Paul & Maria Muzichuk: Focus On The Blessings Of A Special Needs Child

04/08/21 • 70 min

How do you respond when you learn you have a special needs child?
In this episode, I talk with Paul and Maria Muzichuk as they share about what God has done for them during this season of life with a special needs child.
Paul was born in the Ukraine and moved to the United States with his family when he was 4 years old. Maria was born in Estonia and her family moved to the United States while she was young. Both were raised in Christian homes and met at a Bible College on the West Coast in 2004 and were married in August of 2006. They have 4 children, two girls and 2 boys, ages 13, 10, 5 and 2 1/2 years old.
Both Paul and Maria have a heart for mentoring and counseling. They lead the Arise Biblical Counseling at the Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida, which they started in 2018.
They both had spiritual mentors that poured into their lives as teenagers and young adults that have helped drive their passion to help others dealing with personal, marriage, mental, emotional and spiritual struggles.
Nathan is their third child and he is 5 years old. At around 2 years old Maria began to notice that Nathan wasn't developing as the older children had at the same age and wasn't talking much either. A worker in the church even noticed that he had minimal interaction with other children in the nursery and mentioned to them that Nathan may have a form of Autism.
When Nathan was around Three and a half years old, Paul and Maria took him for analysis at a place called Childfind, which after a year and a half, said Nathan had a speech delay and possible autism.
In August of 2020, Paul and Maria took Nathan to the University of Florida Pediatric Neuro-Developmental Facility where they performed an extensive testing for 9 months and was then diagnosed with Global Development Delay and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
During the testing they were told that Nathan was having 800 screaming or squealing episodes during a 7 hour period, making it difficult for them to take him places. In November of 2020, Nathan started ABA Therapy working on different cognitive and motor skills and the screaming and squealing episodes dropped down to 10-15 episodes during a 7 hour period.
Paul and Maria talk about how they each individually and as a couple and family sought help through each other, mentors, pastors, family and friends. They talked about have even in moments of questioning and fear, they turned to God and allowed Him to speak and share how even in these moments God has a purpose and plan for each of His children, even those with Special Needs.
This has helped then as counselors to be more authentic and open with those that are counseling and understand the struggles and pain they are going through also.

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Eddie Taylor: Are You Faithful, Available And Teachable?

In this episode, I talk with Eddie Taylor, co-founder of Taylor Ministry Group, about his and his wife, Beth, and their ministry that is a vision to help every leader live from a healthy core and to do that by reaching, reproducing and resourcing healthy leaders though mentoring and discipleship.
Eddie and Beth have been married for over 33 years and have three sons. Eddie has been a lead pastor, writer, conference speaker and sits on several ministry boards as an advisor and counselor. Eddie was born and raised in Waycross, Georgia.
Early in their marriage, Eddie and Beth were prophesied over that their marriage would one day be their ministry and today they are fulfilling that calling with The Taylor Ministry Group that believes it takes healthy spiritual leadership to promote church revitalization and evangelism for around the world.
Eddie talks about how his brother Kevin led him to the Lord and how he went to a revival service and was saved on November 2nd, 1986 and then on December 31st was filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit at a youth event when he heard a message given out from the Holy Spirit to receive the Holy Spirit and a calling into the ministry.
He tells about Ray Owens, that mentored him and many others, and how he impacted his life even to this day that they still talk. He didn't just give him encouragement, but also at times that they would go for a ride and he would rebuke, or correct, Eddie in love over a comment or action that he had said or done. This was a father's love of correction and not out of hate and spite.
Eddie also talked about how we should have 3 significant people in our lives and relationships. There are those who are a Barnabas, Silas, or a Timothy. They may be someone that is in your life for a short time that pours into your life or vice versa. Then, there are those that are in your life for a long period of time as either a mentor or disciple.
Eddie planted and started a church in in 2000 till they stepped down in 2018 to start their next season in ministry.
Eddie shared that he has an acronym for mentoring and discipleship. This may be a lifelong or for a season for building and developing a protégé. It is call F. A. T.
F- Faithful ( in that those you are mentoring should be faithful not just to you but in their walk with Christ.)
A- Available ( are they willing to make time for you to pour into their lives and not as a servant to meet your needing.)
T-Teachable ( are they willing to be taught. You can't teach an expert. Looking for those that are hungry to grow in their spiritual walk.)
Eddie shares that when you are mentoring you should always be closing and always looking for the next Timothy. He shared a quote from Mike Breem, which says, "If you attempt to build a church you will rarely make disciples; but if you attempt to make disciples, you will have a church."
Eddie shares what him and Beth do it to teach what you know, but you reproduce everywhere else and who you are. You impress from a distance but impact up close.
He talked about how pastors and leaders should look at attendance or budgets to gauge the health of a church or ministry, and that size and health of a church are two different ideas of ministry.
What discipleship and accountability relationships do is help us see around us at 360 degrees to keep us from being deceived.
We finally talked briefly about Eddie's new book that he has written and hope to be out later this year about Samson called " The Rise and Fall of Samson". In it he talks about even with all that Samson did in his life to rebel, he was still called of God and was later mentioned in the H

