The Banquet of Belonging isn’t just a fabled dream — it is something that happens when people gather around a table of hospitality, share stories, and discover they are not alone.
Join us Wednesday evening for a relaxed dessert night as Ron & Teresa Buschman share conversation with Erik & Bonnie Freiburger about marriage, relationships, and building a life together while navigating spinal cord injuries and disability for most of their lives. Centred around dessert and conversation, they’ll share honest stories of love, challenge, humour, faith, and the unexpected ways disability can shape partnership and deepen connection with one another and the communities we are a part of.
Like any good banquet, this evening isn’t about having all the right answers — it’s about gathering together, listening well, and discovering how belonging grows when we learn to support one another with vulnerability, grace, and mutual care.
Come enjoy dessert, settle in, and be part of a conversation that reminds us God’s table is wide, welcoming, and always being expanded.
Conversational Presenters
Ron and Teresa Buschman Bio
Ron and Teresa Buschman have been married for over four decades and are passionate about helping couples build strong, healthy, and life-giving marriages.
They have been part of First Alliance Church in Calgary for many years, where they have served in a variety of leadership and volunteer roles. Their heart has been investing in marriages — walking alongside couples, facilitating marriage courses, mentoring, and creating spaces where relationships can grow and thrive. They previously served as Couples’ Ministry Coordinators and continue to be actively involved in supporting and encouraging couples in every season of marriage.
Ron and Teresa are trained facilitators for a number of marriage and relationship tools and have led workshops, small groups, and mentoring experiences both within the church and in partnership with organizations like Focus on the Family. Their approach is practical, honest, and grounded in real life — not theory.
They believe great marriages aren’t built by accident. They grow through intentional connection, healthy communication, shared purpose, and a willingness to keep learning and growing together.
When they’re not investing in couples, Ron and Teresa enjoy staying active, travelling, camping in their trailer, spending time with their grandkids in Chilliwack, and making the most of life together.
More than anything, their story isn’t about having a perfect marriage — it’s about a long journey of learning, growing, and choosing each other again and again.
Erik & Bonnie Freiburger’s Bio
Having been both in wheelchairs due to a spinal cord injury caused by separate motor vehicle accidents in the early 90’s, Erik and Bonnie Freiburger have learned a great deal as to what it means to be disabled. Meeting in a group home that served as a place for transition from the hospital to community life, they developed a great friendship that would eventually turn into a deep love for one another. Getting married in 1999, they built a home in SE Calgary and spent the last 27 years learning, growing, and sometimes juggling the chaos that comes in marriage and a life of disability.
Bonnie loves baking at home in the kitchen and hosting movie nights with their friends. Erik loves eating Bonnie’s baked goods while writing and hosting a Substack and podcast advocating for disability and faith called ‘At The Bottom Of The Well’ and ‘The Well Dwellers Podcast’.
