Good Evening!
How is everyone tonight?
Let me introduce myself.
My name is Mark Kalbach.
I'm 43 years old.
That makes me old as dirt to some of you and a young “whipper snapper”, still wet behind the ears, to others!

I was asked to speak to you tonight because apparently I may be some kind of inspiration to someone.

I have to warn you right away that my story is not one of those “done it all, bottom of the barrel, tried everything from drugs, sex & Rock & Roll to Amway and nothing worked until I tried Jesus” stories!
No, my story is much more, the matter of fact, “God is the bedrock foundation of my life” kind of story.

As most of you know, I'm married to Darlene and these are some of our children.
The exact number we have depends on when you ask, because we do foster care. There are always at least two, since we adopted Joel & Charles,
but there may be six or eight at times.
As most of you probably already know, I'm fairly new to the area. I'm from Columbia, SC.
I was born there and spent more than three quarters of my life in and around there.
I started attending Miracle Baptist because this is Darlene's church.

I'm the oldest of eight children.
I was 18 when my youngest sibling was born.

I was born into a family with a strong Christian heritage going back many generations. I have only recently come to realize just how awesome that is.

I was about 4 or 5 years old when I first understood the Gospel of Jesus Christ & realized that with out Him I was Lost!
I cannot tell you the date, but I do remember the day very well.

When I was a kid nearly everyone I knew was a Christian and every kid knew who their parents were and believe it or not, they actually lived with both parents!
My, how times have changed!

When I was born it was quite a shock to my parents.
I am very grateful that they did not do as they were advised: to institutionalize me.
They were told not to get attached to me because I would not live very long.
I have what the doctors call “a congenital deformity”. That simply means that they have no idea what caused it, but don't want to admit it.

My God never makes mistakes. He has a purpose in everything He does.
He also, never gives us more to bear than we can handle.
There have been a few times that I truly wished I couldn't handle quite so much!

As you can see, I do not have hands.
I also was born without feet. I have to wear double, or bi-lateral prosthesis. On the left is an AK (Above Knee) and on the right is a BK (Below Knee).
It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes to put them on in the morning.
I usually wear them 10 to 12 hours or more a day.
Every few years I wear these things out and have to have new ones made. These that I'm wearing right now cost over $40,000!!!
Each time I get new prosthesis I basically have to re-learn how to walk!
I do have a wheelchair that I had to get last year when a pressure sore got so badly infected that the doctor ordered me to not walk at all for a week or two.
I refuse to use the chair unless absolutely necessary!
Part of the reason is that the chair will not fit through the doors of either bathroom or the laundry room.

People are always amazed that I can do the things I do! I really don't quite understand that.
I simple do what I need to do to live as “normal” a life as possible.
I simply do not understand why anyone would allow the circumtances of their life, such as this, to be a limiting factor.
I occasionally find something that is impossible for me to do such as American Sign Language.

I do not see myself as “disabled”. I think I'm normal!
I have to admit that the things that happen to me are not quite normal such as when I am at a restaurant and ask for my bill and I'm told that someone already paid it!
That has actually happened more than once!

People assume when they first see me that I could not possibly write or drive or whatever!

I drive all of our vehicles, unmodified. I write better than most. I type faster and more accurately than most people with ten fingers.
I use tools of all kinds, from a hammer to a chain saw. I've been using power tools since I was about 7 years old. I do most of our home repairs.

Since I got married I have started cooking and Darlene claims that I am a better cook than she is.
I now do most of the cooking on a daily basis. I actually enjoy cooking.
Real men do cook!

I'm a computer programmer by training and I have even built my own PC's and upgraded more than I can count.
My own brother says he can't figure out how I can work on PC's because he finds it nearly impossible to do with two good hands.

I know that some of the things I do, I do just to prove that it's possible. I do origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.
I often fold dollar bills into rabbits or something and leave them as tips at restaurants.

Another thing I like doing that always surprises people is hiking!
If I had the time and fewer children to watch, I would go to Phinizy Swamp and walk 3 to 5 miles or more every day.
I've been a bird watcher since I was about 15 and the swamp is an endlessly fascinating place to me. I never know what I'll see.

I have always tried, to never, ever let my disability be a limiting factor.
Other people, however, did try to limit me from time to time.
When it came to dating I had a terrible time. Every single woman I met would be very nice until I showed any interest in romance.
I got the most unbelievably vicious rejections and lectures about how I should not try dating “normal” women but should try to find some poor “crippled” girl
that no one else wanted! It really was incomprehensible to me.
I even had one very well meaning but very misguided female friend even ask me one time, “Have you ever tried being gay?”
I just looked at her and said, “No. Have you?”
These rejections hurt more than I can even explain. The more it happened, the more gun shy I got and the less often I even tried to get a date!
I had pretty much come to the conclusion that there was no one for me in spite of the fact that I wanted and needed to find someone to share my life.
I could not figure out why I had such an intense desire for what seemed to be impossible and most likely not God's Will for me.
I wanted to get married. I prayed every day, that God would, somehow, bring someone to me that could love me as I am and not freak out over my physical imperfections.

