Features
Transformer
He was known as “Fat Ben.” As far back as he can remember, Ben Dempsey was overweight. He remembers the bullying. He remembers the hiding. “I didn’t like being outside, didn’t want to be around other kids. I stayed in my house and played video games. The more you hear you’re not good enough, the more you believe it. I just didn’t think I amounted to much.” As Ben grew up in Atlanta, his father tried to encourage him to get involved in sports and change his diet, but the lack of confidence shut down his efforts. He finally tried out for the wrestling team and earned a spot in the heavyweight class. But his Freshman year in high school, he broke his hip. At 5’5” and 152 pounds, the strain on his body was too great. He was a homebound student for the rest of the school year. By that fall, his weight jumped to nearly 200 pounds. Life was an out-of-control rollercoaster, spiraling ever downward. He dropped out of sports his sophomore year and refused to try again. There was one place where Ben did feel important – in caring for others. His senior year, he earned certification as a nursing assistant, and he went on to pursue healthcare as a profession. As a physical therapist, he again came face-to-face with the reality of his own health. “Folks would ask me ‘why should I take care of myself when you don’t?’ I didn’t have an answer. You just don’t see it until there’s that thing – that one defining moment – when the walls come crashing in.” For Ben, that moment happened in 2009, when he became a follower of Jesus Christ. The more time he spent in scripture, the more he began to understand his worth. In July, he and his wife Elizabeth decided to enjoy a day at Six Flags. “I am a huge Superman fan, and that year they premiered Superman: Ultimate Flight. I was like a little kid – so excited. We waited in line for an hour and a half. And when it was time to ride, I couldn’t get the harness to fasten. It just wouldn’t reach. One of the workers came over to help, but nothing worked.” Humiliated and angry, Ben watched as his wife rode the ride. He even found the manager and told him “you need at least one fat guy ride in this park.” He wanted things to be different. He wanted to feel normal. On the morning of July 22, he woke up with a resolve he’d never felt before. It was time to change. “I wanted to be healthy for my wife and my step-son Chris. But more than anything, I had to be healthy for me. I wanted to live. So that morning, I chose to start.” As an adult, Ben had tried popular diets, but he just wanted to be done with it all. He would lose 30 pounds and gain 50 back. The idea of working to lose weight was overwhelming. But at 360 pounds, suffering from hypertension and depression, he knew he had to do more than simply lose weight. It was time to jump in and live a whole new kind of life. His starting point: confront a serious addiction to soft drinks. “I would drink 8 to 10 sodas a day. I knew the only way to quit was to go cold turkey. I knew that if I couldn’t stop this one problem, I wouldn’t succeed at anything.” That first week, Ben lost 12 pounds. That single modification led to even more changes. With his wife’s help, he changed his diet. Then he started to walk. At first, he couldn’t walk five minutes without gasping for air, but Ben didn’t give up. Five minutes became 30. Thirty minutes became 2 hours. Then Ben decided he was up for a true challenge. “I was determined to do the Peachtree Road Race – the largest 10K in the world. My goal was simple – I wanted to finish it without dying. I...
Read MoreFear Fighter
The memories are still haunting. Her two year old being pulled from her arms. Her four year old screaming he promised to be good if they let him stay. Having to watch helplessly as they took away all four of her children. She was sick, and her desire to live was gone. “My spark was almost dead because my body felt like it was dying and my mind was almost gone,” she recalls. Those memories are hard places for Shanna Delap to return to. It was the most difficult time of her life. But this story, including all of its challenges, is what fueled an incredible transformation and the birth of a dream. Shanna was hospitalized after her children were taken away. She had been misdiagnosed previously, and was on a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs. Her doctors later told her that the combination she was taking should have killed her. During her hospitalization, she discovered she was pregnant. Doctors quickly suggested an abortion, as they believed the baby would be disabled due to the drug complications. Shanna refused. She left the hospital with the clothes on her back, and found herself without a job, a car, and homeless. She was estranged from her family and had lost every friend she ever had when her kids were taken away. With nowhere else to turn, she went to the Appleton shelter. During her initial meetings, doctors and social workers told her the situation was impossible. They said “The kids you already have deserve better, and you need to sign this paper to give your baby up for a special needs adoption. You can’t do this.” What they didn’t know about Shanna is that she was a fighter. She loved her kids with everything she had, and she committed to doing anything she could to get them back. It was seven months of hard work before she was able to see her kids again. Even then, it was in a supervised room with a two way mirror. It only made her fight harder to find a place to live and prove she could support and care for her children. She continued to hear from everyone that she couldn’t do it. It was impossible. Yet, she didn’t believe them. She knew she could do it. During mandatory morning meetings at the shelter, she would hear people list all of the reasons they couldn’t do something. It would light a fire under her as she would tell them “Don’t tell me you can’t do it. I’m pregnant and homeless. I’m still doing it, and you can too.” When she delivered her daughter, Grace, the only person in the room was an administrator from the shelter. Not long after the birth, the shelter started a program to help raise awareness of kids and homelessness. They chose to name it Project Grace, after Shanna’s daughter. She developed a strong relationship with the shelter staff, as they watched and encouraged her to keep fighting. She was quickly becoming an exception to the rule when it came to beating homelessness. The staff noticed something different in Shanna. She was fighting like many others weren’t, and she was determined to prove everyone wrong. She found a job. She took taxis and buses to work. She walked wherever she could. She worked extremely hard to do what she knew was best for her family. It took just over one year, but she did it. She was reunited with her kids, had a steady job, and had found a place of her own to live. She had beaten the statistics. Fast forward ten years later. Shanna’s life has not been easy. She has continued to beat the odds by fighting for everything she has. She was reunited with the shelter staff when she returned to her hometown of Appleton after living in Florida for a while. They were in the process of writing a story on the 10 year anniversary of Project Grace. Grace and Shanna were invited to be interviewed and attend...
