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.
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Larah Roberts: Hi there and welcome to the Key Ministry Podcast. This is episode 125, and my name is Larah Roberts and I have the joy and privilege of serving as a director of operations for Key Ministry. And today I have with me my friend Lauren Hickman. Lauren, welcome to the podcast.
Lauren Hickman: Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here.
Larah Roberts: Let me tell our listeners a little bit, Lauren, I'm going to let you introduce yourself, but I do have something I want to tell the listeners that what we have in common, we have many things in common, but one thing we have in common, Lauren and I met a couple of weeks ago at a coffee shop and fantastic conversation, which you're going to hear about in a few moments. But Lauren was praying for us at the end of this meeting, and one thing that I was so amped about talking with Lauren Hickman about, because I follow her on Instagram and we've become friends, is that this new found love called pickleball. So Lauren was praying, and I forgot during our whole hour and a half conversation that I did not tell Lauren about my new pickleball shoes that I purchased that day. And so Lauren got done praying. And Lauren, what was the first thing that you said after you got done praying?
Lauren Hickman: I know my eyes were supposed to be closed, but I really love those pickleball shoes. They were looking good. I mean, you look sharp.
Larah Roberts: So Lauren was peeping my pickleball shoes as she was praying, which you never missed a beat sister.
Lauren Hickman: That was nice. I'm telling you, they looked really good. I'm in this complication, I just played in tournament this weekend and I had to pack three pairs of shoes because I can't get a pair of shoes that are comfortable. So I was a little bit jealous that you had found a pair that looked good and felt good.
Larah Roberts: They got to look good. They play really well.
Lauren Hickman: My last birthday, my mom bought me these adorable, they literally have pickle balls on the tennis shoes. Okay. Conversation piece. They look great, but they hurt my toes so badly. I can never wear them to play. So anyways, I'm on the search, so if anybody has any recommendations, but I think asics are the way to go.
Larah Roberts: There you go. Well, if you are listening and you're a pickleball fan, hey, you got two in us.
Lauren Hickman: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Larah Roberts: So, hey Lauren, tell everybody a little bit about you and where you're from, what you do ministry, just anything and everything you'd like to share.
Lauren Hickman: Sure. So Lauren Hickman, 31 years old, currently living in Hickory, North Carolina. Got my undergrad in elementary education. The Lord allowed me to do lots of really cool opportunities with that. Spent some time teaching abroad in China for a couple of years and have been given the opportunity to teach English as a second language in a couple countries and loved the opportunities there. And then in 2019, the Lord led me back at stateside and at that time my family had relocated. I was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. They had relocated. My parents relocated to Hickory and I needed to come home from some health concern. So I kind of landed here by default. And I told my pastor, I'm not ready to plug in. I'll do whatever you need for this year, but I'm going to take care of this health condition and then I'm going to go back to China.
But of course, the Lord had different plans. Covid broke out, and so that door was closed for the time. And so I now serve as a Wonderfully Made director here in Hickory, North Carolina. A ministry developed to help and encourage families that's living with disability, and that's a ministry of the Tabernacle Baptist Church led by our pastor, pastor Scott Hooks. And then I'm also a lead teacher in the Hope Allen Center for Exceptional Children, which is a ministry of the temple, excuse me, Tabernacle Christian Academy. And that's dedicated to serving children with developmental and physical disabilities. So that's where I'm plugged in here now.
Larah Roberts: Awesome. Lauren, I think you and I met a little less than a year ago at the summit that Tabernacle held, which we'll talk about later, but I remember thinking and telling my friend that I brought with me to that event, if we could only duplicate Lauren Hickman, if we can only have hundreds of who she is. And what I mean by that friend is it takes someone with a special heart called by the Lord to begin disability ministry. Many of them I've been able to meet through my role with Key Ministry, but you're one of those. Tell me how God laid on your heart and called you into this certain ministry.
Lauren Hickman: So this is my favorite story in the whole wide world outside of my story of salvation, it's just a story of God's faithfulness, and that's what I want people to know. It's not anything special that Lauren Hickman did. There's nothing special about me! I have a great savior and a great God, and he has great plans for us. And I truly believe if we'll hand over the pen to our life, he can write the most beautiful story, and that's what he has done for me. I'm so thankful, and I was eight years old, my mom tells this story often. We were in the Walmart Supercenter in the chip aisle and we passed a young boy living with disability. And I looked at my mom and I said, those I want to teach children just like him. And God has been so faithful to keep that stir up in my heart.
