Elaina sits down and talks with Lisa Jamieson from Walk Right In Ministries about family caregivers, the holidays, and ways the church can better support them.
The training, content, gatherings and experiences that we’ve created for pastors, church staff and ministry volunteers produced with the assistance of like-minded colleagues serving in disability ministry have become our principal service. So much of what we’re able do to help churches welcome and support families, we accomplish by bringing together experts from other ministry organizations.
November is Caregiver Awareness Month. As someone who became one of my dad’s caregivers before I started school, I grew up thinking everyone in the world was aware of caregivers and caregiving. As a young adult my husband and I cared for a son born with a life-threatening medical condition, and his typical sibling. As members of the sandwich generation, my brother, sister, and I cared for our mother for 15 years after she was diagnosed with dementia. This explains why, when I first heard that November is Caregiver Awareness Month, I was incredulous, and I still am.
In this episode, Lauren Hickman shares her personal journey and calling to disability ministry, describing how God has guided her every step of the way to serve families impacted by disability.
In today’s episode, Sandra talks about the challenges small to normative-sized churches face in disability ministry and shares how the churches she’s been a part of have overcome these challenges.
Do you have a desire to be involved with ministry in some way, but all the existing ministry options don’t seem to fit? If you’re interested in discerning where God is leading you, or just want to shorten the path to living out His purposes, we’ll share more details about how to recognize and pursue the path God is laying before you, not only from our perspective, but also with some ministry friends who have gone through this process.
Tony D’Orazio from Jacob’s Ladder Fitness asks an important question: what has humanity missed out on without all those people with Down syndrome in the world?
My children have autism. The children at our church are great with our kids: patient, kind, accepting and open to them. I am thankful, but—that is not enough. I want them to have authentic, organic friendships with people their own age. Here are four questions to help churches be places where the neurotypical and neurodivergent can grow together.
You may be surprised to know that there can be various obstacles for people with disabilities or mental health concerns, as well as their families, to get prayer support. Here are ideas about how people and churches interested in intercessory prayer can come alongside special needs families with the support of prayer chains, as well as examples of both general and specific prayers that can be used as a guide.
Worshiping with Joel at age 11 was an interesting experience. It was not unlike sitting on the edge of your seat during an action movie, when you're not quite sure what's going to happen next—you only know something is going to happen. Then one day, during communion, a radiant look of understanding came upon Joel's face.
