Many people are involved in missions in Iowa, but one particular person does it on a regular basis without leaving her home. She also does it while facing the mounting challenge of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Many people are involved in missions in Iowa, but
one particular person does it on a regular basis without leaving her
home.
She also does it while facing the mounting challenge of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Despite her condition, Jenifer Barrentine, 27, helps
coordinate mission projects with the help of a computer and a
telephone. Her mother, Joan, helps pick up the workload when her
daughter’s strength is failing.
“I think I have a very unique opportunity to share
Christ with some people who would not be open to hearing about Christ
if I were not in this wheelchair or in this situation,” Barrentine
says. “Some people are curious
about the illness when we talk on the phone or when I am out in the
public with my motorized wheelchair. They will open up to me in a way
that they probably would not do otherwise.
“One day I was in a store, buying a birthday
present, and a salesclerk took probably a half-hour visiting with me
and opening up. I had a chance to share my testimony of knowing Christ,
and it seemed to really touch her.”
Barrentine lives in Urbandale, Iowa – and her
father, Jimmy, serves as executive director of the Baptist Convention
of Iowa. She has faced her debilitating health condition for more than
three years, never faltering in her resolve to serve her Lord.
Working as a state convention volunteer, Barrentine
helps coordinate project requests for the Tennessee-Iowa Missions
Partnership in which churches in one of the states volunteer to assist
other churches in the other with building projects, Vacation
Bible Schools, prayerwalks and new work efforts. Her role is to keep
the communication between the partner churches open and facilitate the
preparation and follow-through of the mission projects.
Barrentine moved to Urbandale with her parents in
2001 as a 23-year-old, healthy college student. She was finishing her
education in evening classes at Upper Iowa University and working as a
preschool teacher during the days.
Then, she says she started feeling strange and a
little tired. Her voice became hoarse, and she had an overwhelming
headache and earache. Within days, she says she noticed symptoms that
mimicked a stroke. Her facial muscles were drawn, and she was unable to
move her right side. Barrentine was taken to a hospital, but doctors
were perplexed at her condition and released her within a few hours.
During the next several months, Barrentine
repeatedly would be hospitalized, recover and then relapse with another
round of seizures. Each round of episodes caused her to function a
little less. Her parents searched for answers and took her to several
specialists.
Along the way, several diagnoses were discussed. The
one Barrentine and her parents dreaded most was Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS), commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Barrentine has a
history of the condition in her family, and it can be passed along
genetically.
The terminal disease causes the body to gradually
lose control of muscular functions. In anticipation of such a
diagnosis, Barrentine’s parents remodeled their home to make it
handicap-accessible. An elevator was installed, and Barrentine began
using a motorized wheelchair.
Most ALS patients live between five and 10 years
with the disorder. However, Barrentine also suffers from fibromialgia,
which causes intense pain in her body, especially when she is tired or
physically drained. She compares the disease to severe arthritis and
says just being touched or moving around is painful for her. To make
matters worse, Barrentine suffers from systemic lupus, making it
difficult for her body to fight off infections.
After more than two years of speculation, the feared diagnosis was confirmed in February 2004 – it was ALS.
Having the hope of Jesus Christ mad all the
difference when the diagnosis was confirmed, Barrentine indicates.
“I think that would be too overwhelming to know that
you were going to die if you didn’t have the answer,” she says. “That
would be too devastating. At least, I know where I’m going.”
Barrentine recalls how some people told her parents
they were praying for her to be healed. “I said, ‘Well they are going
to be so disappointed because they are praying that I’ll be healed, but
they forget that, for a Christian, the ultimate healing is dying.’
Because you don’t die; only your body dies. And when I go to heaven, I
won’t have this wheelchair. They don’t have wheelchairs in heaven.”
During the two years before she received the
definite diagnosis, Barrentine continued to go to night classes at her
college, finally graduating in 2003.
Meanwhile, despite her passion for missions, it soon
became obvious that Barrentine’s physical abilities were declining to
the point that she would not be able to handle a full-time job. Her
parents started thinking about volunteer options and realized a need
for a Tennessee-Iowa Partnership administrative assistant. Barrentine
and her mother agreed to work together to coordinate efforts.
The job involves a lot of paperwork – and a lot of
followup with pastors involved in the project. “Most of the pastors are
good to call in and to let us know how the projects worked out,”
Barrentine notes. “That’s nice. One of the Vacation
Bible Schools was in a church that had hardly any children attending,
but through that VBS project, they had almost a hundred children attend
that week.”
Also, when some Iowans went to Brazil on a mission
trip last fall, one of the volunteers later stopped by the Barrentine
home to report the trip had been worthwhile and several people had been
won to the Lord.
Barrentine says it thrilled her to see photos from
the trip. “It allowed us to feel like we were a part of this mission
endeavor which we were not able to go on,” she says.
This past October, another seizure episode left
Barrentine with virtually no ability to speak and very little
independent movement abilities. However, when she could not speak,
Barrentine used a laptop computer to relay thoughts. And while she has
recovered some speech, it often is broken. She tires easily and spends
a lot of time resting.
Joan Barrentine takes on more of the partnership
responsibilities when all her daughter can do is sleep and join in on
brief snatches of conversation around the house.
Still, Barrentine stays in touch with the
Tennessee-Iowa Partnership through brief e-mails and updates to the
partnership Web site. She is missions-oriented, even if it means
standing in the background as an encourager to others.
But she knows the end of coming.
“Some days, it is more frightening than others,” she
admits. “I don’t think the actual dying is so frightening. What is
difficult is thinking about what it will be like right before I go.
(But) I would be okay with going soon.”
Barrentine cites Isaiah 40:28-31 as a favorite
scripture passage – “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is
the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not
grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men
stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not
grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’”
Still, some people call and get upset when they hear how she is doing, Barrentine notes.
“They don’t understand why I am sick,” she explains.
“But I want this illness to be an encouragement to people because God
can do anything he wants to do and it will be okay. He can make
something good out of anything. I want this condition of mine to be
something that will encourage people to know Christ.” (BP)
(Jenifer Barrentine can be reached by e-mail at joan-jeniferbarrentine@bcisbc.com)