What DO you do when a child works harder to escape a room than he does work the puzzles at the table? How can you possibly know where the boundaries should be with a child who inherently has none? Where is the line between nurturing and structure? While there aren’t clear answers to these questions, there IS clear theology about our family’s place in the Body of Christ. Sherri Wirt writes a short devotional for special needs parents that feel they don’t fit at church.
Jolene Philo gives 10 vacation planning tips for families with special needs! Jolene Philo will be speaking at Disability & the Church 2024 in Orlando, FL May 1-3! Go to www.keyministry.org/datc2024 to register now.
Like a new outfit that looks crisp and sharp or an old outfit that is so worn out it’s comfy and we wear it all the time….is often how we wear the banner of the special needs journey. How does it look on us? On you? Is our attire crisp and sharp or rather worn out? Cindi Ferrini writes on how YOU wear special needs and caregiving.
There is a group that many churches simply do not see and are therefore missing a great opportunity for ministry. That group is special needs dads. Guys, like me, who are caring for individuals with disabilities/special needs. This is an incredible group of men! Steve Chatman will be speaking at Disability & the Church 2024 in Orlando, FL May 1-3. Go to www.keyministry.org/datc2024 to register now.
Over the years, I have been through multiple seasons of planting and harvesting skills with my daughter. My daughter is now entering adulthood with disabilities. There are still skills that she needs to develop to make her life easier. The learning does not stop as she ages, however, the pressure I put on myself all of those years is gone. I don’t need to fix issues. I simply need to support her through them. Evana Sandusky writes on her daughter’s growth through the years and likens it to planting seeds and yielding the harvest.
During the recent Christmas season, as I pondered the state of the world and all of the trauma that I went through in 2020, a message from a messianic rabbi about the Magnificat led me to ask a truly hard question similar to what Mary could have also asked: do I believe the God who carried me through so many difficulties and challenges in the past will carry me through new ones as well?
In October 2014, I was in the middle of a short period of personal chaos that had created a fair sense of anxiety and fear in me: job loss; my mother experienced an accident that required surgery; my mother-in-law required hospitalization as well. I felt confused and insecure, but did my best to remember I was serving an important purpose in my family’s life. And at Halloween, the purpose to my time at home was finally realized.
Every August, I get out this story of my son and remind myself that even as the walnut leaves begin to fall, even as I am gripped by the sadness of one kind of letting go or another, it is, in Kairos time, the very first Christmas. When I allow myself to live in the moment, I am in the midst of God's glory.
