My name is Brian Cooper.

My name is Brian Cooper. Everyone calls me Coop….this is my story (and I’m sticking to it!)

I was fortunate enough to be born into a Christian family. When I was growing up my parents never treated me any different than my older brother Sean, even though…physically we were VERY different. I was born with cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair.

My brother was a healthy athletic guy. I was taught to believe that God put me on this earth…into this family…for a reason. I was not really different any anyone else in God’s eyes. My dad always made things adaptable for me to be able to participate in life as best I could. I backpacked in the mountains on his back. I swam in the lake like a fish every summer and spent hours in the family’s ski boat in a especially strapped seat. My brother made a special adaptive table for me to be able to control video games for his middle school science fair. I was NORMAL…but I wasn’t. I was disabled and I knew it. But what I did NOT know is how important that would be to others I met as I grew older.

I was friendly and outgoing at school with a lot of friends both disabled and able bodied. I mainstreamed from 5th grade on into regular classrooms. In high school I realized that most other disabled kids hung around with just other disabled kids; never interacting with the able bodied kids. I thought this was odd because I always went to the ball games and movies with friends. I hung out at the Mall. They seemed to live in a kind of shell, going to school, hanging around each other only and repeating the same thing every day. These guys were my friends and I wanted to help them. What could I do?

I first met Skeeter Powell in High School. He was a Young Life leader for “regular young life kids”. He talked to me at school and I ended up going to a football game with him. We became friends. He took myself and a bunch of other kids to a Young Life camp, Windy Gap . I was hooked! Young Life was for me…Jesus was for me! I knew I had to get my other disabled friends to join us! I had to let them know that Jesus did not care about our disabilities!

In fact, Jesus works through me because I DO have CP and because I AM in a wheelchair. I could not truly identify with these kids if I did not feel their pain. Skeeter had become probably my best friend. He provided all the transportation for these kids and we soon had them going to the football games. We even tailgated sometimes! We became closer friends. Some of my able bodied friends joined us and even went with us to Windy Gap and on other trips to help out. When people see that you are loved and that you do love, that you have an inner peace and happiness they tend to want to know why! We were ready to tell them!!

I graduated from JL Mann High school in 1999 with my class. I attended leadership classes at Furman University and became a Young Life leader. I returned to my high school to volunteer working with the disabled classes. I am still there today doing both Young Life and helping the kids. They trust me and confide in me. Skeeter and I and some others hold Young Life Club once a month at the school. Our group, known as Capernaum Young Life has really grown.

I have been on summer staff at Windy Gap and Sharp Top. This past summer I had the privilege of being the first disabled Assigned Team member in the Southeast! I was assistant to Brett Rodgers,the summer staff coordinator. Kind of like a boss….my parents always said I loved giving orders! However, orders is not what I did…we were a close knit team! From the first day when he introduced me to the summer staff he told everyone I had a personal helper, but that EVERYONE would be helping me because we were all in this together. You know what? They all did॥ and it was great!

Over the years I have met a lot of people who have become great friends through Young Life. Together we have helped lead many teens and even a couple of adults to Jesus Christ!
God gave me abilities and an outgoing personality. My family and friends strengthened them. Now I am giving back! Praise the Lord for HE is good!

Coop Cooper
January 2008

To see this story in video form, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DLqbec5_D0