to the doll store), Larry had the great pleasure of driving Anna and Jenny to the American Girl store so the marriage survived. They spent about five hours in the store and it was like going to Disneyland!

Next up was a trip to Manhattan for Larry and Jenny to attend the National Speakers Association convention. He and Jenny stayed in the Marriott in Times Square where the convention was being held and got to hear speakers like Steve Forbes. Larry had the pleasure of having lunch with Jim Johnson (the coach of the autistic boy who, in February of 2006, helped his basketball team win their final home game - http://www.coachjimjohnson.com/ ). Larry was also able to visit Ground Zero which was very moving. He also visited a church right near there (St. Paul's Church) which was not damaged when the towers fell and has since become a shrine to the memories of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Most recently for the Patton family, Larry's son Will was chosen to be a caddy at Oakland Hills for the 2008 PGA Championship tournament, which made them both very proud and happy (not to mention giving Larry a good excuse to go watch golf a lot that week). Will is also the #2 golfer on the Troy High School Varsity Golf Team and he will be a senior this Fall.

On August 23 - 25th, Larry will be in Tustin, Michigan for the Joni & Friends Summer camp so I'm sure lots more exciting information from that will be posted soon!

Congratulations to the 2008 Joni & Friends camp scholarship recipients!

We are very pleased to announce the recipients of the HHSM summer camp scholarships for the Joni & Friends 2008 summer camp season. They are:

the Dickhudt family, the Holmes family and the Eggebroten family.

Thank you for your applications and we trust God will bless you all with this refreshing and renewing family camp experience.

Here's a comment from Robert who was at Guardian Lutheran Church for Larry's recent speaking engagement......


It was SO good having you with us on the 9th! So MANY folks spoke with me in the days since then about how they were "touched" and "impressed" and "caused to think", etc. by your message and manner! That's the GOAL we set for our annual "Disability Awareness Sundays"....causing folks to get their "Christian awareness" fine-tuned! We thank God for you.....and your ministry!

Thank you, Lori!

The HHSM Board of Directors and Larry wish to thank Lori Wagner for her almost three years of dedicated service to this ministry as the Coordinator. She is a budding author (she has just released her third book) and she will now be moving into other areas of ministry as the Lord leads. Her creativity, skill and generous spirit were evident in all she did for us.

She especially was a great help in updating and computerizing the office, which included putting "The Hurdler" on-line in the form of a blog, as well as keeping up with Larry's schedule and all the various day-to-day work of this ministry.

Though we are sad to see her go, we are very excited to see how God will use her in the future and we pray His richest blessings on her life. Thank you again, Lori, for being a wonderful part of HHSM!

Larry and the Board