Published: August 30, 2024
David Schaeffer’s ministry is his life.
He’s the director of Heaven’s Door Chapel in Burnside, Kentucky, and spends his days serving his community. That can mean he’s out on his farm and garden, tilling the earth, gathering fresh produce.
Ministry, for David, also can mean he’s communicating with local officials and other pastors, organizing school supply and food drives for the upcoming year. Many of the students in that district — more than 90% — are on free lunch.
Or, it can mean he’s leading a Thursday night prayer session, “drive-up prayer” as he calls it, sharing the word of God with his Pulaski County community.
“Ninety-five percent of our work is outside the chapel walls,” David said. “What that means is that we are out in the community. It’s kind of a process. You feel God lead you in a direction, and then you put a foot out in that direction.”
Despite his success, David’s ministry was slowed down by chronic pain in his left knee. It hurt every day and forced him to take action.
In 2000, David was living in Florida and working as head of maintenance at a local Christian school.
He also maintained his Florida teaching certificate, while working through the process to become an ordained minister. As fate would have it, his teaching certificate expired as the ordination paperwork came through.
He had a decision to make — the classroom or the pulpit.
“I had my ordination paper here and my teaching certificate here,” David said. “And God said to me, ‘Teaching was your choice, and this was mine.”
David set his teaching certificate aside for good and set out on his mission. He became a successful children’s pastor in Florida, blending his passion and God’s purpose into one. After 19 years, he was released from his church and started work in home repair while he waited for his next calling.
In 2019, it came.
Through family, he discovered Meridzo Center Inc., a ministry group based in Lynch, Kentucky. David and his wife attended a conference to learn more about the Eastern Kentucky ministry and its subsidiaries. He instantly felt something.
“We go to a conference about living by faith right as the time of severance pay ran out,” David said. “It was all God’s timing. So after the conference, I felt that I was called to be there. So we just said yes.”
David sold his home in Florida and moved to Kentucky to work for Meridzo Ministries. They stationed him in Burnside at Heaven’s Door Chapel and he’s worked there ever since, reviving a mission that was near dormant in the years before his arrival.
“We started from nothing and built this through God’s calling,” David said. “We live by faith without a salary and pray for what God wants. That’s our salary — when we need something, we pray and God supplies. That’s how it works.”
David’s left knee pain began in 2010.
He noticed the pain lasted longer and set in more frequently than in years past. It swelled constantly. He wore a knee brace for support.
David talked to his father — a retired doctor who had practiced at Red Bird Mission — to learn more about hyaluronic acid and how it can be used to lubricate and cushion the cartilage in his knee. He also saw an orthopedic specialist in Florida, who drained the fluid from his knee and gave him a cortisone injection, while providing him with a long-term diagnosis.
“He told me, ‘I can see it; you don’t have any cartilage left,’” David said. “The only way to fix it was to replace it. And I knew I had to do something, but I wasn’t ready. I had had friends who had replacements, so I had seen some go poorly. So I was hesitant.”
David opted for the oral hyaluronic acid supplements for nearly a decade, and successfully kept the pain at bay for a while. But eventually, he knew he needed a long-term answer. In 2021, after his wife passed away, David began spending more time with his extended family in Louisville. His nieces could tell he was noticeably slower, avoiding activities if they required too much time on his feet.
“I started quantifying whether I wanted to go places based on how much walking I had to do,” David said. “It hurt every time you put pressure on it, and it was starting to get in the way of everyday life.”
His family recommended he see a doctor in Louisville, and he made and appointment with Ryan E. Modlinski, M.D., nonsurgical orthopedic sports medicine physician with Norton Orthopedic Institute.
“Of all the Norton doctors I’ve ever been to, he had the best bedside manner,” David said. “He really made me feel at ease and took an interest in my life activities.”
“Every patient needs to determine, on a unique set of circumstances, their needs and functions,” Dr. Modlinski said. “So we try to really narrow it down and then we try to tailor and provide them a thorough explanation of the options that can help them. “We really try to focus in on what they’re struggling with and then target and tailor our treatments to meet those needs.”
The two created a treatment plan — try a round of hyaluronic acid injections, to see how long they lasted and use that period to find a date for surgery. In the meantime, Dr. Modlinski would confer with his colleagues and find David the right surgeon.
David agreed. While the injection provided some short term relief, after just one injection, he needed surgery. He was diagnosed with extreme osteoarthritis, and bone spurs were beginning to form along the inside of his left knee.
Dr. Modlinski introduced him to Samuel D. Carter, M.D., orthopedic surgeon with Norton Orthopedic Institute. Dr. Carter and David discussed the options and agreed on a partial medial knee replacement.
Dr. Carter performed the procedure successfully in November 2022.
Compared with a full knee replacement, a partial replacement provides patients with a faster procedure and recovery time, while reducing the risk for postoperative complications. Patients also maintain their own knee ligaments, providing a more natural feeling than a full knee replacement.
“In an ideal scenario, the patients almost forget they’ve had it, and they go back to their everyday lives,” Dr. Carter said. “But the No. 1 priority is to relieve the pain. It can be hard to know when the best time is for a knee replacement. It’s really patient-dependent. But being here with Dr. Modlinski, being in the same office, allows us to talk to each other frequently, be it a text message or a message on our electronic system. We’re able to keep each other up to date on how patients are doing and when to cross that threshold into surgery.”
“Dr. Carter was great,” David said. “They made the process extremely easy for me. I had confidence in this team. Watching them collaborate and weigh what my outcome needed to be, and then tell me they were going to give me the tools to succeed, meant the world to me. The approach truly felt custom to me.”
Nearly two years post-surgery, David’s ministry continues uninterrupted and pain-free. Now age 67, he’s still out in his community daily, working to make it a better place.
His knee no longer gives him issues, no matter what physical activity he takes on.
He attributes his success to his faith, both in the men who repaired his knee, and in the man who pointed him in their direction.
“I live by the quote from Philippians 4:6-7, which is, ‘Don’t worry about anything, pray about everything and thank God for what he’s done,’” David said. “If you really take that to heart, you’re not going to worry about anything.”
“That’s the ideal outcome,” Dr. Carter said. “Seeing happy postoperative patients is the best part of my job, and seeing them get back to get back to their normal lives and the things they’re used to doing is a huge payoff.”
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