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MARCH 19, 2025
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
From football player to activist BY CAT SHANNON
Dinner will celebrate 30 years of LightShine Ministries BY CAT SHANNON
I
n 2015, Deon Butler was living a dream, playing professional football for the Detroit Lions, but he held a secret: Despite having graduated from college, he could not read past a fourth-grade level. After getting help, Butler was moved to help others, and today, he’s a motivational speaker. He’ll share his story at “Breaking Barriers: A Path of Perseverance.” The event will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 26, at The Janus School, 205 Lefever Road, Mount Joy. Growing up in Michigan, Butler became adept at hiding the secret of his struggle with reading. “I got picked on a lot in middle school and high school, where I was called ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb,’” he recalled. “I bottled it all away, and I got really good at hiding it.” Butler became a master at memorizing, always chose the easiest book to read if he had to read out loud and avoided situations where his secret might come to light. But as a professional football player, Butler found it difficult to hide his illiteracy. “There are a lot of words you have to read in football,” he said, referencing playbooks and play strategies. He played professionally for a year in 2015 and then started working as an educational liaison for a social services agency. “I was good at my job, but I couldn’t get a promotion,” he said. “My supervisors would ask me to document my work, and I couldn’t do that.” After his mother passed away just before the pandemic, Butler began to take steps to change
For three decades, LightShine Ministries in Mount Joy has been bringing the love and light of God to the people of Alaska. You can support this mission at a dinner celebrating the organization’s 30th anniversary. T he meal will be held at
L ancaster Alliance Church, 210 Pitney Road, Lancaster, on Friday, April 11, from 5 to 8 p.m. The event will start with appetizers at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m. Beginning at 7 p.m., members of LightShine Ministries will share testimonies and discuss the 17 mission teams serving this year as well See LightShine pg 5
Deon Butler
his situation. He started seeing a therapist, relied on his faith and found support from his wife. “My therapist asked, ‘What do you like to do?’ and I said, ‘I like to run,’” he said. “I started running
“I feel like a blind person who is able to see for the first time. I need to read every book.” 15 to 20 miles, speaking to God as I’m running. I’m pouring my heart out to God about my frustration and my depression.” Then, he learned his wife was pregnant. “I realized I want to read books to my daughter,” he said. “I want
to be that father that reads to his kids every night.” He decided to take a risk: Tell the truth about his illiteracy on social media. His posts caught the eye of someone from the Michigan Dyslexia Association, who told Butler he might have the disorder. He began working with a tutor, discovered he did indeed have dyslexia and started working to relearn the right way to read. “I really had to go backwards at first,” he said. “I had developed bad habits of memorizing words. I had to relearn my ABC’s, learn how to break down syllables.” Learning to read was a struggle, he admits. “There were days when I was crying,” he said, but he relied on God to see him through. “I had to remember, ‘Just let my guard down; let go of my ego.’ I also had
A LightShine Ministries team works on a building in Alaska.
IU13 conference slated for June 12 BY GEORGE DEIBEL
The 29th annual Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 Education Conference will be held Thursday, June 12, at Conestoga Valley High School, 2110 Horseshoe Road, Lancaster. “We want people to be aware of what we offer, but we also want to give them evidence-based practices to use with students,” said Chanda Telleen, who is an associate program director and supervisor of the training and consultation team for the
See Football pg 3
IU13. “People are coming to our conference as a way to enhance their professional learning. We have presenters from our par tner PaT TAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network). We have presenters from institutes of higher education. We have practitioners presenting. We try to expose our audience to the latest evidence-based practices to support our students.” Registration and a continental breakfast will run from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m., followed by a welcome See IU13 pg 2
EXCITING BUS TRIPS AWAIT....
April 7th-12th
• Washington, DC Bible Museum & National Zoo April 21st • Holland Michigan Tulip Festival, Mackinac Island & Henry Ford Museum April 30th-May 6th
Call For A Free 2025 Tour Menu 717-823-2086 or visit/book @ FUNCOUNTRYTOURS.COM
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VOL LXVI • NO 6