LifeDate Fall 2026 – Preach Life
by Diane Albers, President of Lutherans For Life
The story starts with a prayer. As Kathy Schnakenberg began her teaching career at Bethesda and then Central Colony in Wisconsin, she fell in love with the children that were the most severely disabled. That was when she made a very specific prayer as she’d been taught to make in her childhood. She prayed that God would give her one of these special children and send her a husband who would understand. She also prayed that she (they) would have 40 years with this child.
Kathy married Pastor Roger Schnakenberg in 1973, and that prayer spent years “on the back burner” without being discussed. Finally, the day came on April 15, 1977, when Cory Roy Schnackenberg was born with profound disabilities–and Kathy told Roger about her prayer that had come flooding back to her. Together she and Roger were at peace. They called him their child on loan from God and knew he was an answer to prayer from the very start. Despite the fact that their baby required absolutely complete care, Cory brought so much into their lives. He brought love and blessings beyond their dreams.
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
When Cory was a baby, Kathy was asked if she and Cory would participate in a TV special produced by The Arc (at the time called NARC, National Association for Retarded Children), a disability rights and inclusion organization. The program was titled: “Bless the Beasts and Children.” This was the first time Cory was able to preach God’s value of each life, although he was already touching the lives of many people in whichever one of the churches Roger pastored. People could see the happiness and love through Cory’s very being.
Cory communicated with a shake of his head for “No” and a clap for “Yes.” He was mainstreamed in his early school years, but when the family moved to Missouri, he attended the state school until he graduated. He was an avid Cardinal and Packer fan, and he loved country music and being in the midst of crowds. And, of course, he loved going to church with his family. He brought joy to the hospital visits that he made with his father. He liked to sit next to his sister, Jodie, and tease her by pulling her hair–and then laughing! He enjoyed going to the Ladies Aid meetings and teasing his Mom by quietly pushing his chair back from the table while the ladies watched and laughed!
Kathy and Cory made many presentations to church and secular groups through the years, emphasizing the value God places on each life and the blessings that come from following God’s plan for life. Their current church, St. Paul, in Concordia, Missouri, made the church and school handicap accessible because of Cory. Only God knows how many lives Cory touched! Kathy spent the last 10 years taking care of Cory alone after Roger unexpectedly died, but she told me that she was so blessed to be Cory’s mom for 37 years (Remember her prayer?) and that people who reject children like Cory don’t know what they are missing.
I close with the poem/prayer that Kathy used at the end of every presentation:
Just look around and see how many you find,
Dear little children not quite strong in their minds.
Many are crippled in other ways, too.
God, give us understanding to see this worldly life through.
We go through life and sometimes grumble and fuss.
How often does it ever occur to us the wonderful gifts you entrusted to us:
To run and jump, work and play and to be able to be taught to pray.
None of these children seem to say they aren’t happy.
Perhaps they have been wiser than we from the start;
For they are aware within their hearts that when this life is through
They will come to heaven to live with you.
