Above – A child receives tender care from Joy, as the mother looks on. Here Joy is utilizing Child Parent Psychotherapy, a counseling technique that helps young children get through extreme difficulties such as trauma or frightening experiences.

Everybody needs help sometimes and now Joy needs help keeping her Christian counseling center going while she undergoes and recovers from surgery.

Hello, my name is Shannon McKinney, and I am a friend and supporter of Joy Buchman, a courageous lady who is working to help save children and families through her Christian counseling service and her defense of parents’ and children’s rights.

We first met Joy at a rally last year held by Save Your Rights Coalition of La Crosse. The rally was to try to stop the city council and mayor from enacting an unconstitutional conversion therapy ban on minor children. This violated everyone’s US Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and of religion.

Joy then volunteered to be the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city brought by Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), to restore our constitutional rights. The city’s unconstitutional ban also directly bans some of Joy’s counseling of children. For more details on this crucial issue, please visit http://saveyourrightscoalition.org

After that first meeting, getting to know Joy has been, well, a joy!

We got to see her as the hard-working, dynamic, enthusiastic counselor, dedicated to helping children, families and adults of all ages.

You can read Joy’s personal letter to you further down this page.

After homeschooling her seven children, she went on to graduate school at Winona State University, earned her Master’s degree in counseling, and became licensed in Wisconsin.

Joy then started her own Christian-based counseling clinic on the north side of La Crosse, which she named Kinsman Redeemer Christian Counseling Center. She serves a wide variety of clients, while working toward a specialty in child play therapy counseling for children under 4 years old. Over the next two years, she will finish 2,000 more hours of supervised counseling for state licensure requirements, while working full-time.

So, she’s a full-time counselor, specializing in children and parents, completing a higher distinction in counseling, being politically active defending your rights, and if that isn’t enough… she recently found out that she has cancer and will be having surgery March 1. We pray for a quick recovery.

So, Joy needs help keeping body and soul together as she is facing surgery, and financial pressure in the business part of her clinic. Many of her current clients simply can’t afford to pay at this time..

This will be tough physically because recovering from cancer surgery might not be a walk in the park, and will likely keep her out of her workplace for an estimated 6 weeks.

This is tough financially because nearly half of her existing clients are non-paying, due to a wide variety of factors such as job losses, health problems, family financial issues and others.

But Joy continues to provide the counseling those children and families need, even though they can’t afford to pay at this time. Thank God there are people like Joy, and people like you who can help!

We ask you to pray for her. We pray for her and want to do more. So, my husband and I, and some friends got together, did a careful budgeting for Joy, and are offering this fundraising appeal to you. In our get togethers, we came up with this idea to create a new grant program for children and families who can’t afford to pay for needed help at this time. We call it the Joy for Children Grant Program.

With funds from contributors like you, the Joy for Children Grant Program will provide grants to children and families for the counseling Joy is providing now and hopefully long into the future.

Grants will be awarded to families and children in need, including some of Joy’s current non-paying clients, replacing some of her lost income so she can keep her clinic open and continue her work.

Purpose of the funds:

Seeking $84,000 for

1. Grants for children and families who cannot afford to pay at this time $55,000.

2. Office expenses not covered by recent unpaid services $22,000.

3. Daily living expenses during surgery recovery (when unable to work) $7,000.

With your help, Joy can continue providing this special kind of care that these children need right here in our beautiful Coulee region.

Can you help Joy for Children?

Please pray for Joy and give what you can! Thank you very much and God bless you,

Sincerely,

Shannon McKinney and the Joy for Children team

100% of your contributions will go directly toward the above stated purposes.

Contributors and Endorsements: This charitable fundraising effort is wholeheartedly endorsed and financially supported by Save Your Rights Coalition of La Crosse, Coulee Conservatives, Crossway Church, Connect Church, and representatives of many other local churches and organizations.

Note from CW, a friend of Joy,

"Joy Buchman is truly a joy to be with and work with. She is one of those people with that special something you can’t really describe, but you know it when it touches you.

One day, we were in Joy’s therapeutic playroom, she was watching a child play with a Transformer toy, when Joy exclaimed, ' I love Transformers!' The child’s mother said, 'Well, you are one!' "

"Let’s give her a hand : )."

Joy’s Personal Letter to You

Dear Friends and Contributors,

Thank you for your love and support and putting this appeal together! They asked me to write up a short letter introducing myself here on Give Send Go, so …

Hello, my name is Joy Buchman, originally from La Crosse. After homeschooling my seven children, I moved back here fro Texas 10 years ago to take care of my mom who had dementia. While here, my kids talked me into going to college. Being a high school dropout, it was kind of a scary idea but I did it.

I then spent six years as a student at Winona State University, receiving a bachelors degree in psychology, minor in child advocacy, and masters degree in clinical mental health counseling.

Then, I started Kinsman Redeemer Christian Counseling Center here on the north side of La Crosse.

Then, I met Shannon and all these wonderful people, got involved in the fight to save children’s rights, and here I am.

This is the place I was always meant to be. Here working to help children, families and adults with the kinds of skills that I have to offer them. I’m dedicated to my work and this community.

Thank you kindly,

Joy

P.S. The Lord has given me many blessings. Over the last three years, I’ve had numerous bouts of COVID which left me with a chronic cough. While searching for the cause of this cough, the doctors discovered that I have endometrial cancer. Thank God I went there and the doctors discovered it early, and I am able to have surgery soon! Thank you all for being interested in my work. Thank you for your prayers. God bless y'all.

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