A Home for Aubrey: How The Ministry Work of VOA Southeast Empowers People and Communities

When Abbey first met her foster-daughter-to-be, Aubrey had been in the hospital for over 100 days. She has cerebral palsy: a condition that means her life is full of challenges most people could never imagine. She can’t speak, walk, or eat on her own; she has limited use of her arms, suffers from scoliosis that’s curved her spine about 150 degrees, and needs 24/7 nursing care.

Abbey knew right away that she wanted to take Aubrey in when she met her in 2021. But there were hurdles. For Abbey, perhaps the single biggest practical impediment to bringing Aubrey home was wheelchair accessibility. Abbey lives in an older house built in 1940 on an elevated platform raised up off the ground, with four steps leading up the front door.

“Child Protection Services told me, ‘You can’t possibly get a ramp built in time.’”. At the time, Mississippi Child Protection Services, unable to find a suitable home for Aubrey largely because of her disability, were on the verge of placing her in an institution rather than with a family.

That’s when Abbey called Derrick Tapper, VOA Southeast’s Coordinator of Disaster Relief and the leader of our Ramp Ministry

“Derrick said, ‘I’ll be there in the morning.’”

Changing Lives Overnight

“Derek and his team came and built me a ramp in two hours,” said Abbey. “They also fixed my railings, my stairs: everything that was causing a safety issue that was preventing Aubrey from coming home.”

Abbey called Child Protection Services the next day to tell them she had a ramp. She even emailed them a picture.

“They were like, ‘Is that your house? We’re going to need to come by and see this.’. Their jaws were on the ground when they saw it in person.”

Overnight, Derrick and his team transformed Abbey and Aubrey’s lives. Abbey became Aubrey’s foster mother and she’s been living with her ever since.

“A Church Without Walls”: VOA Southeast’s Ministries of Service

At VOA Southeast, we think of our Ministry of Service as a church without walls: that means serving the needs of the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—by bringing together the human services and the church.

“The church is not a building,” says VOA Southeast’s Agency Chaplain, James Jones. “The church is the people.” A vital part of the work Jones does, along with his team of volunteer ministers, is reaching out to make sure both people’s physical needs—like food, water, shelter, clothing, safety—and spiritual needs are being met.

Jones and his ministers hold services and run Bible studies throughout VOA Southeast’s service area. They work with all the communities we serve: veterans, people experiencing homelessness, people with physical and developmental disabilities, men and women struggling with addiction.

Since VOA Southeast was founded in 1980, members of our ministry have been answering God’s call to transform lives by reaching out and uplifting people in need throughout our communities.

Our Ramp Ministry

One man who felt the need to uplift people especially strongly is Derrick Tapper, the leader of our ramp ministry. For seven years, Derrick and his volunteers have been building ramps for free for people who need them, largely in the Jackson County, Mississippi area. Together he and his volunteers have built over 750 ramps in that time.

The service is desperately needed. The people they’ve helped have issues ranging from kidney dialysis to gunshot wounds, paralysis, amputations, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. Many ramp recipients only have social security to get by on, and their need for modifications to make their home accessible often come on suddenly with little warning.

With a six to eight-month wait list, Derrick said he has to do a lot of triage based on people’s needs, their illnesses, their age, and their overall health status. 

Derrick grew up in the greater Mobile, AL, area, became a minister, and moved to Canada and lived there with his wife for 32 years before moving back home to the South. He felt a calling to move back shortly after Hurricane Katrina.

“Hurricane Katrina changed my life,” he said. Shortly after the disaster, he took a six week sabbatical to come down to the New Orleans area to volunteer rebuilding houses.

“Those six weeks convinced me this is exactly what God wants me to do. I felt like I was able to accomplish more in the six weeks I was down here during Katrina than in the whole time I was ministering.”

In 2008, he and his wife moved back to the area permanently. Since then, he’s been working with VOA Southeast responding to some of the worst disasters that have afflicted the area.

