Special needs ministry weekly round-up! {10-10-11}

Last week I shared about our church's recent respite care event, and this week and next I'll have a few posts about our churches' respite events that  our Access intern (who ROCKS!) researched this past summer. Kelsey has thanked me for letting her serve with us, but we are truly the ones who are blessed!

If you read no other link in my post today, let it be this one about the majesty and wonder of God's marvelous works in a Joni & Friends mission trip in which a young man with cerebral palsy and in a wheelchair served alongside his parents: Wheelchair clinic allows disabled son to serve, too

Great tips from Jenny Funderburke for ministering to kids who are hyperactive!

Has Down syndrome hurt us? This sweet post from a mother vulnerably shares her fears upon diagnosis and lessons she learned afterward, leading to these answers: no, Down syndrome hasn't hurt us, and yes, it is a life worth living.

Two boys are a Catholic high school: one black, one white; one with cerebral palsy and Asperger's syndrome, one without any disabilities. And God brought them together with compassion in this story.

And while I am willing to bring attention to our failures as a church to welcome people with disabilities, I love highlighting the successes too, like these:

• a church hosting an evening of music and art in order to benefit a music program for kids with autism (and here's another story about it)
• a church-based Boy Scout troop in which a boy, who has an autism spectrum disorder, just earned his Eagle Scout award by completing a project for a non-profit organization providing horse therapy for people with special needs
• a variety of inclusion efforts by various groups and congregations in one Roman Catholic diocese (one that stood out to me was the installation of a ramp so that a child in a wheelchair could serve as an altar server)
• the story of a mom of two, both of whom have autism, who began an autism support group at her church
• the story of one church's special needs ministry and the recent workshop they hosted, led by noted speaker and writer Barbara Newman 

That's all for this week. I hope you're having a great Monday!