By Kat Bryant
The Daily World
Those who have been around the Twin Harbors for a while might remember Pastor Dan’l C. Markham as a Pacific County commissioner, or maybe as executive director of the Willapa Alliance.
Born in Aberdeen and raised in Ilwaco, Markham fought for sustainable development in those positions during the 1980s and ’90s — with limited success.
The goal of the Willapa Alliance was to maintain the local ecosystem while boosting the economy through citizen stewardship rather than government regulation. Markham says the group achieved some public policy movement, but eventually disbanded “because the stakeholders didn’t want to move their stakes.”
After that frustrating experience, he says, “I wanted to get back into gospel-oriented work.”
He has released three books since 1987. His first, “The Cultic Phenomenon,” addressed the misuse of religious power. (Although he was an evangelical pastor at the same time he served as a county commissioner, he says he never mixed the two.)
His latest effort, “Contagious Love: Turning Disabilities into Possibilities,” is actually an update of his 2012 book, “The Lost Mandate.” In both, he addresses Luke 14, in which Jesus commands (in part): “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, for they cannot repay you.”
That “lost mandate” has become Markham’s passion. He calls his book “a clarion call to churches to pick up the mantle of being in the lead of loving and caring for those affected by disability.”
That’s also the philosophy behind Joni and Friends, where he served for 10 years as a director. Its founder, Joni Eareckson Tada, was paralyzed from the waist down in a diving accident as a teenager. Her Christian nonprofit, based in California, focuses on serving people and families affected by disability.
It also carried over to his work at Life Without Limbs, where he was vice president of development and ministry relations until last year. That California-based nonprofit ministry was founded by Nick Vujicic, who was born with no arms or legs and now works with youth to help them surmount similar obstacles.
Today, Markham is continuing his life’s work as director of church partnerships at the Everett Gospel Mission, which offers food and shelter to addicts, the homeless and other at-risk denizens of the inner city — “ministering to people in the margins,” as he puts it.
He’s also plugging away on his next book, which will be a bit of a departure from the others: a cowboy trilogy. “It’s a historical novel that takes place in Western Washington,” he says.
“Contagious Love” is available through Amazon for $14.99.
