I have recently read some books lately that have changed my life and perspective!
I’m also sure I am not alone when I write that. One of the burning issues on my heart of late has been the place of special needs children and adults (herein called people for sake of brevity). I have written about several parents who have special needs children in our church fellowship. For the sake of privacy, I obviously will not give their names. We have several on the spectrum. Twins who both fit that picture-one worse than the other. One with a devastating lifelong handicap called Williams Syndrome. She has been adopted. This same family have several special needs children of their own and have taken in others who have been abused. I started asking myself, “What can I do?” “What can the church do?”
So I did what I thought was the first best thing to do (besides pray): READ. So I purchased some book to help me understand and get my juices flowing. Unbroken Faith by Diane Dokko Kim, the mother of an autistic child (who at the time of the writing was a teenager and non-verbal). Then I read The Accessible Church by Sandra Peoples. It is subtitled “A Gospel Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and their Families.” And I just finished reading Boundless Hope for every child by Kim Botto. All three were eye-openers for me. I broached the subject in staff meeting about the need to do something and it will take some doing and some reconfiguring of our current building and plans, but it can and will be done. All in God’s timing. Meanwhile, I continue reading and those I want to involve will meet and pray and plan for the future.
If you know of a church that has a special needs ministry, would you please have them contact me? Meanwhile, I would suggest you start by reading those three books for you, for your church, but most of all for the parents and friends and caregivers of special needs people.
EVERY PERSON MATTERS. They matter to God. They should matter to us. Please contact me if you can offer some help.
What you are doing at OVCF to meet the needs of people with special needs is absolutely wonderful, Bill! I wish I knew of a church that was doing the same, but I don’t. You all have my prayers.
Blessings!
Thanks Martha. We will continue trying to do just that. And thank for keeping your ears open.
Father, give us hearts to have open arms at our church to make everyone feel welcome. Help us to show love, kindness, and smiles to those with special needs, so that they feel loved and wanted at our church. We are all a part of the church family, so we need to make sure that everyone feels like a member of the family and not an outsider. In Jesus name we pray. 1Tim1:17
Thanks for the prayer Gail. I need to pray it daily and I hope others will also.
We have a couple of young women, in their 30th that our foster to a couple in our church. When ever I am around them I am amazed at the parents and how they know how to discipline and love on those two girls who are totally opposite. They are always coming for a hug before church starts, and I love that they picked me to hug. We have no children program, so all children are in the service. Sometimes that means a disruption, but everyone is used to it and I have heard no complains.
It is commendable that the couple fosters the young ladies. We have a family who have 3 of their own and up to 9 at this point. The other 6 are either special needs or in need of love from a stable home.
Special needs is such a great and unfortunately neglected avenue. I think it is commendable that you are trying to focus on this. God bless you 🙏 ❤️
Thank you Linda. First, thanks for the comment and encouragement. Second, thanks for visiting my blog.