" 'Guys,'I said, 'I’m thinking of going to Europe.'
That’s how it started. That’s how the thought was finally voiced. There was now, in a sense, no turning back. Whether the dream came to fruition or not, it was no longer safely tucked away inside my imagination. The dream was out in the real world, and I was suddenly accountable to it. This was a threshold, a line drawn in the sands of life, and crossing it meant nothing would ever be the same again." KC
OKAY... I THOUGHT I KNEW WHAT LOVE LOOKED LIKE...
AND THEN I READ KEVAN'S STORY.
"Bolstered by the encouragement of Tyler and Drew, I sent a notice of intent to three friends: Andrew Peterson, Luke Thompson, and Tom Troyer.
To each of them I wrote the following: “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, but it seems impossible with my wheelchair. So what if I had a team to take care of me and carry me where I can’t go on my own?” KC
Imagine someone confined to a wheelchair due to Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a rare neuromuscular disease. If it was me, I wouldn't have much of a dream of anything, let alone travelling across the planet without my wheelchair. Something as debilitating as that would squelch anyone's dreams... but not Kevan Chandler. Kevan had a dream and Kevan had more than a dream, Kevan had friends that loved him. I have nothing other than the highest form of LOVE to describe what his friends did for him. They had a backpack built and they carried Kevan to his dream. The book "We Carry Kevan" is the story of their first trip to Europe. But this dynamic team of explorers didn't stop with Europe, they went on to have an adventure in China. Check out Kevan's Youtube channel for video footage of that trip.
The Love that Kevan's friends had for him to carry him around the world was enough to impress me, but what really blew me away was Kevan's character. Who he is, is someone those guys want to be around. Who he is, is a friend. He was never a burden, but a blessing. That was obvious in the story and in the testimonies of his travelling companions.
"Kevan is an example of appreciation and gratitude for life, and throughout our trip and my friendship with him, I saw that infectious spark travel to those he came in contact with." Phillip
"Love, indeed. Love gets us into all kinds of trouble...
On a more serious note: I’m a terribly selfish person, and I know it has been with Kevan that I can remember the first moment of truly forgetting myself and thinking about someone else—if only for a few seconds at a time." Tom
"I thought Kevan was just inviting me along to catch up and meet his friends. What he actually invited me into was a gift so powerful, and so gentle—that of truly grasping what it is to love one another, and the unexpected life and exuberance it creates." Lauren
"Despite this, I probably wouldn’t have joined the group in their dancing, but having Kevan on my back helped me to let my guard down. Without knowing it, he pushed me to connect with others in ways that I would not have otherwise done." Phillip
Who is this man who is so confident in who he is that he would dare invite four friends to carry him around the world. It seems he was always confident, it is who he was and is. This testimony is from his parents...
"Raising Kevan was always an adventure where we felt he was carrying us along for the ride. We remember the many things he wanted to do growing up and how our family worked together to creatively help make things happen.
One of the first outstanding characteristics we noticed about Kevan from an early age was his magnetic personality, and how he was always surrounded by an amazing number of friends. So it really came as no big surprise to us that he would take off to explore the world like this with a great group of guys. In looking back, it’s what we raised him to do." Kevan's Mom and Dad
If you watch the Youtube videos of their trip to China, you will notice that this adventure went beyond a tourism, they discovered that a simple backpack could change a lot more lives than just Kevan's. Isn't that the way LOVE works. Once you see what it does when it touches your heart and life, it seems impossible to keep it to yourself.
"Since returning from Europe, the team and I had gone headlong into developing a nonprofit ourselves. We called it We Carry Kevan, and our mission statement was (and still is), “Believing in the inherent value of every person, we mobilize individuals with disabilities by redefining accessibility as a cooperative effort.” To what capacity this meant at the time, we weren’t entirely sure, but for starters we knew it involved telling our story and getting our backpack into as many hands as possible. We wanted to provide opportunities for others to experience what we had, not just in travel but more so in the life-giving power of friendship." KC
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