5 ways we can trust God is changing despair into hope in additional needs ministry

image from – https://www.cjbecker.com/blog/hope-fear-anxiety-future/ 

Hope has been a theme God has been weaving into my life and prayers recently.  We are faced with the enormity of the task of making the church more accessible, of changing attitudes and wills, and supporting those who are struggling and hurt because these things haven’t happened yet.

I have been quite overwhelmed.  But God has reminded me that there is always something we can do…

1.  We can pray

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Give thanks no matter what happens. God wants you to thank him because you believe in Christ Jesus.                                             1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This sounds obvious and I’m always reminding people to pray – but when despair and exhaustion comes, I do forget to heed my own advice.  I lose words to say because I am just looking at all the problems and all the people who need prayer.   I do believe Satan encourages us to despair – whispering lies and hopelessness into our minds.  But I have a Bible verse that crushes his attempts to keep me in this state for long…

In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us when we are weak. We don’t know what we should pray for. But the Spirit himself prays for us. He prays through groans too deep for words. Romans 8:26

People now come to God through him. And he is able to save them completely and for all time. Jesus lives forever. He prays for them.  Hebrews 7:25

So when I don’t have words I give every groan, sigh and the tears I cry to him.  These verses remind me that these are legitimate prayers and that God hears them for both Jesus and the Spirit are interceding on our behalf.

But I also thank God for those he has brought alongside me as my partners in prayer and faith.  I’m part of a network of people who pray for each other’s ministry and lives each week.  These people are amazing in their faith and encouragement and work tirelessly to make the church accessible around the country.  They have held me up, prayed with me and encouraged me.  Thank you Lord for these people!

2.  We can remember

Lord, I will remember what you did. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.  Psalm 77:11

When the Psalmist was feeling down and under pressure, he declared that he was going to remember all God had done before.  I thought this sounded good advice.  So, I started to tell myself my testimony, how God brought me to him all those years ago. I remined myself of the times he saved my children’s lives, when he sent my hubby to Albania and so many more amazing interventions in ours and others lives.  So even though he seemed a bit quiet at the moment, I could see that he really had never let us go and wasn’t about to now.  I started to list all the ways God was working through the Additional Needs Alliance and through all the people across the world who are bringing the gospel to people with disabilities.  Remember how God has brought miracles into this world through his love of all people, bringing them to Jesus.

3. We can wrestle with it until we have what we want, and we can fight spiritually.

Genesis 32:28 Then the man said, “Your name will not be Jacob anymore. Instead, it will be Israel. You have wrestled with God and with people. And you have won.

Finally, let the Lord make you strong. Depend on his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armour. Then you can remain strong against the devil’s evil plans. Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world. Ephesians 6:10-18

It was only last week that we looked at Jacob wrestling with God in our new house group. We are starting to settle into our new church, and I feel like I am being slowly refreshed in my faith.  I had to be reminded that wrestling and struggling isn’t because I’m getting things wrong – but it is a real part of faith growing and us receiving the blessings God has promised us.  I know I need to regain the confidence I have in God’s promises and stand up for my right to have them.  It is a spiritual battle which I feel I’m going to have to relearn.  But it is so hopeful to know I can.

4. We can connect with others doing this work

God has given us a great blessing in being able to share in his work.  The most amazing thing is connecting with people who have been alone in doing these great pockets of good practice in their churches and now we are all able to connect with each other and see what is actually happening all over the country.  And the things that are happening are amazing.  I thank God for Mark Arnold (Urban Saints), Kay Morgan-Gurr, Christine and Pete Winmill  (Count Everyone In), the Through the Roof Team,  Beth (Take 5 and Chat), Disability and Jesus, John Williams (The Message Trust – Enable), all those working to make festivals, churches and the huge organisations such as Synod (especially behind the scenes) become aware and make their events accessible to all.  Anne Memmott, Bernice, Collette, and so many more that I haven’t spoken to yet. It is like God is joining all the dots!  Just this week I have had three conversations by email and Skype with people all over the country doing amazing things in their churches and with the wider church. God has lifted us up and blessed us with a simple message “I am at work”.

5. We can trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. In all your ways obey him. Then he will make your paths smooth and straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

So that leads me to the last point.  I haven’t been able to see what God is doing for a while and couldn’t work out why he has taken me on this latest path.  But when I look at what I have been able to write here and what others are doing,  I am reminded that I can trust God and do need to be obedient to him.  He is at work.  Be encouraged friends xxx

Thank you to all those who have been in touch to remind me that they are following my blog and praying for the ministry of IncludedByGrace.

I have to thank God for you because when I have struggled and wrestled with what may or may not come next, with the frustration of doing nothing (although I rarely do ‘nothing’!!!)  and coping with the change of church I have been supported and prayed for.  May God have the Glory!

In the next few months I am working with my diocese children’s workers to start conversations about accessible church and how I could support them with training and whatever else they might need. Please pray these meetings will be well attended and that we don’t just talk about it – that real action comes from this that changes the way people do things in their churches. 

When you can’t do it all and God brings others alongside…

I’m going to be blogging less.  I’ve been struggling to maintain writing this and my autism teaching blog because of other commitments.  I have eventually realised that I don’t need to feel so stressed or guilty – that the Lord is taking me on a different path for now.  I also have a job which is ministry in itself, the Roofbreakers Network to organise and my educational writing projects.  I need to be kinder to myself and take a break now and again, as well as realising God isn’t asking me to do any of this alone.  Only in his strength but also with the teams of people he is connecting me with.  Thank you Lord!

What’s happening?

1. Since I wrote this blog about putting together an “Included by Grace” book   that work has been steadily going on in the background.  I’ve enlisted my daughter and my dad to help me and we are putting the content together so I can edit it.  
2. But also there’s another couple of projects starting to take form.  One of them is a long held vision I’ve had to share our Bible teaching materials online so people with learning disabilities themselves can access the teaching and people who want to plan for groups like ours can also access that teaching and planning.  Well, despite being terrified  (of all the things I don’t know) God has brought alongside me people who get it,  people who are doing similar things and people who want to help.  So our plans to have an accessible Bible teaching website are in the early planning stages but at last seem to be a possibility.   One real encouragement recently was to be put in contact with two other women doing something similar.  One is doing this for children, one for teenagers.  That fits in perfectly with my plans to do this for adults.   Thanks to Mark Arnold from Urban Saint’s Additional Needs Ministry for connecting us!    
3. Finally, it is also a dream to enable the members of our Good News Group to share the gospel with others and we are going to try putting a team together to do assemblies in some of our local special schools.  It would be great for our members to be role models for the children in those schools.  Again, God is good,  I have people who get it, who want to help and even some links with people who have done this before and will share ideas (If you know of anyone else who has done this please ask them to get in touch with me).

All that and it’s the Christmas season so our group is gearing up for it’s annual outreach Christmas service on Wednesday.  They are all so excited.  And then on the following Wednesday, 5 of the group have been learning a puppet dance to “Celebrate the Child” by Michael Card.  I led a workshop about teaching puppets to adults with learning disabilities at the One Way UK European Puppet Festival in October.  This is us putting our words into practice… I might write a post about how we did it and what the challenges were another time.  I know its going to be fabulous and everyone will enjoy it.

So for blogging…

I hope if you follow my blog you won’t forget about us.  I will repost some of my old blogs, especially the practical advice ones and share them on FB and twitter.  Includedbygrace now has a FB page if you’d like to follow it.  You can comment on there and keep in touch.  And I’m on twitter as @includedbygrace   And pray.  We’d appreciate that a lot.

If you will share includedbygrace blog, FB and Twitter pages on your own network it will help me build and audience for the book, website and whatever else comes from this.  I’m still available for training in churches across the North West and the Additional Needs Alliance Network can find you trainers elsewhere.

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When God speaks to you in a language you understand…

When we work with adults who have learning disabilities (the key word is “with” because working together is what we do), often the people who don’t have learning disabilities say how much the way we communicate makes more sense to them as well.  When we have shorter talks, the Accessible Bible text, visuals, Makaton and BSL signing, a visual timetable, drama, sensory stories and interaction – then we find that all the carers, team and visitors learn just as much about the Bible as those who have learning disabilities.   We are communicating in ways that help people understand the Gospel and the truths about Jesus in the Bible.

When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, a key feature was that the disciples started to speak to the crowds in languages that they understood.  I think the same applies to how we use signing, visuals and other forms of communication in our groups today.  We are speaking in languages that people in our group understand.  And it is the Holy Spirit who helps us do this.

God knows I am a visual learner.  Visuals give my brain a better understanding than if someone tries to explain things to me in words.  When I met with a financial adviser about setting up a new pension, he drew a diagram to explain all the complex financial information about setting it up for me.  The normally complex information that would have gone way over my head, made sense in the way he communicated it.  I felt confident that I understand my pension and the new laws surrounding it.

God knows my brain better than anyone.  He made it and he knows just how to communicate to me so that I understand his word and his will.  Over the years I’ve been a Christian, God has often given me pictures to show me what he wants me to do, or explain something I don’t understand.  Those pictures have been in dreams, in art,  and lots of them have been in nature… because that’s often where I go to pray and ask him what he wants me to do.

For over a year I have had 5 big ideas going around my head.  All of them were in response to the needs of others that I have seen around me.  All of them were valid, valuable services but to do all of them would be impossible.  When I was in Keswick this year I sat looking at this view.

I counted 5 mountains to represent each of the projects that were in my mind and asked God to show me which ones I should be working on.  The projects seem like mountains to climb.  There will be a lot of work and new things to learn as I navigate getting to the summit.  I thought the analogy of mountains suited my query to the Lord quite well.

One evening I again asked God to answer my prayers and show me which mountains to climb and which not to.  I looked up to the view and suddenly two of the mountains were covered in cloud, where none of them had been a few minutes ago.  The clouds stayed over these mountains for long enough for me to ask God if that really was my answer and for me to receive a deep sense of peace that it was.

God again was speaking to me in a language that I understand.  Pictures make sense to me.  I can ‘see’ the message and the Holy Spirit confirms it.  On that same evening I was listening to the message at the Keswick Convention on my computer.  The message was about mission.   The answer to my prayers was about mission.   I’m taking that as confirmation and going for it.  I’m praying for protection, resources and guidance.  And in my next post…I’ll tell you what those mission plans are…

A Team of all Abilities.

Here are some of the team as we played a new game I took along with me called “Linkee”.

I was thinking today about the amazing team that I was part of at Keswick.  Thirteen of us were in the team of all backgrounds and abilities.  We were from Glasgow in the North to Worthing in the South, and came together for just one week.    Straight away, on the Sunday afternoon when we all got together for the first time there was a lovely feeling of being in a family.  People who knew each other made sure that people they didn’t know were made to feel welcome.  It was a great start.

For the rest of the week, each person took up their role.  Whether it was welcoming, playing music, leading, signing, computer or serving tea –  I there was no fuss, no power struggles, no moaning.   We shared, laughed and encouraged one another.  Wearing the same T-shirts, who could know what our backgrounds were?  We were a doctor, care workers, unemployed, volunteers, retired, business people, teachers.  It didn’t make any difference.   Nine of us shared the accommodation and cooked, ate and cleaned up together.

I want to use my blog this week to say thank you to this wonderful team.  Thank you for making me feel so welcome and part of things from the start.  Thank you for making me laugh, asking about my life and sharing our needs for prayer.  Thank you for your prayers for the week, for the guests who came and their families and challenges.  Thank you for serving faithfully and joyfully.  Thank you for giving this week of your life to serve and enable people with learning disabilities to access great Bible teaching.  I know we learned from the Bible together.  I saw how all of you sat with, listened and prayed for the guests who came.  I know you will go home with them still on your heart and in your prayers.  I loved how you threw yourself into the week, never minded looking silly or doing something different.  You encouraged and supported, laughed and enabled all to join in.  Thank you.

As you go back to your lives I pray you are blessed.  I pray God touched your lives too and will be with you as you face your own challenges at home.

I’m praying we all get the chance to be part of a team like this again.  A team of all abilities and a team loving Jesus our Lord together.

Lynn x

 

Being included in the mainstream @Keswick Convention

Our week at Keswick is separate from the main meetings of morning Bible Study.  There is a very good reason for this – many people with learning disabilities that come to our meetings find the main meetings inaccessible.  The language is too complex, it’s talk based and it is a long time to sit still and listen.  There are Bible passages to read and follow – not easy if you can’t read well or at all.  And so our meetings do provide access to the teaching in a way that is visual, explains complex or ‘religious’ words and concepts and allows the congregation to interact, join in and have their Bible teaching in more manageable chunks.  We have used the NIrV Accessible Bible all week and the easy access language in this version has been easy to use and well received.

