The late Douglas Mehling once dubbed himself the “Bionic Preacher.”
Mehling, who died May 14 at age 33, was confined to a wheelchair most of his life because of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but he never let the disease confine him: he was an accomplished student who graduated in 2007 from Southwestern Adventist University with a bachelor’s degree in theology and in 2013 master’s degree in divinity from the Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies; he was a preacher; and over the last few years of his life he dedicated a large portion of his time writing an autobiography meant to encourage anyone who read it, especially those whose life journey included similar conditions as his.
According to the Muscular Distrophy Association, more than 45,000 cases of Duchenne are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.
Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Southwestern Adventist University Theology Department.
The book, “Bionic Preacher: Rising Above Muscular Dystrophy,” has just been released, said his mother, Rita Earhart, who assisted her son with the first part of the book. The book is available at Amazon and at the Adventist Book Center, 201 S. Old Betsy Road in Keene, where Earhart, as co-author, will host a book signing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
“One reason he wrote it was to help people in a similar situation,” she said.
Earhart said he wanted people to see by example what they can accomplish through faith, perhaps with a little enhancement from technology in his case.
He was raised in the Adventist faith.
Mehling preached for five years at Grandview Seventh-day Adventist Church and called himself the Bionic Preacher because of his reliance on technology for mobility and communication. In the book, he defines bionic as “having normal biological capability and performance enhanced by electronic or electromechanical devices.”
Besides using an electronic wheelchair, Mehling relied on a portable ventilator to breathe and on computer technology to assist with his communication.
Early on he used head tracking software to manipulate his mouse but toward the end of his life his Duchenne had progressed to the point in which he had to use eye tracking and dictation software to complete the book, his mother said.
From the time he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 4 to the end of his life, he rarely had “why me” moments, Earhart said. He felt comfortable in his “bionic,” technologically assisted life. He once told her he was glad he was born in a time in which so much technology was available to assist him in living.
“He woke up every day happy,” she said.
Not that it was easy for him, she said. It took him about four hours to get ready for the day and about four hours to ready himself for bed, but in the meantime he devoted himself to Bible study and writing the book.
He began the book in 2009 and the final draft was turned in to editors a week before he died, his mother said.
Earhart wrote portions of the first part of the book, recounting the discovery and progress of the disease.
As his disease progressed, she notes in the book, it put a strain on an already stressful marriage and she and her husband divorced when Mehling was 9 months old, leaving her a single mother.
Still, her son always encouraged her, she said. His faith and courage were a blessing. What he’s left behind is a blessing as well.
“He left me a gift about our journey,” she said.
