Dan and I have had to face both these fears since February '08. The following is a letter written on behalf of my husband about our journey and the current financial MOUNTAIN we face...would you take the time to read it (even if you know my story) and possibly consider what you may be able to do to help us "get to the top":
LETTER FROM MY HUBBY...
Hello, my name is Daniel Burd. I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and consider my family’s current situation and our need for assistance. Let me begin by telling you a little about our family and our full time volunteer work.
My wife, Rebecca, and I have been full time, unsalaried volunteers for a non-profit missions organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) since 1995. We are located on the Smithtown campus right here on Long Island.
Over the last 14 years we have co-founded and directed a ministry within YWAM called All Access Productions. We work in public and private schools across the Nation presenting a modern day musical called "No More Victims", confronting the epidemic of bullying and violence within our schools. Our mission is to teach young people to “Speak Life” to one another to stop the violence before it starts, ending the pattern of violent school shootings. We want to see young people attend school without the fear of being bullied, or even worse, the victim of an act of violence.
Our program has been featured at several State Safety Academy Conferences and was highlighted last fall at the International Bullying Prevention Awareness Conference. It has been said by the professionals in the field of education that "No More Victims" is "the most effective anti-violence school assembly program available to schools" today. We have seen over 200,000 young people over the last 14 years in hundreds of schools across the country. You can learn more about our program at www.allaccessny.org.
Along with being the Directors for All Access Productions, our greatest joy is our three beautiful boys Tyler (9), Toby (5) and Malakai (2).
All Access was beginning to peek nationally when everything came to an abrupt halt last year. My wife Rebecca has been chronically ill for over 17 years (since the age of 15) and misdiagnosed with Epstein Bar and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. On February 1, 2008 her symptoms became very severe, she became bed ridden and wheelchair bound and unable to stabilize after months of rest. After visiting several doctors and being tested for many different conditions, she finally received a positive diagnosis for Late Stage Neurological Lyme Disease along with several tick born co-infections. Despite requests from schools across the country for our program we had to put everything on hold due to the severity of her illness and the intensive therapies that were now a daily part of our lives.
Lyme Disease is very curable in its early stage but having been misdiagnosed for over 17 years the bacteria has taken over Rebecca's body and caused many neurological and debilitating symptoms which can take years of treatment to recover from. Rebecca has been so committed to nutrition and following doctors orders that she is progressing but still suffers from severe weakness, inability to walk at times, debilitating pain in her bones, muscles and joints, severe muscle spasms, tingling and numbness, shortness of breath, loss of memory and other mental fatigue (to name a few of her symptoms) and a basic inability most days to take care of herself and her children. This is an improvement from being totally bedridden earlier this year. We are grateful for the progress but know we have to keep fighting!! Without treatment this disease has taken many lives and Rebecca is in the latest stage of the disease! But we have HOPE...
Rebecca is seeing one of the best specialists for Lyme Disease in the country right here in NYC. This Specialist feels with continued treatment she should be able to go into full remission in the next year. Of course the need for ongoing attention to a healthy life style will be essential throughout her life to keep the disease in remission. Her greatest desire is to be a fully functioning wife and mother once again and to see All Access back in our Nation’s schools by 2011!!
This brings me to the purpose of our letter. We have been under tremendous financial strain since her diagnosis as most of her therapy is not covered by our medical insurance through NY State Medicaid program. All employees of YWAM are unpaid volunteers who rely on donations from friends, families, churches and businesses for our living expenses. We live on a very fixed and small monthly budget but have been willing to do so in order to commit our lives to our passion of helping America’s youth. We have struggled through the years but have always met our monthly bills until these additional medical expenses became overwhelming. I have endeavored to take some side jobs but have been unable to do much as I have become the daily, full time caregiver for my wife and three small children for the last year.
Currently our monthly medical bills are totaling over 100% of our income at $3,500 a month. We had a neighbor plan a community fundraiser for us last November, and a few churches have donated funds to us to help throughout the year. We have been so blessed by the kindness and giving of our community and realize we would not have made it through this year without them! Even with this assistance however, we have still accumulated almost $10,000 worth of medical debt over this last year. This debt is increasing monthly as Rebecca's therapy and doctor visits are ongoing. It is imperative to Rebecca's full recovery that she continue with ALL of these treatments!!
We would humbly ask if you might consider a gift to our family towards our Medical Debt and in addition may we ask that you may consider supporting our family as missionaries through 2010. This would help to enable us to cover our monthly medical bills and prevent further debt during this coming year. Other than our outstanding medical expenses we have no other financial debt at this time. With your support we will be better able to keep our commitment to living debt free!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on my cell phone at 631-697-1299. You can also contact me by email at dburd@ywam-ny.com.
To learn more about our family and ministry you can check out our website at www.theburdfamily.com.
As a husband and father I am trusting in God for his provision and healing for my wife and family. I am so grateful for your time and kind consideration in assisting our family! May God richly bless you!
In His Service,
Daniel Burd
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