Opening up the church doors or the church grounds to the community at large is a great opportunity for outreach. Our church has several large events per year where this is done well. Some examples of this are Vacation Bible School and an annual Celebrate America event. These events are open for everyone.
Events Specifically for the Disability Community: What we have found for families living with disability is that for multiple reasons many cannot participate in these events. As disability ministry leaders, we know we need to be creative if we are going to create an atmosphere where special needs kids can access and enjoy. In this blog post, we will share one way our church reaches out to the families affected by disability in our city and surrounding areas.
Our Local University and our Church Team Hook Up. First of all, we are right next door to a university. We have the opportunity to offer required service hours for college students at our events. That gives us the volunteers we need to pull off these large events. It is a win-win situation. As we all know, many hands and hearts make lighter work and this is certainly true as we work with these young adults.
Three times each year: Our disability outreach large events happen at Easter, Fall harvest time, and Christmas. We decorate according to each theme. At Easter – we make available photos with the Easter Bunny. At Fall harvest time, we set up a bench with some fall decor and a backdrop so pictures can be taken then, and at Christmas, we have pictures with Santa.
Respite Drop Off or Whole Family Experience: Our event acts as a respite event where parents can drop off their children or parents are invited to experience the time with their children if they prefer that. On the respite side of things, college students are matched up as buddies to the children who are being dropped off for the event and take them through all of the fun while the parents can take a break.
Activities: At each event, we have train rides, inflatables, crafts, sometimes carnival-type games, and food for everyone to enjoy.
The Gospel Message: We always make sure to take the opportunity to encourage everyone to come and enjoy storytime where the gospel message is clearly presented.
We have the blessing of having a large Christian School intermingled with our church which gives us facilities that allow for inflatables in one side of a large gym along with some crafts and a set up train station with train rides in the other side of that gym, and Storytime and some crafts in another gym.
We are giving the example here of a large church and large facility, BUT please do not give up on the idea of scaling this type of event for a smaller facility. ANYTHING you can offer for families affected by disability is an amazing outreach opportunity.
If you would like to have a conversation to brainstorm how you might implement some of these ideas, we are here for you. Email us at Champions4Parents@gmail.com or text us at 410-746-9010 and let us know your desire to connect. We can meet by email, telephone, Zoom or in person if you are local to Central Virginia.
Much love,
Tom & Julie Meekins
CONNECT WITH US:
We invite you to connect with Tom, Julie, and Amy through:
Email: champions4parents@gmail.com
Phone: 410-746-9010 (Voice or Text)
Facebook: facebook.com/Champions4Parents
Don’t forget our website: Champions4Parents.com
And check out Amy’s websites at
AmyChristineMeekins.com
Amystories.wixsite.com/heartrecharge
If you would like to support us financially as we provide love and support to Parents and Caregivers as well as Ministry Folks who serve families impacted by disability, we invite you to our donor page on our website: Champions4Parents.com/giving
