02/11/2026
What a sweet night we had at Near His Heart 2026! Thank you to Greg and Mary Jane Meyer, who took the time to come share their story with us. What an encouragement and blessing yall are, beside us in the trenches, and pointing us to your source of help and strength, Jesus!
Thank you to Jonathon Middleton, who cooked ALL day for us to have the most delicious pork roast! Thank you to Wynne Wages who hand made gallons of BBQ sauce in addition to all else you do to make this a special night! Yall made this year’s food an unusually special treat!
With that, our entire NHH team as a whole receives little public recognition, which is the way they’ve wanted it. But after 15 years, The Browns think it’s time for folks to know more than just our MC’s and know who to thank!
For this night, put together ultimately by the Lord, uses a small army to come together, and we stand amazed at all He does to bring this night together by people who give above and beyond to love our families with disabilities so well.
Thank you to Kara Olsen overseeing our child/adult care without whom this night would not be possible. Thank you also to those who work under Kara- to each of our room leaders, buddies, registration help and runners who make the night run smoothly and allow caregivers to attend the dinner. And a special thank you to Frank Dukes for organizing our pizzas/drinks to the children/volunteers- a huge task - and to Dr. Kim Smith, who started as our original child/adult care leader 14 years ago, laying the foundation for this role, back when we stayed up until all hours thecnight before!
Thank you to our beautiful decor and marketing crew- Maegan, Tori and Wynne, who “pretty things up” and add “floosh” to our tables, gift bags, door prizes and all print and online marketing! A special thank you to Laura Gray for printing our flyers, table signs and more with precision. Another special thank you to Rena Kirk, who kindly has offered her sewing talents each of the last 5 years to hand make door prizes for us!
Thank you to Tabitha Geiger moving into the role as lead dining room coordinator. You did an AMAZING job and followed in the footsteps of Susan Speakman, Carol Williams and the phenomenal, Melissa Rohling, who dug the footings for this role and kept us going for more than 10 years! With that, thank you to all the cooks and kitchen staff- both paid and volunteers, who prepared food, made dinner and cakes, cut them, plated them and got them to our tables hot and ready to eat! Thank you to Laura Jackson, who started the role maybe 13 years ago as “food coordinator,” passing down to Tabitha, organizing and simplifying the coordinating of the menus, food preparation and coordination with the kitchen staff. And with that, a huge thank you to Beth Carlson running our kitchen each year!
Thank you to Robyn Harrison who does so much behind the scenes, but for the past few years, if you communicated with our NHH gmail account, had your name tags waiting at the registration tables or received a specialty pizza (family OR volunteer), you have Robyn to thank! And beautiful calligraphy on those name tags by Mike Melvin!!
Another thank you to Wynne Wages who has followed Corrie Greene (both of whom have done more for this ministry than theres room to write) for the amazing slideshow at the end of the night, amongst a host of other ways you serve.
Thank you to the small army who took time to help us set up Friday morning, transforming our dining room and each table from plain to a work of beauty and art!
Thank you to our greeters, making each family feel welcome and helping them find a seat as they walk in the door! Thank you to our servers who work so hard to make the dinner special. (We did not start out with servers, so know this is an added bonus to our families!)
Thank you to all the church and community volunteers across our area who served in one way or another last Friday. And a special thank you to EACH of the Lakeview church staff and SPOUSES, who serve each year with eagerness and JOY. You make our team and our families feel so loved and welcomed. From Pastor Brian who comes to pray and bless our families to Adam Traylor, who not only joins his wife to bless us with singing, but with Zac Whitehhead run sound and mics- we never have to worry about any of that- to Karen Parten, Cliff Knight, Gretchen Hood, Tom, MP, The Webb’s!!, Jennifer Vail and team, Aaron, Claire and teams, Joan, Marie, Jim and many more I’m leaving out! Each of you and your families prays and serves in your own way. So very many “little things” that adds up to a very sweet night!
We also must thank our amazing Lakeview maintenance crew! You make set up and clean up SO much easier and you do it with such kindness and joy!
Also, a special thank you to Carrie Fellows and family, who suggested “a community outreach to special needs families” 15 years ago, and who worked night and day to get this off the ground!
Thank you most of all to our Heavenly Father who is constantly at work, bringing all of these details together for Your glory, that families walking the journey of disability may know your great care and love for them. To know that NOTHING is wasted. In fact, quite the opposite. You see. You know. You love and You care. To quote a piece of Sho Baraka’s prayer for special needs families from “Every Moment Holy:”
“ . . .Remind us and remind us and remind us again, O Lord, that our children are neither a punishment nor a mistake, but are image bearers of their Creator, made that your glory might be manifest in them. . . .Thank You, Father. Thank you for our children. Let us as parents and stewards of this child take great comfort in the promise that one day ALL things will be made new.”
