Fuel for Friday~ This post isn't my usual Friday post, but it is one that hits close to home. January is Sanctity of Human Life month. Nine years ago, we chose to continue a pregnancy that doctor's suggested we terminate. Despite the difficulties, pain, and heartache that we have experienced, little boy #1's life is just as valuable and precious as any other little human life. Yeah for a month that recognizes that each and every human life is of utmost importance and invaluable!
I have yet to cut all ties with our life from before our move and still receive emails from our previous church. This week I received an email that Focus on the Family was doing a two part interview with the pastor and his wife regarding special needs children and how the church can help. I wanted to share this for two reasons. 1) We were extremely blessed to have benefited from our pastor and his wife and the choice they made to turn the experiences they had/have with their special needs daughter into a beautiful outreach to special needs kiddos and their families in the D.C. area. 2) Families that have special needs children are plentiful. Church's that can accommodate them are not. If some type of disability has affected your family or friends, and this is an area that touches your heart, I encourage you to see if you can assist your church in reaching this special population.
Churches don't need to be mega churches to have a special needs ministry. Although it will definitely look different, small churches can come alongside these families and provide much needed support. We are immensely grateful to the four years of incredible ministry both we and little boy #1 received from a church of 15,000 before we moved. We are equally grateful for the church of about 50 we now attend! I haven't listened to both broadcasts yet, but plan to before the end of the weekend. If you are interested, here are the links: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/media/daily-broadcast/special-needs-children-how-the-church-can-help-pt1 and http://www.focusonthefamily.com/media/daily-broadcast/special-needs-children-how-the-church-can-help-pt2. The interview gives some keen insight to what many of these families go through and some practical ways to minister to them.