"I have worked as a physical therapist for twelve years. Approximately nine of those years have been in home health. Clearly a monumental gap exists between the local churches and the disabled population. All too often individuals and families go through the most difficult trials and circumstances of their lives in isolation from the Christian community. Available support is fleeting. Relationships are few. Stress is high. Caregiver burnout is frequent and inevitable. Marriages fall apart. Abuse sometimes settles in. Financial ruin draws nearer everyday. Who will help close this gap while helping to meet real needs? It is the prayer of the authors of this text that the current and future generations of pastors and Christian servant-leaders will lead their congregations to do just that. Typically if the shepherds do not lead, the flock will not follow."
Woodbine church "adopts" autism classes: I love what this church has done, "adopting" classes in the public school system to ensure that kids with special needs in their district have the basic educational tools they need. What a great outreach!
Autism and Cyberchurch: The Easier Option: Honestly, I think the better option would be for the church to step up to make the physical church environment a more welcoming, less hostile option for these families, but - especially in areas in which churches aren't stepping up to include the indispensable parts (per 1 Corinthians 12:22) - this article and the comments give good food for thought.
Column: Will America cull people with Down syndrome? As a follow-up to the article above, Dr. Brian Skotko addresses the issues that come along with new testing options. Pray to the Life-Giver that life - all life, regardless of ability level - will be valued and protected.
The Bible, Disability, and The Church: I haven't gotten this book yet, but I will. I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with various points in the author's theological tome about Down syndrome.
Accessible Church Websites: How could your church website - which is the first entry point to your church for many visitors - be more welcoming to people with disabilities?
Autism and God: This post is written by a Jewish man about his son's understanding of God, but I think it is helpful for Christians as well.
Faith and Disability: This blogger - who has Becker's Muscular Dystrophy - responds to a question about how faith in God makes a difference in the face of disability.
The Poorest of the Poor: A compelling piece about why our overseas missions efforts shouldn't leave out those with disabilities. I hope to have more to share with you in the near future about how we, as Christians in the US, can reach out to people with disabilities in other countries.
99 Balloons: As a hint to what I'll be sharing soon about international efforts, read this.
Love is an action word: Yes. Yes. And yes. Jo is a momma of a kiddo with special needs, and her words encourage me.
Ethan's first church service: A great story of one child with autism flourishing in his first "big church" experience!
And this song (via youTube, but note that the "video" is just a still of the album cover, so it's for your listening pleasure, not really viewing!) is precious in sharing truth that families with special needs can cling to. It's also precious to me on a personal level because it came out less than a year after I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis; I heard it for the first time as I pulled into a specialist's office for yet another complication with my health, this time one that we feared would endanger our unborn son. The outcome of that complication was not damaging to our son, but the song resonated with me then and still does now. I've never made it through with dry eyes.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
"When my accident happened, maybe the Devil's motive was to shipwreck the faith of that young, seventeen-year-old girl. Maybe he wanted to use her to make a mockery out of God's goodness. Maybe he hoped to defame God's sweet character. But remember, God is in the business of aborting devilish schemes. And God's motive in my accident was to abort that devilish scheme and turn a headstrong, stubborn, rebellious teenagers into a woman who can reflect something of his patience, something of his perseverance, something of his endurance, something of his character. And after forty years in a wheelchair, I can say that my own suffering has lifted me out of my spiritual slumber. It has got me seriously thinking about the lordship of Christ in my life. It has helped convince this skeptical, cynical world that my God is worth trusting. It has shown me that we can be loyal to him despite our afflictions and infirmities, that disability ministry should have priority in the church, and that heaven is real.
Based on my plans, I was supposed to leave this morning on a family road trip (now delayed by a day or so).
I was also supposed to get an IV treatment for my rheumatoid arthritis on Tuesday (now scheduled for this afternoon).
The woman who scheduled it was supposed to schedule that IV for this past Tuesday but erroneously put it in the calendar for next Tuesday, when I was supposed to be in Texas already.
Supposed to...
The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. Psalm 16:1
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases. Psalm 115:3
God knows. My plans didn't work out as I thought they were "supposed to" but they are exactly as God planned.
