Assumptions are made and most assumptions are wrong. Albert Einstein Assumptions are the termites of relationships. Henry Winkler (the Fonz) I don’t know about you, but I have been guilty of making assumptions about challenging behavior as I see it in children and adults alike. My assumptions are often not accurate or I am at least not considering the whole picture. Could this be you, too? Maybe there is more that we need to know and understand. Maybe we need to think about these behaviors differently. Maybe we need a different response. Maybe Albert Einstein and Henry Winkler are on...
Every journey in life teaches us lessons. Even though the road can be tough, we are grateful for the lessons that being parents of a child with disabilities has taught us. Our hope is that there is something in here that will help you along your journey. Always ask God. – So many times we had to make decisions for both our Amy and our son, Josh, that were staggering and would likely impact them tremendously for the rest of their lives. We were not equipped. However, we are thankful that our God has worked in our lives in the...
Children’s ministry leaders are enriched and empowered when they meet up with other children’s ministry leaders from other churches. There are conferences for them to attend throughout the country. Youth ministry leaders often bounce ideas off of and support other youth ministry leaders through local meet ups and zoom conversations and through conferences. Adult ministry leaders have better thriving ministries when they get together with adult ministry leaders from other churches to share ideas and attend conferences. The same is true of leaders in disability ministry. We all need opportunities to collaborate, get heads together, plan, and vision cast. When...
How to love our brothers and sisters with disabilities better. Are our assumptions serving each other well? Today we participated in a roundtable on Zoom with over 30 participants from all over the country discussing the topic of serving individuals at church who have speech limitations. The discussion was started right out of the gate by two women who have found amazing ways to use the gifts God has given them in spite of the challenge of having limited ability to use speech to communicate. Here are some things we learned from them and others during this enlightening and inspiring...
Are you weary? I don’t just mean tired. I mean bone-tired, worn out. Are you mentally drained? Physically exhausted? Emotionally spent? If so, this message is for you. Life can be very hard sometimes. Circumstances and certain people can suck the life blood out of you. Just getting up each day and plodding through the impossible task list with no end in sight can be burdensome. Sometimes people motivated by their own vindictive, selfish agendas can be overwhelmingly hurtful. You may be dealing with some form of grief either from losing a loved one or because of loss of the...
Julie Meekins Hey Mom! Are you feeling guilty? Most moms I know suffer from some sense of mom guilt at some time or another. You may be thinking things like… It is my fault that my child has this disability. I have no idea what I am doing.What does being a good “advocate” even mean?Why can I not get my act together, this place is a mess!I had to apologize yet again to my child for vocalizing my frustrations.And then…there are the other members of the family and extended family that I feel I am neglecting.Insert whatever has you in a...
Theme: Set your mind to look for the gifts. We are all made in God’s image. As image bearers, God created each one of us with unique gifts that are essential for the church. Often we hear pastors sharing from the stages of our churches an enthusiastic charge to serve within the local body of believers and beyond. I don’t know about you, but this encouragement stirs something within my heart to take action. Over the last few years, I have observed that many of my friends with disabilities also have a stirring in their hearts to serve and a...
Ongoing Online Access Back in 2020, all of us in ministry were scrambling for ideas of how to keep connection alive with our people during a pandemic. We got creative. We rose to the occasion. It was challenging and it was good. One of those ideas was to offer all manner of ways to connect over Zoom. We did meetings, parties, coaching, mentoring, scavenger hunts, classes, Christmas caroling, games, training, and more. All of this was done remotely and online. We found folks who were looking for friends and never had access to connecting and they found us. Some families...
Dear Pastor, We appreciate you. Thank you for bringing us God’s Word so consistently. You are a gift to us and we are grateful for your shepherding love and faithful guidance. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to share some things that are near and dear to our hearts. Disability Ministry Needs You You can bring a message to the rest of the church family that disability ministry is essential to the church. Why? Because Jesus showed us by example by serving people with special needs all the time, i.e. the lame, the blind, the sick. He was the...
Almost two years ago, we felt led to create something. We noticed that too often folks who do not have disabilities do not get many opportunities within the church or faith-based organizations to hang out and develop relationships with those who do. So, we formed a Life Group at our church called Affinity. Why “affinity?” The definition of affinity is a strong connection or relationship between people or things. We wondered, if we brought people together for the express purpose of studying God’s Word and building community, if the people — whether they had disabilities or not — would grow...