Read MoreFeature Friday // Josh Hostetler | Blogger
He’s only 29, but he has the sage wit and wisdom of someone twice his age. Perhaps it’s because Josh Hostetler, creator of Amish Hipster, has always looked at things with a different point of view. Josh was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, but his home life looked more like the Ohio Mennonite community where his parents were raised. “I guess growing up Mennonite would be similar to growing up in most very conservative evangelical homes,” he shares. “We only watched sports on TV. I was homeschooled until I was in sixth grade. I grew up with a strong work ethic. And I loved to read. When we’d visit my grandparents’ farm in Ohio, I would read all their Reader’s Digest magazines. I also loved to write – in cursive. I wasn’t much into journaling then, so I would practice writing by sending contest letters to local radio stations.” As he worked each summer with his father, moving blocks at construction sites, Josh was introduced to a culture that would become a part of his calling and purpose. “Our work teams consisted of two labor groups: Mennonites and Mexicans. I learned Spanish from my coworkers. They taught me about family, made me laugh, – they were like my brothers.” He saw similarities between the Mennonite and Mexican cultures. The men revered craftsmanship, and hard work was valued. “There was such passion in everything they did.” Those summers of moving blocks also motivated Josh to take a nontraditional step in Mennonite culture. “My dad would say ‘you can either learn to work or you can go to college.’” Josh picked the latter, and attended the University of Florida to study Political Science and Spanish. He had visions of becoming Sam McCoy from Law & Order. “I realized pretty quickly that the television character didn’t at all represent what life as a lawyer was like. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want to move blocks. I wanted to do something more.” That something more was teaching. After spending time in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico working with the destitute poor, Josh found his home in Austin, Texas. “At first, teaching in Latin America was a way for me to live in a foreign land. But when I came back to the US, I was hungry for someone to fight for, something to believe in – to be able to stand in the gap for someone. I moved to Austin to do that.” In Austin, he worked in low-income schools, doing what he could to help his students thrive. He gave his cellphone number to parents, spent time before and after school tutoring and providing encouragement, and walking difficult paths with children who watched their parents struggle to provide for them. “That’s why I chose teaching. I’m passionate about the immigrant population in the United States. I’ve been so blessed by the Latin American culture, and have such a deep appreciation for what I’ve learned about family and work. Even though I’m not teaching this year, I will find a way to invest in caring for that community.” Josh left teaching to reconnect with his childhood passion of writing. A computer replaced pen and paper as Josh introduced us all to Abe, the Amish Hipster. “He is an Amish man who grew up in Ohio. He’s a little irreverent, a little pretentious, and slightly self-deprecating.” Abe lives in Austin, a land full of hipsters. Abe steps into a different world, only to see how similar and different the two cultures really are. Josh doesn’t remember the specific moment Amish Hipster was born. “Honestly, the idea just came to me – probably after seeing hipsters here in Austin who look like they’re Amish- the crazy long beards, and simple dress and attitude. The blog is a way for me to take a satirical view of the town I live in – a town that prides itself on being different – and see the similarities.” Josh doesn’t know...
Read MoreWelcome to FrankenSTART
Alright, My Darlings, Let me tell you how FrankenSTART came about. It was the Time of In-Between. The first round of #STARTExp had finished and new #STARTlets were soon to arrive. A group of #STARTAlums were worried about the #STARTjargon that had sprung up in the short time the first goup of #STARTers were together. We were worried that the new #STARTlets would not understand the inside jokes and joyful banter. We were worried that they would feel excluded. We knew how overwhelming the main STARTExperiment page could be to newbies. We had to make sure no one was left behind. As dreamers and builders, we knew it was within our power to create something special and helpful. Something that would be more than a catch-all for ephemera created in the first round of #STARTExp. That something would have to evolve as the original Start Experiment movement did ––and it would go rogue. From that discussion, FrankenSTART was born, and I founded The Midwives of the Start Revolution. What is a Midwife of the Start Revolution? Let’s consult the START lexicon: The Midwives are a team of visionary women and men who discover and share the things that support #STARTers during START rounds. They encourage Startlets and Startalums during daily START tasks, guiding newness through the screaming chaos of a brand new START. Who are the Midwives of the Start Revolution? The amazing Emily Carlton put in countless hours designing our logo and building the site. Amber Arbo and Libby Norcross compiled threads of advice, vocabulary, hashtags, and documents from the Facebook page. Ronne Rock and Tammy Helfrich brought together the brilliant #STARTStories to share the experiences of our #STARTAlum. Alexandra Veintidos kept us organized and recorded our meetings, while Randy Langley made sure that the details were managed. Teri Mo, Corie Clark, and Jennifer Kaufman are currently hard at work on the next stage of FrankenSTART. We keep Shane Conrad and Ryan Westbrooks around to sprinkle glitter and ensure unicorns show up. They also do a pretty great job of bringing the creativity and promoting our ideas to all of you #STARTers. Here is what you really need to know about FrankenSTART and the Midwives. We did this for you. We did this for #STARTExp – for all #STARTlets and #STARTalums. We did this because we believe in what this community has already accomplished and what it can become. We saw a need and created a solution. It WON’T be perfect – nothing rogue ever is. But it will be good. And it WILL constantly be evolving – permanent beta. So, brave hearts, I challenge you with the words of the creator of #STARTExp, Jon Acuff: “To surrender to something that is bigger than you, has always been bigger than you, will always be bigger than you.” because every movement needs revolutionaries to to ensure its survival… All my love, Melissa...
Read More
Recent Comments