After I graduated college with my elementary education degree, like I said, the Lord opened up a door for me to teach abroad in China. And I remember being a little bit confused as I knew the Lord had opened this door so clearly for China, but I also knew disability ministry was on my heart and wondering when that was going to come to pass. But I went to China knowing that's what the Lord had called me to do, and even over there, he was so faithful to keep it in front of me, we would have extended time of breaks of teaching at the school during Chinese New Year and one year I had opportunity to go to a city and work at an underground special needs orphanage. And again, just the Lord keeping it in front of me. I've not forgotten that I've put this burden in your heart and we're going to make these connections one day.
And so he kept it in front of me. Then when he led me back to stateside, one of the very first meetings with my pastor was, look, I'll help you in any way possible, but I want you to know I'm going to go back to school and get my master's degree in special education because I truly believe that this is what God has created me to do. And so at every season of life, God has just kept it in front of me and I've prayed for open doors and he has been faithful to open those doors, and I just have to simply walk through. Even this summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Bolivia on a medical evangelistic missions trip, and I don't know Spanish and I don't know anything about medical. So I thought, Lord, why are you sending me to South? I didn't really care anything about South America.
So in my prayers, I thought, Lord, please just send a family living with disability because I do know how to love on them. And I kid you not at every stop, I mean from the gate in Miami to an empanada shop in the middle of the Amazon desert. I mean, there's nothing within a 20 mile radius. I'm sitting there eating my little cheese empanada, and I fill this hand on mine and I look up and it's this girl who is blind and has cerebral palsy and obviously living with some disability. And I thought, thank you, Jesus. I have never felt so seen by my Lord, and I thought, thank you Lord for keeping this in front of me. So the Lord has been so good to start that burden in my heart when I was a little girl and then keep it in front of me and then just open the doors as my life unfolded.
Larah Roberts: Amen. He's so good to do that, right? It's the Holy Spirit guiding us and marking steps in our life toward for our good and for his glory. Right. Tell me, Lauren, just, okay, so let's back up a little bit. So you came home from the field, and then did you go get your degree after that?
Lauren Hickman: Yeah. So I was teaching first grade at the time at Tabernacle Christian School, regular ed, first grade teacher. And I thought, I'm just going to start chipping away on this. And so we did. And again, I'd had this conversation with my pastor like, look, I'm interested in this happening. And so we began to pray about it together. And that's something that I want to encourage if you don't know where to start with prayer, because I will tell you that year, about 18 months, a year and a year and a half, every Saturday, I would call a friend who was a missionary in England, and we would pray for a ministry that did not exist. I didn't know what it was going to be called. I didn't know who was going to be in it. I didn't know who'd be serving. I didn't know who I'd be serving with.
I didn't know what God would do, but I knew we needed his help. And so we would pray for families, we'd pray for workers and volunteers. We pray for the leadership's heart to be tender, and I kid you not, Larah, there are things that the Lord does for us on a regular basis that is a direct answer to those prayers that I didn't even know to be praying. So I would encourage anybody that's listening and wondering where to start, and maybe you've already been working, dedicate a time, a place, maybe a person to pray with you and commit these things to prayer. Begin to pray for the families. If you don't know who they are yet begin to pray for them that the Lord would send them to your church. Begin to pray for volunteers that the Lord would soften the heart of key people in your church that would be willing to learn about this ministry.
This isn't a call to special ed teachers and emergency personnel. This is a call to faithful members of the church that want to show the love of Christ just like we would in any other ministry. So begin to pray for that and begin to pray for your leadership. Pray that the Lord will send the right people or that the Lord will soften the heart of the people that were there. And so prayer is imperative, and I just know that we serve a prayer answering God, and we don't have to wonder if this is his will. Right? He says over and over and over again in his word that he suffers little children to come onto him and that all people are made to his image and that he wants to see them reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't have to wonder if we're praying in God's will.
Be faithful, pray, and he will be faithful to answer. So that's how it started, a year and a half of prayer.
Larah Roberts: Man. That's awesome. Amen. I'm studying Romans eight right now, and Romans 8:26 is when we don't know what to pray. The Holy Spirit goes before the Father force. Right. So even when we don't know, so yeah, you're exactly right, Lauren. Okay. You mentioned something in there about praying for leadership's heart. Right. Help me see how that started. How did that begin? Because what we're seeing among church leaders is the pastor has to have some input into disability ministry or at least buy-in or support and encouragement kind of thing. How did that happen for you all?
