Paul Buursma Delivers Mail with a Smile

Paul Buursma is smiling as he zips in his electric wheelchair through the atrium of the Christian Reformed Church’s office in Grand Rapids, Mich.

It is just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the day every week when Buursma, 30, serves as a volunteer, delivering mail to people in the denominational office.

But before he starts on his appointed rounds, he turns right and heads into the office of Christian Reformed World Missions, where he joins more than a dozen people at a back table for the 10 a.m. time of prayer.

He listens to the various prayer requests, offers one of his own, and bows his head to listen as the overall prayer is given.

"We all love having Paul here," says Rev. Mark Stephenson, the director of the CRC’s Disability Concerns office.

"Paul is good at making connections with people. People smile and he smiles back. Besides the work that he accomplishes when he is here, he is a gift to us, giving us the opportunity to know him as a whole person.”

Once prayer time is finished, Buursma swivels the wheelchair around and heads for the front desk in the atrium, where the mail is stored in a file cabinet. “I like doing this," says Paul as he moves along. "I have lots of friends here."

Accompanying him is Allison Bosch, who Buursma’s parents have hired with funds from the state of Michigan to help care for his needs. Buursma has been volunteering at the CRC office for about three years. Until he was 26, the state covered the cost of special education for him.

“This is a pretty special place for Paul. When he comes here, he says he is going over to the church," says his father Dirk Buursma, an editor for evangelical publisher.

"He has met some amazing people and friends … He connects with people at a heart level."

Dirk Buursma says he appreciates the help that Mark Stephenson provided in helping to get approval for his son to volunteer in the CRC office.

Paul Buursma also volunteers one day a week at the Calvin College bookstore and at the local Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. In those instances, he serves as a greeter.

“Paul has the gift of relationship building. He has a ministry of hospitality that he can share and that also allows him the joy of doing something productive," says his father. “Paul is a blessing and receives many blessings in return."

After Allison Bosch sorts through a file cabinet and finds a few envelopes containing mail to deliver, they are off.

Buursma drops mail on a desk in the Chaplaincy & Care Ministry area and then rounds a corner, stopping to talk with Carol Vander Ark, an administrative assistant.

Vander Ark and Buursma banter for a bit. Vander Ark is among those CRC employees who will visit Paul outside of the office, meeting for ice cream and to socialize. She was also among those who offered him support during a serious illness last year.

Leaving Vander Ark, Buursma delivers more mail and then takes the elevator the second floor. He guides his wheelchair into the denominational office, where he stops to talk with Staci DeVries, an administrative assistant.

"Paul is a constant reminder to put a smile on your face, which you might not want to do that day, especially during the bad winter we have had this year, " says DeVries.

"He's a warm and happy person who helps us to realize how important it is to step outside of ourselves to make someone else happy.”

Paul also likes to visit and talk Calvin College basketball with Maribeth Stech, administrative assistant to Rev. Kurt Selles, director of Back to God Ministries International.

Stech is the aunt of Breanna, Carissa and Kally Verkaik, the first trio of sisters to play together on Calvin’s varsity women’s team.

Stech says that she thoroughly enjoys these conversations and especially Paul’s interest in the basketball skills of her nieces.

Last year, when Paul was hospitalized and then confined at home for a serious lung condition, he would call Stech after every game to talk about it.

Hearing how sick he was, Calvin women’s team signed a basketball and gave it to Paul. The Calvin men's team signed another ball and gave it to him as well.

Paul has lunch with a few of his friends in the lunch room, and then rests for awhile on this Tuesday.

Normally, Paul rides a special bus in to volunteer and takes the bus back home. But his father is here today to drive him to a doctor's appointment.

Before leaving, though, Paul wants to stop and see Jolanda Howe, who works in faith formation.

They speak for a while, catching up on one another's lives. After Paul leaves, she says they have developed a friendship that means quite a bit to her.

“Paul is such prayer warrior," says Howe."He has been an encouraging and consistent presence. He will pray for me and then I will pray for him, too.”