Let’s think about children. As a member of the pastoral staff, ministry staff, or as a volunteer serving children in ministry, we ask that you open your heart to hear what God says about including those who take a little bit more of your attention. Jesus wants your ministry open to ALL children. He said, “Let the little children come.” And His ministry was all about special needs and disability. But, you may think, “we are ill-equipped to handle children with special needs and disabilities”. We understand. But, will you come and explore with us what God says about this?...
When we consider special needs and disability ministry, we have to realize that there are several perspectives coming into play. Of course, we always want to put the needs of the child or adult with a disability at the forefront. There is a team that, if working together, can create an environment that helps everyone to know that Jesus loves them and that we truly want them to know they belong in our community. That team consists of parents or caregivers, staff, and volunteers. Each of these allies bring something unique to the table. Parents or caregivers, staff, and volunteers...
Parenting children opens one up to all kinds of advice – sought after and unsolicited. And then, there are people who are negative or manipulative by nature who step all over the way we parent. Add to the mix parenting a child with challenges and suddenly even strangers put themselves forth as experts. Maybe we are talking about two different things here: advice vs. criticism. The dictionary definition of advice is an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action. On the other hand, the dictionary describes criticism this way, the act of passing judgment as to the merits...
What about our Children’s Future? When our children who have challenges are small, our schedules are often full of meetings with medical and developmental professionals to help us help our child to be all they were meant to be. We spend countless hours researching, seeking advice, and scheduling appointments with recommended doctors, therapists or educators. We beg and plead with insurance companies and any other resource we find to help us financially reach the best of the best for our child. We do all manner of teaching them, training them, and advocating for them. As they grow from babies to...
This is a message for parents, caregivers, friends, and also to professionals in ministry, medicine, and education. Do you feel loved? If the answer is yes, it is most likely because someone has figured out what makes you feel loved. If the answer is no, then it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not loved. It just may mean that the people who love you do not know how best to love you so that you feel it and know it. Recently, I had the privilege of participating in an online book study with Jolene Philo, co-author with Gary Chapman...
When is the last time you really felt like someone listened to you? How did that make you feel? How does it make you feel when you don’t feel listened to? Do you think it is possible — that as parents, spouses, daughters, sons, nephews, nieces, sisters, brothers, grandchildren, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, bosses, pastors, counselors, teachers, trainers, associates in shopping environments, servers in restaurants, nursing home personnel, nurses, doctors, financial counselors, tellers, clerks, administrative assistants, and people everywhere who touch the lives of other people — we could all learn to listen better to others with our ears, our...
Creating Healthy Nurturing Homes in these Challenging Times Recently, during our parent support group gathering on Zoom, we had a lively discussion about how we, as parents, are uniquely positioned to provide certain things in a child’s life. We chatted about what is most important to bring to our children. These days of COVID-19 can be socially restrictive and potentially anxiety producing. We are constantly setting up new routines for educating and socializing our children. We need to find ways to safely run errands. We are working hard to provide nurturing, healthy, and stimulating activities for our children in a...
Thoughtfully Considering How to Love a Special Needs Family We recently asked some special needs parents how they would like to be loved by family, friends, and even strangers. Here is what they had to share: Do not judge. There are so many things that you may not know behind the scenes in a special needs family. Some disabilities are not as obvious. We call these “hidden disabilities.” Have compassion. Do not be dismissive of their concerns and frustrations. Many children who melt-down in public are extremely sensitive to what you might call normal noises, lights, and activity. What looks...
Life is hard. Everyone is feeling the pain of these days of COVID which brings some form of social isolation, disrupted routines, difficult perplexities in educating children, ministries that are upside/down and so much more confusion. We are also living with a lot of political unrest. These days are hard for everyone but especially troublesome for special needs families who are already dealing with sometimes seemingly insurmountable challenges. Just in the last few days, we have interacted with people who are dealing with very difficult situations. Here are some of their stories: My son does not know how to social...
Tom and Julie Meekins Ministry is hard. It can be very lonely. There are often expectations made of ministry leaders that are overwhelming. Let’s talk about Loneliness first. Don’t be a lone ranger. You may feel like you “should” be taking care of everything within the ministry yourself. You may feel that you were hired to do a job or commissioned to do a job and that you alone should take care of it – ALL of it. Wrong thinking. God created us for community. He doesn’t want us doing ministry alone. We had to learn this truth the hard...
