Elaina sits down and shares a few of the many reasons we have to celebrate here at Key Ministry this year. We are so grateful for all that the Lord has done in and through our ministry in 2024, and we can’t wait to see what he does in 2025!
I wonder when did being sensitive get a bad reputation and why does being sensitive tend to make others uncomfortable? After all, Jesus showed us how to use gifts like sensitivity, empathy and compassion for the Kingdom of God.
As 2024 comes to a close, we look back at some of the most impactful events and relationships we were part of this past year, highlight new resources we helped create over the past twelve months and look ahead to opportunities for advancing the Gospel in 2025 through supporting local churches in their ministry with the disability and mental health communities.
Sandra Peoples grew up with a sister with Down syndrome and now has a teenager with level 3 autism, so she knows how different the holidays can feel for a family like hers. But they don't have to feel different at church! With a few steps of consideration, she shares how families can feel included and valued. Let's make sure special-needs families can hear the message of hope this Christmas!
Every child is wonderfully unique, created by God with love and intention. For kids who experience and process the world differently, hearing affirmations rooted in God’s truth can be a powerful reminder of their worth and purpose.
Churches rightly encourage adoption and support families going through the adoption process, but are they prepared when the child or teen comes home and is diagnosed with special needs or trauma-related issues? Sandra Peoples shares three-part series on a theology of disability that can serve as a motivation for churches to meet the needs of these families.
Last month I was in Columbus, Ohio for a state-wide training for Ohio's Child Protective Services (CPS). This conference got me thinking about how the Church is responding to foster care, and other impacts with foster care and orphans. There are many people out there doing a lot of good work in foster care and adoption. Here are some resources that have moved beyond local mission.
The issue of “orphan care” has become rather en vogue within the Church — even to the point of having an “Orphan Sunday.” And that’s all good and well, but if we are not careful, the Church could be the crowd on the shore. But what if, instead of saying “we only know how to say jump,” the crowd had rushed to the end of the pier, with arms outstretched, yelling “Hang on! Help is on the way! Don’t lose hope!
Our church community didn’t know what we would need, but they said yes with us: yes to loving through the brokenness, yes to being faithful to the ones (me included) who need to learn to trust once again, yes to a bit more chaos in our row during worship, yes to choosing to do good for young ones for whom others hadn’t always chosen good in their recent past.