Be very careful what you pray for!

Even when you think God is not hearing your prayers, I guarantee that He is listening.
All those 20 years I lived as a bachelor, thinking that I would always live alone, He was preparing me for Darlene and Darlene for me!
We were talking about it one day and said we wished we had met 20 years ago. Then we both realized that 20 years ago we would not have even liked each other,
let alone fallen in love.
We both had to go through a lot of stuff to prepare us for each other.
I think it's interesting, looking back, how I would always, on my way to or from Atlanta, feel a strong desire to find out what was down a certain road every time
I passed it. The road is Bobby Jones Expressway. Little did I know, that down that way was where I would one day find the love of my life!

When I met and married Darlene, I went, almost over night, from being a bachelor of 20 plus years, to being a Husband, Father, Step Father, Foster Dad and Grand Father!
Talk about a major life change!
No growing into it. No adjusting. No, not me! Just jump straight in where angels fear to tread!

I think I may have finally figured out why I had to wait so long for my hearts desire!
It may be to insure that I never take her for granted as so many men do, from what I have heard!

The whole of my life, I have seen on a daily basis how God provides.
We were extremely poor most of the time when I was growing up.
There were times when we literally did not know where our next meal was coming from. God always provided. We never went hungry.
Someone would suddenly stop by with wild game, garden produce or something. I saw it happen many times and many ways!

One thing I have learned over the years is that you must have a sense of humor!
Never take yourself too seriously!
I remember one time, years ago. I was at work. I had just gotten there and was getting something from the trunk of the car.
A co-worker that I had gone to college with stopped and asked, “You need a hand?”
I could not resist. I said, “As a matter of fact, I could use a couple of them!”
I thought it was funny and forgot all about it. Two weeks or more later this poor guy was still saying every time I saw him “Man, I sorry! I didn't mean anything by it!”
I assured him that I was not offended. It was just there & I had to say it!
One of the many things I love about Darlene is that my “disability” has never been any problem for her in the least. In fact, she makes jokes like I do.
She likes to say I gave too many people the finger and this is the result!

Enough about my disability!
It's a fact of my life. So what?

Something occurred to me the other day!
Did you know that everyone is born with a severe disability?
We are all born physically alive and spiritually dead.
When Adam sinned we all sinned.

I call that the ultimate Disability!

Thankfully, the Great Physician has the Perfect Cure!

His Perfect Sacrifice, His Substitutionary Death on the Cross!
He paid the price that we could NEVER pay!
He purchased our Freedom from the Slave Market of Sin!

We are celebrating this week a different Freedom!
This Freedom we so enjoy in this country is not an inevitable right that can be thoughtlessly abused.
This precious Freedom was bought at great price by all the men and women that have served in the armed forces.
This Freedom will be lost if we as a nation lose our willingness to defend it!
The sad thing is that most people don't even understand who our enemy is today!
We are at war. We have our brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Exactly who are we fighting?
Can anyone answer that?
Since 9/11/01 I have been reading extensively on the subject of Islam.
I do no have enough time tonight to tell you what I've learned because I could talk for hours.

We are fighting a Global Jihad that is truly everywhere!
This is a part of the Angelic Conflict that we as Christians are already involved in from the moment of our Salvation.
This is a war of Good versus Evil, Civilization versus Barbarism of the worst kind.

There is only one hope for this nation.
It is us! We as Christians, must grow in Grace & knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must have the courage of our convictions to state “Thus Sayeth The Lord”.
No more caving in to the politically correct crowd.
We must be willing to defend our Nation, our way of life at all cost.

Christianity is a relationship with God. All religions are man, by man's efforts, seeking to gain the approbation or approval of God.
Islam and all other false religions offer no assurance of Salvation or Eternal Life.
Christianity does!
Do you know what Islam teaches about their chances of reaching Paradise?
There are actually two.
One for men and another for women.
A woman's greatest hope of reaching Paradise is to die while still in favor with her husband!
A man's greatest hope is to die a martyr's death while killing a Jew or a Christian or any other Infidel!

I, for one, am very glad to know that Jesus Christ is in control of human history!
My home is in Heaven and I will never bow toward Mecca!

I hope something I have said has been of value to someone here tonight.

I think I'm about out of time, so I'll turn this meeting back over to Mr Quattlebaum.