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John’s Way growing to aid more

Ministry offers medical equipment to those in need

John’s Way Medical Equipment Ministry volunteer Cindy Hoover (below left) and co-founder Debra Byler bag items for a recipient at the facility in Fredricksburg. Courtesy photo

FREDRICKSBURG — A lot can change in 10 years. Just ask Debra Byler of the Clover Creek Church of the Brethren.

When she and then-pastor David Banaszak independently came up with an idea to help people in need, she never dreamed the effort would still be growing a decade later, let alone include more than 50 volunteers and occupy its own building nestled in the rolling hills just outside of Martinsburg.

“We both had the same idea at the same time, but not knowing about the other’s,” she said.

Byler, formerly a community nurse, said she knew of a local need for home medical equipment, having seen the problem through her travels working with area residents. Pastor Banaszak also had a vision for the ministry, and together they came up with John’s Way — named for John Scott Baird, a member of the Clover Creek Church, who was born with a rare genetic disorder that made walking or speaking impossible. But that did not prevent him from having a meaningful life.

“John never held a conversation, but he could express himself,” his story in the ministry’s brochure states. “He

didn’t walk, but he got where he needed to go. His presence with us for 19 years was a blessing to all who knew him. This was John’s way.”

While Baird passed away in 2004, his legacy lives on in John’s Way Medical Equipment Ministry, billed as a faith-based outreach of the church.

According to the brochure, the outreach “demonstrates the love of Christ by offering durable medical equipment to the elderly, disabled and those who are in need but who do not have the funds or medical insurance to obtain the necessary equipment to assist in their recovery from illness or injury, to maintain mobility, or to improve their quality of life and increase their independence.”

Modest beginnings

Byler said the ministry started in May 2009 in her old flower shop and Banaszak’s garage.

When they ran out of garage space, the ministry was moved to a nearby storage facility.

Then when the outreach continued to grow, “the church said, ‘you need a building,'” Byler said.

Creating the original building in 2010 was like “an Amish barn raising” with everyone helping out to cut costs under the direction of Bob “Buck” Reighard Construction, she said.

The structure worked for a few years, but as the outreach continued to grow, the building was practically bursting at the seams. So in 2013, an extension was built, adding “tons of room” in which to grow.

Today, the outreach includes a nine-member advisory team made up of six members from the Clover Creek Church and three from other churches. It remains an outreach of Clover Creek Church of the Brethren, but it has expanded so that volunteers come from all over the area.

“The first year in 2009, we gave out 16 items,” Byler said. “In the last calendar year — 2018 — we gave out just shy of 5,000 items.”

Those items included walkers, wheelchairs, hospital beds, bedside commodes, shower chairs, canes, crutches, safety rails and adaptive equipment like reachers.

The ministry started with donations and that tradition continues.

“If it wasn’t donated, we wouldn’t have a ministry here,” Byler said, noting that not all items are in stock all of the time. Inventory changes based on donations and demand.

There is often a wait list for wheelchairs as it’s important to have the correctly sized chair — one too big or too small is uncomfortable and unsafe for the recipient.

There is also a shortage of shower chairs and hospital beds, she said, but canes and walkers are usually available, as are beside commodes.

For those unsure how the process works, Byler assures that all items are scrubbed with hospital grade disinfectant. That process is completed in the new addition, which includes a floor drain.

There is also a loading dock so that those picking up or donating larger items can back right up to the doors.

Spreading the word

Many people find out about the ministry when they are released from the hospital or a rehabilitation facility, Byler said.

“Oftentimes, a patient is going home and needs these things for the home,” she said, noting Homewood, The Village at Morrisons Cove, Grane Hospice, Home Nursing, Encompass Health (formerly Health South) and AseraCare are among the local facilities who refer people to the outreach.

“We also get a lot of calls from physical and occupational therapy agencies,” she said.

In addition to wheelchairs, walkers and canes, other items available include bandages, pressure socks, orthopedic boots, diabetic socks, slings, latex gloves, wipes, barrier cream and adult incontinence products. Most are donated and are oftentimes leftover items from someone’s recovery and no longer needed. All items are inspected before they are given out, Byler said.

The ministry does not carry pediatric equipment and does not accept those items. Neither can it accept Hoyer lifts, stair lifts, oxygen tubing and supplies, glucometers, blood pressure monitors, colostomy and urostomy supplies, tracheostomy supplies, CPAP and BPAP machines, electric wheelchairs and scooters.

The ministry does not require any proof of need, Byler said. “If someone needs it and we have it, we give it out,” she said.

Many times, equipment comes back once the recipient no longer needs it. The ministry also repairs medical equipment so it can continue to be used.

“Hospital beds go in and out of here really fast,” she said.

“What we carry is determined by what people request,” she said, noting that grants and monetary donations help the outreach purchase items that they don’t have in stock but that might really be needed.

Linda Schreiber of Altoona was thrilled to get some much needed medical equipment for her husband recently. With medical bills mounting, Schreiber said being able to pick up the items helped a lot.

“I’m so grateful,” she said. “This is such a godsend.”

“It is a godsend,” reiterated her daughter, Robin Morris of Altoona.

“It’s much appreciated,” she said, adding her parents have a little “less worry” after getting the equipment she helped pick up using a rented U-Haul van.

This service is “badly needed in Altoona,” she said.

“We hear that all the time,” Byler said, recalling many recipients say, “I don’t know what we would do without you.”

Going global

The outreach isn’t just local, though.

If the ministry gets extra items donated — such as an overabundance of canes — they are donated on to other organizations.

“Extra things that are donated that we can’t use, we send to Global Links,” Byler said. The Pittsburgh-based outreach ships medical equipment all over the world. “We send them about 15 pallets a year,” she said. “Nothing goes to waste.”

In return, Global Links ships pallets of items to John’s Way.

“We went and volunteered at Global Links,” Byler said “They get a lot of stuff from Pittsburgh hospitals. So Global Links shares with others.”

While “our local people are No. 1 on our list,” Byler said, extra items are also donated to another church group that ships items to Nigeria. The people in that country “make crutches out of tree branches,” she said, so any medical-type equipment is desperately needed.

‘A nice little ministry’

Looking around the facility in the Cove, Byler recalled the ministry’s modest beginnings.

“I never expected this,” she said. “I thought ‘this will be this nice little ministry … people will call once in a while for a wheelchair.'”

Instead, it’s more like 15 to 20 calls a day and over the course of 10 years, about 20,000 items have rotated in and out the doors, she said.

Part of the ministry is just listening, she added.

“We’re sharing God’s love by caring about people,” Byler said. “We listen to their stories. We cry sometimes.”

“It really does pull on your heartstrings,” said volunteer Cindy Hoover. “At least one call a day is like that. When the phone rings, you never know what it’s going to be.”

“We do what we can. God has been very faithful to help us provide what we can,” Byler said.

For more information about John’s Way Medical Equipment Ministry, call the office at 793-0999.

While office hours vary, Byler said there are five office volunteers and all messages will be returned.

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