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Paul Cole : Maximized Manhood

Paul Cole is a co-founder and current president of Christian Men's Network. He is a husband to Judi Cole for almost 50 years. Father to 2 sons, Brandon and Bryce and 1 daughter, Lindsey, and grandfather. He is a speaker, preacher and author. Paul has written 2 books entitled "Just a Bartender" and "Daring".

Christian Men's Network was started after Dr. Edwin Louis Cole spoke at a men's event at an Oregon men's camp in the summer of 1977. His passion for men to reach their full potential as Godly men was birthed at that moment.

Dr. Cole wrote the book "Maximized Manhood",that has sold millions of copies and been translated in 36 languages. From that, he also wrote several other books and workbooks to form the Majoring in Men's Curriculum as a tool to help mentor and disciple men.

Christian Men's Network is operating in 134 countries and the books have been translated into 36 languages.

In this episode, Paul talks about what CMN is doing currently with reaching men and families around the world.

We talk about the lack of father's in the family has led to many societies issues of incarceration, gangs, drug abuse, premarital pregnancy and fatherlessness in the home.

The emphasis of CMN is to help pastors and leaders to be able to train the men in their congregation through discipleship.

Paul states, "Many pastors are trained to preach sermons but not how to train men.”
“The immaturity of men has led to the mediocrity of men.”

“God wants us to have a Maximized Manhood and God wants every man to be three things. Consistent, decisive and strong. Consistency, decisiveness and strength are the hallmarks of a mature man”.

Why so many men have struggles in life is because they don’t know their identity. Many have a mid-life crisis because they haven’t found their identity.

“Pressure doesn’t make a man. Pressure only reveals a man for who he really is”.

Paul shares the definition of maturity. Maturity isn’t about age, but the acceptance of responsibility. Maturity is the strength to make the right choice even when the emotions or context of the moment would cause you to do something different”.

Paul also shares how the word “Peace” is misunderstood or misinterpreted. By society’s standard, Peace is the absence of conflict, the absence of storms, the absence of problems. However, “Peace” in the Word of God and lived out in the life of Christ never meant the absence of conflict, it always meant the presence of God even in the middle of the conflict”.

We discuss what CMN is now doing with their Dangerous Nations and Global Fatherhood Initiative. Their goal is to go into the 50 most dangerous nations to help equip 50,000 pastors in the next five years in countries such as Nigeria, Bulgaria, Vietnam and Iran.

Paul also shares stories of men that have over the years had a heart to reach men and change their countries. Men like Pastor Eddie Leo in Jakarta, Indonesia and Alex Mitala in Uganda.

Through the “Majoring in Men” in Uganda, they have seen the AIDS rate go from 33% to 6.4% over a 28 year period by teaching men the honor and respect of women and virginity.

Paul tells how men 30 years ago wanted 3 things: