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.
This week Elaina, from Key Ministry, sits down with Sergei Marchenko, Lead Pastor of Chatham Bible Church, and Special Needs Parent. They discuss preparing for the holiday season, church inclusion, special needs parenting and more!
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.
In part two of his blog post, Tony D’Orazio from Jacob’s Ladder Fitness continues with this important question: what has humanity missed out on without all those people with Down syndrome in the world?
I hurt all the time. I have an autoimmune condition that causes elevated levels of pain, fatigue, and brain fog. Recently, as I climbed the stage to preach, I knew I didn’t have the physical strength to do it. But there is something really cool about having chronic pain—and I am different than who I was before chronic pain. Here’s what God has done for me.
By the numbers, Linda shouldn’t be here. Everything seemed to be stacked against her by worldly standards, and still seems that way. How could bullying, struggles with education, and psychiatric hospitalizations work for His plan? In part 2 of this series from Linda Bunk, see exactly how God is powerfully using all of these struggles to minister to people in Ukraine.
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.