Lauren Hickman: Sure. That's such a great question. And my answer to that is it was the work of the Holy Spirit. When I went into pastor's office, he was already made aware that there was a need and his heart was ready to do what we needed to do to start reaching these families. And it started with one family in our church, one family.
Larah Roberts: Wow. Okay. Tell me more.
Lauren Hickman: Yes. Okay. So I remember sitting in the choir and I would see this mom come in, and I've been around for about a year now. So I was trying to figure out who everybody was, and then I would see her come in alone. And then maybe in the evening service or the next Sunday, I would see her husband come in and sometimes they had three children at home. Sometimes they'd have one child with them. And I was trying to piece it all together and she was a teacher at a Christian school. And so I knew that everything was fine at home, but I couldn't figure out why they weren't worshiping as a family unit. And so finally I just asked her, I said, listen, can you excuse me if I'm overstepping, but can you help me fill in the blanks here? And she said, yes, we have a son living with, he's neurodiverse and he's not able to come with us to the services.
So my husband and I take turns of who gets to go to church and when they get to go to church, and then we take care of somebody stays at home and cares for Peyton. And that's the conversation that I had with our pastor. We know that God calls us to unity and to worship as a family unit. And I said, pastor, I think this would be the place to start. And so it was that simple. I met with Pastor, June, excuse me, late January. He called me, he said, February 6th, we're ready to launch this thing. So after I did a happy dance around the kitchen, I went into a little bit of panic mode. I thought, oh man, it's here and we've got some work to get done. But I called this family up and I said, can we please meet for a cup of coffee?
And I just sat down and I said, look, I have very little education. I'm in my first cup of courses at Liberty University, but the Lord has put this on my heart and we want your family to be able to be worship together. What can we put in place to have your little guy join us on Sundays? And so she gave me a couple of his favorite things. He loves dinosaurs, he loves science facts. He's sensitive to light. That's all we needed. And so again, I was teaching first grade at the time. So on Fridays I would go down to our preschool classroom, I'd put up little light covers, I'd pull out a box of dinosaurs and pull out National Geographic. And that's what it took for this little guy to be able to come to church with his family. And so February 6th, we opened our wonderfully made classroom with two little ones that the Lord blessed us with. And now we're serving between 25 and 30 families on Sunday between our children's class, our adult class, and then our mother's fellowship.
Larah Roberts: Wow. Praise God.
Lauren Hickman: Yeah. He's good.
Larah Roberts: Praise him for what he's doing. Lauren. So in that, what you just touched on for church leaders listening that are just starting out, maybe at that pivotal point that you were just at, you literally said three action steps. Well, the first being you met with the parents, right. But the next were you pulled out a box of dinosaurs, a couple magazines, and you put some covers over the windows.
Lauren Hickman: That's right. The devil wants us to think that it's bigger than that. So the devil wants you to think, look, you got to have all of your answers. You got to have all your ducks in a row. You got to have all these, that's not it. He wants us to live there because that's where we're living in fear. And we do nothing while we're there. We can talk about it, we can pray about it, but these fears bombard us and we think, oh, no, no, no, we're not ready. That's where the devil is happy with us. We're not taking a step of faith. We're thinking about it. That's okay. Don't stay there. It doesn't have to be difficult. You can make, now, look, I'm not trying to minimize it. Hudson Taylor, he was a pioneer missionary in China, and he said, in God's work, the task seems impossible. Then it's difficult and then it's done.
So when I got off the phone with my pastor, I thought, man, this feels impossible. I had a million questions. And then there's been some difficulty. We're still navigating things. I do not have it all figured out. Let me say that again. I do not have it all figured out. And we still face challenges, and I don't want to paint this beautiful picture that there's never any difficulties, because there are. But we can look back and we think God's work has been done and God's work is going to move forward. So don't stay in the stage of impossibility because you serve a great God. Nothing is impossible with him. That's what God's word tells us, right? I think it's so important to not freeze in fear because you don't know what to do. Pray about it. Have the conversation with the family. Make it specific. Right.
Disability ministry is a ministry to the family. It's not to the individual. So meet with the family and just say, look, do we need to have somebody meet you at your car to help you take your three other children to the nursery so you can walk your child living with disability in and they feel safe? Can we have an usher there to pull under the breezeway and go park the car for you? For a couple weeks, we had to have the mom leave during a little bit during invitation because the traffic, the hallways were too busy. So we split out the back. But all that took was one conversation. What can we do to help your family get to God's house?
Larah Roberts: Hands and feet of Jesus.
Lauren Hickman: That's right.