Derrick and his team of Mississippi-based volunteers receive many of their referrals from around 30 organizations in the area, including hospitals, hospices, and churches. The work is entirely done by volunteers, so their only cost is materials. They work with prefabricated designs that allow them to move fast. 

“Derrick and his team will be right there in a day, and it’ll get done,” said Abbey. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories about people being asleep, they’ll wake up, and they have a ramp. They’re just so dedicated.”

Making a Home for Aubrey

Abbey says it’s hard to describe how much the quick action of Derrick and his team transformed the life of her and her foster daughter.

“They came in the nick of time. And there’s hundreds of other people who have similar stories.”

“I just don’t know anybody who has a work ethic like they do. The amount of ramps they can churn out in a week is truly astounding. And I’m not the only one. There are so many people, particularly geriatric age folks, who need a ramp, particularly in times of crisis.”

Thanks to the accessibility the ramp brings to her home, Abbey and her husband are planning to take in another foster daughter at the end of this year: a six-year-old girl named Amanda who also has special needs. She walks with braces on her legs.

Herself a foster sibling who grew up in a home with children with special needs, Abbey says the experience shaped her at an early age and inspired her to become a foster parent once she was able to.

“I kind of grew up with special needs advocacy built into my personality,” she says.

With Abbey’s help, Aubrey has learned to feel more secure, more self-possessed. She’s grown more confident communicating with her eyes, with her head, and with a switch button that can play recorded messages when she needs to get someone’s attention.

“Just being in public and knowing you’re a spectacle is something Aubrey has to be really brave about,” said Abbey. “She has a gorgeous, beautiful smile, and she used to feel like she had to smile all the time in order to make other people feel comfortable with her disability. But we’ve talked about how it’s not her responsibility to make other people feel comfortable. I’ve told her, ‘If you’re in public and you don’t want to smile, you don’t have to be the cute girl in the wheelchair, you can just be Aubrey.’”

She loves listening to music, going to the beach, making Target runs with her dad, and listening to audio books. Though it’s difficult for her to speak and write, Aubrey’s reading comprehension is right on target for her age. At school she’s met other children with similar special needs who are able to come over to her house for play dates thanks to the ramp.

It’s been years since Derrick’s team installed the ramp for Abbey and Aubrey; but they’re still watching out for them. For years, Abbey had a plastic carport at the end of the ramp that provided shelter from the rain while they got Aubrey in and out of their car. After a hurricane blew the carport away, Derrick and his crew came through and built a wooden cover for the ramp with a tin roof that matched their house.

Transforming Lives through Faith and Service

The ramp ministry is just one of the services VOA’s ministry provides. Chaplain Jones and his ministry team play a part in Light of the City, a front-line, hands-on program to reach out to at-risk youth in Baldwin County, AL, through free, year-round after-school enrichment and Bible study programs. They also manage the Season of Caring, our annual holiday gift drive that partners with local schools, businesses, and WALA Fox10 to bring hope and joy to thousands of people in need throughout the area.

Jones, who grew up in Chicago, said he understands first-hand how youth outreach programs like Light of the City play a transformative role in children’s lives. A member of the Woodlawn Chicago Boys Club on Chicago’s south side when he was younger, he says it was his refuge.

“If it wasn’t for the Boys Club, I don’t know where I’d be today,” he says. “Programs like Light of the City truly, truly provide safety, education, security, and encouragement in those children’s lives.”

Help Support Our Work by Giving to VOA Southeast

The ramp ministry is just one of countless ways VOA Southeast serves people in need throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Since 1980, we’ve been answering God’s call to transform lives by reaching out and uplifting people in our communities. Today, we positively impact the lives of over 54,000 people each year. 

We rely on your support to make these programs a reality. Your contributions are what enable us to continue our work and offer ramps to community members in need at no cost. Please consider donating today. Every contribution makes a difference.

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