Keswick Convention are very supportive of the work we do.  Providing these sessions allows families with adults with learning disabilities to access the Convention as a family.  Some can come to our meetings on their own while their parents and carers are able to go to the main meeting.  Others need the continuing support from their parents and carers but they are able to join in something together…rather than feeling that they are having to ‘entertain’ their son or daughter in a meeting that is too complex for them to access.  (It’s not surprising they get bored in a long meeting they cannot understand so well – I do!)  What it does is allow families to feel that all their needs are met in one place, that they can holiday together at the Keswick Convention and feel that all are spiritually refreshed.  I think there may be more we can do to develop this in the future.  More support for the often elderly parents still caring for adult children might be helpful.  We do a lot of praying for and with the guests themselves and a lot of encouraging them to use their gifts in the sessions.  We come alongside them and talk with them, and often find we have a lot in common.  Our love of Jesus is the most amazing thing we share and the Holy Spirit moves amongst us in this week.  You can feel His presence even in the simplest conversations and things that we share together.  But after Keswick, many are going back to complex or difficult situations and it would be good to spend more time praying with and supporting them more individually.

Another thing we do at the Keswick Convention is go up on main stage on the Wednesday evening meeting.  These seven minutes are a wonderful time for the group and a chance for the other visitors to the Convention to see what we do.  We usually interview one of our guests, giving their testimony.  This year a young woman called Lisa, who is from Glasgow talked about her faith in the wake of having 17 major operations in her life and another one soon to come.  She talked about how she loves working with the children in her church and we could see what a delight she is to her church and they to her.  We then led the congregation in singing one of the songs we had been learning all week “What can I do to be like Jesus?”.  Singing and signing so that everyone could join in.  I took Molly, my puppet up on stage and one of our guests also brought her puppet (Molly’s twin we reckon!) and her confidence as we sang and danced with our puppets together was wonderful.  Instead of being at the back of the group, hiding her face, she was at the front, sharing the limelight with her puppet!

Being part of the mainstream, even for those seven minutes is important.  I thank the Keswick Convention because they see it as something very important to include in their programme.  Its not to ‘show us off’ or say ‘Arn’t we good to have this here?’ – but they see the Livability/Prospects sessions as an important part of the programme and a way to make the convention accessible for families with adult children with learning disabilities.  I’m looking forward to finding out more about their accessibility for children with additional needs as one of my daughter’s friends was a ‘buddy’ for a child with additional needs all week.  So I will report on that when I find out.  If you were there and want to tell me about your experiences, I’d be really grateful.

Also the Keswick Convention give us a slot to do a seminar on the Thursday morning. Andrew and I delivered a talk on making a sermon/talk accessible through using different forms of communication and visuals etc (based on one of my previous blog posts).  There were only a few people who turned up so I do think there is a lot we can do to advertise and organise this better.  I’d love to offer a whole week of seminars – we in the additional needs stream have a lot to say! From theology to practical tips – every church has something to learn about accessibility.

Why we use drama with adults with learning disabilities.

The best acting award…

All week at Keswick we have used drama in our meetings.  The Bible passages that we were learning from were from Luke and were excerpts from Jesus’s life and interactions with people he met.

All you need is a simple script (but be willing for participants ad-libbing),  a few bits of costume and the odd prop or two.  We also used the Accessible NIrV Bible all week.

On Monday we did two drama’s looking at Jesus and the sinful woman at the home of Simon the Pharisee and the parable of the two debtors – Luke 7:36-53

On Tuesday we looked at The 10 lepers who were healed – Luke 17:11-17

On Wednesday we looked at Zacchaeus  – Luke 19:1-10

Zaccheaus and Jesus.

On Thursday we looked at Jesus calls Peter – Luke 5:1-11

On Friday we looked at  The Disciples on the Emmaus Road – Luke 24:13-35

Drama has many advantages.  First it slows down the story so that those who take longer to process information can do so.  It breaks down the story into chunks and adds action to the dialogue.   We show that the events happened to real people and that Jesus came to meet with and help people who had needs just as we do.