Larah Roberts: That's a perfect segway because the Lord did not stop there at Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Lauren Hickman: Right.
Larah Roberts: He did not stop there. So while you were saying even at the first step, this is impossible two years later, right? Am I right? Two years?
Lauren Hickman: Yes, ma'am.
Larah Roberts: Some other what you thought impossible happened. So fill us in on what the Lord has done since that moment.
Lauren Hickman: Yes. It's so exciting. Okay. So through our Wonderfully Made ministries, these families began to inquire about our Christian Day school. They're dropping, they're typically developing children off at our Christian school car line. But child with living disability needed to stay in the card to be driven down the road to a public school because we were unable to meet their needs. And again, this same family, I was sitting next to her in the in-service, we're teaching here at the same Christian school. This is her, I can't remember, 13th or 15th year of in-service. And she again had this little son that was neurodivergent. And I thought, this lady, this family is obviously for Christian education. She's given her whole adult life to this dedicated her whole adult life to this. Her other students are enrolled here. So her son living with disability, does he not deserve the opportunity to attend chapel services?
Does he not deserve the opportunity to begin his day in prayer? Does he not deserve the opportunity to be able to have Bible class every day? And I began to think something has got to be done. So then again, that feeling of impossibility came and God just said, if you'll take a step, I'll meet you there. And so sure enough, August of 2022, the Hope Allen Center for Exceptional Children had our grand opening. We started with six precious students. And since then, the Lord of course has blessed. We've now opened a second classroom and have an extended waiting list and just praying for more laborers. And I know God's going to send that, but of course, not able to be able to accomplish what we are doing without the incredible team that God has put together. But again, just another thing that seemed impossible, but with one simple step of obedience, and it's a scary step.
I'm not going to lie to you. I was laying in bed the night before our first day of school, and I thought, tomorrow I'm going to have six precious children in my classroom, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. I had met them for a meeting, and I had been regular ed for a couple years, but I didn't know what EC cluster classrooms looked like at this time. They were still pulling the Covid cards, so I couldn't go visit any classrooms. I was Googling, what do EC classrooms look like on the inside? I mean, I was listening to every podcast that I, and I just remembered that restless night, I mean, of just thinking, God, I have no idea. But he so gently took me by the hand and has taken me through every step. And I'll never forget Larah, I'll never forget. I pillowed my head that night and I took a deep breath and I thought, I just did what God created me to do. And that is the most amazing feeling I know. And he formed me 30 years ago. This is what he created me to do.
Larah Roberts: Amen.
Lauren Hickman: So it's been the most exciting ride of my life.
Larah Roberts: That's awesome. Hey, in our weakness, he is strong.
Lauren Hickman: That's no doubt. No doubt.
Larah Roberts: So tell me Hope Allen. Tell me more, a little bit about that precious sister.
Lauren Hickman: Sure. So she was a member of the Tabernacle Baptist Church for many years, and her sister taught at the Christian school there. And so she would come to home basketball games and help with the clock, and if there was field trips, she would ride on the bus. And so little Hope went home to be with the Lord in 2019. But it's really cool because she went to an adult life program here in town, and every year the Hope Allen Center goes and sings and shares scripture with that. Along with another elementary class in that same home that Hope spent time in. So she is a precious loved one, and we are thankful for her memory and want to honor her in that way
Larah Roberts: Man, a legacy. That's what it's about right there. So what the Lord has done through just you, Lauren, I mean, we can see his hand all over it from marking your steps into teaching and into ministry and things like that. What are some hurdles or barriers that have been difficult along the way? And you don't have to name a lot, but just a few.
Lauren Hickman: Sure. I'm so glad you asked that. I was thinking and praying about this last night, and I think the main one is training, just making people aware and then just training them on how we can love and support these families and finding courses and videos that they can watch and how do we address somebody that's non-speaking in a wheelchair. And just, there was another challenge of, I think it's so important to not just serve these individuals with disability, but provide them the opportunity to serve in their local church. So that's been a little bit challenging. What does that look like? How can we make sure that they're comfortable and able to serve in their local church and others around them are comfortable and understanding what's going on. So I think staff training or volunteer training has been a bit of a challenge. And with that, providing people with enough information to give them confidence to know that they can be a buddy.
A one-on-one volunteer. Like I said earlier, I think people have this misconception that this is only for special education teachers and people that have studied this, but it's not true. It's like every other ministry in the church. These children need to feel safe and they need to feel loved. So if we train our church people how to interact with these individuals so that they feel safe and that they can feel loved. So I think that's one challenge. And then finding a place for them to serve, I think that's so important. And just navigating that. And then some behaviors. So we're serving with students of all ages, and so writing up some behavior contracts and making sure we're doing all that we can do to help the family and making sure we put everything in place to keep everybody safe, that's so important. But those are some challenges that we have come across.
