Weekly round-up! {8/1/11}
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What?!? It's August? Anyone else feel like they're not quite sure how that happened?
Invisible: Yes, this is the post from my blog on Friday. I'm linking back to it. Kim did a fantastic and heartfelt job of describing her family's recent visit to another church and the challenges that can arise from such visits for families with special needs. If you haven't read it, go. Now. I promise this post will still be here when you get back.
This article from Education Week highlights the usefulness of physically acting out texts as a way for kids to learn more effectively. This applies to kids and adults with special needs as well, and you could certainly use this knowledge in your next Bible story lesson: Don't just tell it; help them act it out!
Decades after ADA became a law, disabled people are still fighting for full inclusion (and, might I add, person-first language in headlines, but that's another topic...): I spend a lot of time exhorting the church to welcome people with special needs. But let's also acknowledge that it's not just church culture but also secular culture that fails sometimes and succeeds others in this area.
I love this quote from my friend Wanda's post about making sure outreach activities are centered on the gospel and not the outreach. This is what a young women at their after-school tutoring ministry said to her: “The ministry where I serve does tutoring and sticks Jesus in. You do Jesus and stick tutoring in.” Let the latter be true of special needs ministry as well.
Pray for Shepherds Ministries, a Christian-centered organization dedicated to helping people with intellectual disabilities as they lost some funding and had to cut 32 jobs. I haven't had any personal interaction with this ministry so I can't vouch for or recommend them, but I've seen their name pop up where good Christ-honoring, life-affirming things are happening.
If blogs could have BFFs, The Works of God Displayed would want to be friends with the folks over at The Gospel Coalition. Last week, one of their posts was, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made in a Fallen World. While I did like the post, I felt like it was a bit of a downer. It was scripturally sound and mostly encouraging, but I got hung up on one line as I read it: "So while some are given the devastating charge of walking through this life more physically broken than the rest, we can trust that this life is not the end of the story." Sometimes disability can feel devastating. And sometimes it just feels like part of life. (Please don't get me wrong, though. It was a good post, worth the read.)
Here's some encouraging news from Mark 2 Ministries about a camp they're involved with for children who are Deaf in the Ukraine.
Here a some suggestions from Jessica at Four plus an angel about Ways to Support Someone Who is Grieving. And, as my friend Jolene Philo would point out, parents who have children with special needs grieve too, not because their child died but because some of the dreams they had for that child may have had to die.
Next up, a post that every ministry leader needs to understand about the parent's role as advocate and that every parent needs to read to consider how to be wise advocates for your child(ren) while still being an ambassador for Christ: I called myself an advocate. But I was really an assassin. (I know this will interest Barb and Katie particularly, given conversations I had with each of you last week. Check it out, ladies!)
ADHD May Hinder Safe Street Crossing: ... but not for the reason you might think. It's not because of inattention, but related instead to the ability to process the information necessary to cross safely. Time management problem for individuals with ADHD are often viewed as an attention problem, but this study (albeit with a small sample) suggests that it's more of a problem with executive function, the ability to process information and make judgments to control behavior in response. For church leaders, this is helpful to know because we're not understanding fully what's going on with our members with ADHD if we just think about it as an attention issue.
When kids laugh at another kid who happens to have special needs, that's not okay. When it's the adults who are laughing, I don't have the words to convey my emotions. Here's a post about adults doing just that: Don't Laugh at Me on the SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) Blogger Network
Amy Fenton Lee is a gem of resources for special needs ministry. She aims to equip folks who are doing what I'm doing in local churches. And for that, I am thankful. Here are some wonderful posts of hers in the past week:
And you know I love to end by highlighting some churches who are welcoming people with disabilities:
Invisible: Yes, this is the post from my blog on Friday. I'm linking back to it. Kim did a fantastic and heartfelt job of describing her family's recent visit to another church and the challenges that can arise from such visits for families with special needs. If you haven't read it, go. Now. I promise this post will still be here when you get back.
This article from Education Week highlights the usefulness of physically acting out texts as a way for kids to learn more effectively. This applies to kids and adults with special needs as well, and you could certainly use this knowledge in your next Bible story lesson: Don't just tell it; help them act it out!