Sitting in an hour and a half long session could be really difficult and very boring if all we did was talk.  Concentration and attention may be difficult for some of our guests (and the team!) and breaking up the session with drama, songs and puppets helps keep everyone’s attention and interest.

Participation can be a really good way to make people with learning disabilities feel valued.  We believe passionately that we are all church together and giving the guests the chance to share the story telling with us is important too.  Even those who don’t want to participate enjoy watching others who do.  We were so blessed by all those who acted and brought their own expression and interpretation of the drama to our story.  Three memorable moments for me were on Monday when a shy guest did a fabulous job of wiping Jesus’s feet with her hair (it was a wig!) and the joy as she joined in the drama nearly every day.  Then the deaf/ partically-sighted lady who brought humour into the telling of our ‘parable of the debtors’ story.  And the visitor from the Carlisle group on Thursday whose expression of shock, delight and excitement when Peter caught the whole net of fish in our makeshift boat.  Here are some of the best photos.

So much happened this week that I have another couple of posts to do but I’ll get to them next week.  I’m at home now and feel like I’m still there.  I thank God with all my heart for a week of such blessings.

Can we all be a bit more like Angela please?

Psalm 131 (NIRV)

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, my heart isn’t proud.
My eyes aren’t proud either.
I don’t concern myself with important matters.
I don’t concern myself with things that are too wonderful for me.
² I have made myself calm and content
like a young child in its mother’s arms.
Deep down inside me, I am as content as a young child.

³ Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forever.

I’ve just come home after attending the funeral of one of our Good News Group members.  Angela had Down’s Syndrome and lived to be 61.  She lived with her family and was part of a church that loved and accepted her as she was.  She’d been at the GNG for many years but hadn’t been attending for almost a year due to being ill….but she is and always will be part of our family.  We will miss her very much.

You see Angela didn’t have very many words but those she did have she used to great effect.  She introduced herself to everyone – literally everyone – by going up to them with a huge smile on her face and greeting them with “Hello, my name is Angela” in a beautiful sing song voice.

Angela loved handbags, football and colouring in.  She loved music and singing worship songs and got so excited when we had puppets that we used to just get them out of the box and sit one next to her, just to share in her delight.  She had a twinkle in her eye that told us when she was joking or pulling our leg and Jesus shone in her and from her every pore. And Angela could say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” because that came from one of her favourite films.

Angela was never judgemental.  She had no regard for status or rank.  She treated everyone the same whether she liked you or you had done something that annoyed her (although she was never mad for long).   Angela lived each day just for that day and didn’t seem to worry about the future.  She did love and engage with everyone around her, no matter who you were.   The Queen would have had the same greeting as a pauper.

A bit like the Jesus I know.

I’m tired of people being excluded from church families because they are different, don’t fit the mould or are the wrong kind of person.  “Are you disabled? Well, you can’t do this or that.   Are you a woman…then, you can’t do this or that.  Are you LGBT?…then, you can’t do this or that.  Are you a foreigner?…well you can’t do this or that.  Can’t you keep you disabled child quiet?…then you can’t do this or that.  Are you mentally ill?…then you can’t do this or that.  We can’t have our churches run by these kinds of people.”  

 Did Jesus make up these categories…I don’t think so…

But these are the messages I hear from all kinds of Christians and church people.  We’re all shouting at each other and no-one seems to be listening.  (Except maybe the outside world who think what are they on about?!)

So, in my grief today I was reminded that Jesus came for all of mankind.  That no-one is excluded unless they think they don’t need him.   I want to be more like Angela and accept everyone, just as they are.  I am working it out as He teaches me what that looks like in practice.  I’m willing to be shown where I’ve got it wrong –  by the Spirit working in and through the people and situations I meet.   At the moment I don’t even know if I want to part of ‘the church’ in this country that’s doing a lot of shouting – but not about the gospel, only at each other.  But I expect God will sort my thoughts out about that eventually.

So will you join me in being more like Angela?  Angela’s name means “MESSENGER OF GOD” and here’s her message. It’s simple really.  Open up your arms and greet people in the name of Jesus.   No matter who they are.