Larah Roberts: And I think those are shared among many church leaders. And so thank you for sharing those. So on the flip side, Lauren, what's some of your favorite ministry tools or resources or ones that you use?
Lauren Hickman: Yes. Social media has become such a wonderful thing. My list is when I started, I didn't think that there was anything available, but Awe and Wonder, our dear friend Courtney, I'm telling you, it has revolutionized our 11 o'clock wonderfully made class. Parents love it. The students love it, the teachers love it. Lesson planning is made simple. The parents get a take home sheet, so they get to discuss what their child went over. If their child is pre-verbal or not yet speaking, they can read what they have gone over and get responses there, there's non-speaking or pre-verbal communication cards so they can follow along and answer questions. It has been fabulous. And then of course, she does webinars and all kinds since out social stories. She did a trunk or treat social story that we used at our church. And so I would highly recommend Awe and Wonder, great, great resource.
The Adaptive Way, there's a special ed teacher named Lexi, and she provides training. So what she does is she provides a modular or a video for the leader to watch, and then she has a printable PDF. The work is already done, your handout is done. That's good. You watch the little thing to get your little spiel together, and then she has the handout ready for you to pass out. And so that's been a great resource as I was seeking the Lord's help on this training workers issue. So that was a big help in that. Joni and Friends is a great tool. They've been a huge help to getting us. They have church networking that meets monthly. And so just getting with other church leaders in your community and figuring out, look, did this work for you? Why didn't it work? What can we do better? Can we get together and do this? So they've been a helpful tool.
And then Shepherds College, Larah and I were just speaking about this. This is a great option for post-grad. So right now they have online classes available. Their Bible classes are for free online Shepherd's College, and their base is in Union Grove, Wisconsin. But they have some online Bible classes that are available. So post-secondary parents, if you're looking for something that is a phenomenal resource. Those are just a couple of my favorites.
Larah Roberts: Absolutely. We love all those are partners in the Lord and just great resources. And we'll put those in the show notes as well. So Lauren, just kind of wrapping up, let's rewind to your very first what you explained to be your first step into disability ministry. What would you tell someone, a church leader, a volunteer, what would you tell them who just may be starting out? What would your encouragement be?
Lauren Hickman: Step into the water. God will meet you. There's no way that I can explain it except for that he is faithful and he's not going to let you fail because we have his word on it. This is not, again, like I said, this is not something that we have to question. Oh, is this God's will? Is this how he spent his earthly ministry? There's countless stories of the scripture of how he loved and cared for those living with disability. So we don't have to wonder Christ's heart on this matter.
So like anything else that we have to do in faith, if you have a building project that takes faith, there's questions that you don't have answers to, but you take a step in faith, and I have no magic for you. There is no magic formula. It's just a great God that we serve. And I tell you, not on Lauren's authority, but on the authority of God's word, that if you will follow him and take this step of obedience and do what God has called the church to do, then he will meet you. This is what, and you'll learn that they are necessary. That's my favorite verse right now. In 1st Corinthians, Paul talks about how the more feeble members of the body are necessary. And I'll just tell you, your church is missing out if you don't have a disabilities ministry because they're going to bring something to your church that nothing else can bring.
And they're going to shed light on things that nobody and nothing else can shed light on. So I'm telling you, they are necessary. So take the step. There's resources out there now. We have no excuse to not be serving these families. We're not as Joni and Friends says, we're not going above the call of the Great Commission when we reach these families, we are simply doing what God has asked us to do. So listen, if Lauren can do it, you can do it. I'm definitely a ready, fire, aim type of person. I'm asking the Lord to help me with that. But I know that if you will step out in faith, God will meet you there. So that's my encouragement. Step out and God's going to meet you.
Larah Roberts: That's right. That's how he created you to be friend. And I'm so grateful. You are an encourager, you are a cheerleader. You are all of the above when it comes to those of us who are laboring. We're all laboring together for the growth of all believers. Right? And so Lauren, thank you being on the Key Ministry Podcast, this has been episode 125. Thank you so much for listening. And again, like Lauren said, over and over again, the Lord will show you how you just must take that first step. And so we encourage you to, if you have any questions or need training or coaching, Key Ministry would love to help. But again, thank you for listening to today's podcast.