Decades after ADA became a law, disabled people are still fighting for full inclusion (and, might I add, person-first language in headlines, but that's another topic...): I spend a lot of time exhorting the church to welcome people with special needs. But let's also acknowledge that it's not just church culture but also secular culture that fails sometimes and succeeds others in this area.
I love this quote from my friend Wanda's post about making sure outreach activities are centered on the gospel and not the outreach. This is what a young women at their after-school tutoring ministry said to her: “The ministry where I serve does tutoring and sticks Jesus in. You do Jesus and stick tutoring in.” Let the latter be true of special needs ministry as well.
Pray for Shepherds Ministries, a Christian-centered organization dedicated to helping people with intellectual disabilities as they lost some funding and had to cut 32 jobs. I haven't had any personal interaction with this ministry so I can't vouch for or recommend them, but I've seen their name pop up where good Christ-honoring, life-affirming things are happening.
If blogs could have BFFs, The Works of God Displayed would want to be friends with the folks over at The Gospel Coalition. Last week, one of their posts was, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made in a Fallen World. While I did like the post, I felt like it was a bit of a downer. It was scripturally sound and mostly encouraging, but I got hung up on one line as I read it: "So while some are given the devastating charge of walking through this life more physically broken than the rest, we can trust that this life is not the end of the story." Sometimes disability can feel devastating. And sometimes it just feels like part of life. (Please don't get me wrong, though. It was a good post, worth the read.)
Here's some encouraging news from Mark 2 Ministries about a camp they're involved with for children who are Deaf in the Ukraine.
Here a some suggestions from Jessica at Four plus an angel about Ways to Support Someone Who is Grieving. And, as my friend Jolene Philo would point out, parents who have children with special needs grieve too, not because their child died but because some of the dreams they had for that child may have had to die.
Next up, a post that every ministry leader needs to understand about the parent's role as advocate and that every parent needs to read to consider how to be wise advocates for your child(ren) while still being an ambassador for Christ: I called myself an advocate. But I was really an assassin. (I know this will interest Barb and Katie particularly, given conversations I had with each of you last week. Check it out, ladies!)
ADHD May Hinder Safe Street Crossing: ... but not for the reason you might think. It's not because of inattention, but related instead to the ability to process the information necessary to cross safely. Time management problem for individuals with ADHD are often viewed as an attention problem, but this study (albeit with a small sample) suggests that it's more of a problem with executive function, the ability to process information and make judgments to control behavior in response. For church leaders, this is helpful to know because we're not understanding fully what's going on with our members with ADHD if we just think about it as an attention issue.
When kids laugh at another kid who happens to have special needs, that's not okay. When it's the adults who are laughing, I don't have the words to convey my emotions. Here's a post about adults doing just that: Don't Laugh at Me on the SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) Blogger Network
Amy Fenton Lee is a gem of resources for special needs ministry. She aims to equip folks who are doing what I'm doing in local churches. And for that, I am thankful. Here are some wonderful posts of hers in the past week:
- Special Needs Ministry Checklist at Ministry-to-Children.com, the blog of another gifted supporter of church-based ministry, Tony Kummer
- A post about the special needs ministry entrance at Stonebriar Community Church
- A post about the special needs ministry check-in board at the same church
- A post about the special needs ministry classroom at the same church
- And more posts coming this week from her visit at Stonebriar. Make sure these are on your radar!
And you know I love to end by highlighting some churches who are welcoming people with disabilities:
- one that hosted an Autism Speak Walk as one of many things they did to rally around one family at their church after the four-year-old was diagnosed with autism
- one that is hosting an Eagle Scout project to raise awareness about autism
- one social ministry of a denomination that offers therapeutic horseback riding for children and adults with disabilities
- an article describing one church as having "exuberant hospitality" for people with special needs and others
- one church that is reaching out to kids with special needs through a kickball outreach
- a church's ministry, called Unveiled, that involves adults with disabilities in teaching the children's classes
- a church gate collection to raise money for guide dogs that took place in Ireland this past weekend (and it's interesting to me that these types of collections are done regularly in parts of Ireland as a way for the church to partner with community organizations)