Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Religion

As body fails, spirit is still strong

A Lecanto retiree could become mired in depression and apathy, but he insists on reaching out, over and over.

By GAIL HOLLENBECK
Published July 16, 2005

LECANTO - Last Sunday Larry Schaening sat in his wheelchair outside the sanctuary of Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church handing out programs for the morning church service and greeting members.

Despite being diabetic and suffering from neuropathy, a disease of the peripheral nervous system, Schaening has the most familiar of faces at the church as he works in whatever ministries he can.

"I'd like to be involved in a lot more, but I'm not able to," the 63-year-old said.

Tara Bryant, head of the community outreach ministries for Seven Rivers, said Schaening "has a huge heart for those in need."

"He so badly wants to help others," she said. "He makes phone calls for the nursing home ministry to schedule speakers and piano players. He participates in Harvest Saturday (a food giveaway). He is so faithful in wanting to pour himself out."

Schaening spent most of this week at a Habitat for Humanity building site, helping with one of the church's "in-town" mission trips. Despite the rainstorms associated with Hurricane Dennis, Schaening was eager to participate.

"We'll be there as much as we can be," he said Sunday.

Bryant said the local missions projects are "for folks who, for whatever the reason, can't leave home."

"While we like to think of ourselves as those who are going and doing a good thing," she said, "often we find that we are the greatest recipients of blessings when we do something like this."

Schaening seems to fit that bill.

"I've gotten closer to God," he said.

Bryant talked about Schaening's participation in a similar project last year.

"He was there rain or shine. I know it's difficult at times, but he comes."

As he did last year, Schaening helped out this week by allowing his truck to be used as a "chuck wagon."

"I drove my truck down and the life group did the meals and they sat it out on my truck," he said.

"I doled out the water for everybody and sandwiches and that, and watched over them so they didn't walk into each other and get knocked in the head. We didn't even have an accident. I didn't do a lot. I just sat there and watched them. I made sure they got their water and warned them if they haven't had water in a while, they needed to drink some."

Then there's the church's monthly Harvest Saturday ministry. He used to pack boxes with food for the needy, but with his condition worsening, he now greets people as they arrive and checks to see if they have been interviewed.

With a background in construction and in helping special-needs children that began in Michigan, Schaening is finding it hard not to be able to do more.

"When they did the (Seven Rivers Presbyterian) church building, I wanted to work on it so bad," he said. "I didn't even go down there when they were working on it. I was afraid of falling. It's very disappointing. I had worked on walls and trusses and stuff like that, and I can't do it anymore."

Schaening said he became a true Christian at a Cursillo weekend, a Catholic movement that promotes a spiritual revitalization of the world, in the mid 1980s.

"I had gone to a Lutheran school and had catechism (as a child) and all that business. I knew about God, but I didn't know God."

He later worked as a team member at other Cursillo weekends, helped with the Kairos prison ministry and attended a Promise Keepers march in Washington, D.C. A few years ago he moved to Citrus County and joined Seven Rivers.

Schaening is not sure how his disease developed. He gave two possible explanations.

"My grandfather had the same thing. Also, I got bit by a scorpion a couple years back on the bottom of my left foot and had a toe amputated.

"That's what started everything and it's gotten worse. It also gets better. I just don't know. I've heard so many things about it. I use two walking canes. What walking I do now, I use both of them. Before, I used to use one. My back's out of whack pretty bad. I just can't do what I used to do."

Bryant said life has been hard for Schaening. She feels that with his physical condition deteriorating, to the point of being almost legally blind, he will soon need to move to a facility where he will receive more assistance.

"But he won't be allowed to fall through the cracks," Bryant said. "We love him dearly. It's been a neat thing to see how the church has cared for him. It's really a picture of the Kingdom, all of us messed up in some way, caring for one another as we walk through this life."

As long as he is able, Schaening plans to keep volunteering.

"I just feel that it's something I'm able to do since I'm retired now. I don't have any funds, but I can give my time to them. I'm trying to do my share."

[Last modified July 16, 2005, 00:24:14]