This issue addresses a variety of informative topics. Among them are: BuildingChurchLeaders.com offers a video preview of “Exceptional Teaching Online” to encourage church leaders to take advantage of available resources for disability ministry training; and information on The Healthy Aging® Campaign.
Click to read the entire issue: Connections September 2007.pdf
This issue features introductory excerpts from two articles, Helping Adults with Cognitive Disabilities Deal with Tragedy and Joe’s Debut: Easy, Natural Inclusion, which address some very prevalent issues. The full articles were generated as separate files to make copying and distribution to others in your ministry easier. A link to each is located directly below this posting.
Additionally, we highlight the recent awards two of our residents received as part of Goodwill Industries’ local recognition program.
We hope your ministry efforts are strengthened by our resources.
Click to read the entire issue: Connections_July__2007.pdf
Feature articles:
Helping_Students_with_Cognitive_Disabilities_Deal_with_Tragedy1.pdf
Joes_Debut_Easy_Natural_Inclusion.pdf
Friendship who? Friendship Unlimited! We’re the other “Friendship” ministry group, the one you don’t know about – yet. The following Scripture verse, Acts 4:13 in our brochure describes the essence of who we are: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (NIV) (Italics added for emphasis.) This, almost 2,000-year old verse rings true today, in our ministry.
Dave Morsch and I lead a ministry for developmentally challenged adults at Northport Baptist Church on Long Island (New York). As the disciples, Peter and John, we also are two ordinary, unschooled people. (We are unschooled in disability education.) Additionally, God has blessed us by allowing us to use our own disabilities to have a greater understanding and compassion for our ministry friends.
Dave and I were called by God to volunteer, 12 and 10 years ago, respectively, to fulfill His plan for our lives. Three years ago, we were named missionaries to this population. The following is our mission statement: Our mission is to love and train our friends with disabilities in the truth of the Gospel and to equip them for ministry. We desire to instill sound teaching and godly competence so that they might share God’s love and power with each other, the Body of Christ and the lost..
Our great hope is to see that no one with disabilities be left out of church and community through these Christ-centered programs:
We also publish a quarterly newsletter – for, to and by the able-disabled called “Friends for Heaven’s Sake”. If you would like to receive a free subscription, please e-mail us at pastor@nbc.org with your name and address.
Running these programs could not be accomplished without our staff of faithful, dedicated and godly volunteers including our pastor, Mike O’Connor. These programs have afforded all of us many wonderful and lasting relationships with special people who love and accept us with God’s unconditional love. The feeling is mutual!
New York is not a place very open to hearing the Gospel. Bringing the Good News to those who are shut in (and therefore shut out) can be a daunting objective here. Our ministry growth is slow. Our Sunday school for example usually numbers between 12 and 20 (including volunteers). But our church is expanding and soon we will be moving into a new and larger classroom. (One of our students said about our current crowded “kitchen” classroom, “We’re like sardines; it’s like riding the subway to the Bronx). Other future plans include: A respite/socialization program called HUG (His Unlimited Grace), a one-on-one buddy program and a mental illness support ministry.
I am reminded of a verse and the refrain of an old Christian hymn written in 1924 by Kittie L. Suffield entitled, “Little is Much” (When God is in It). It was inspired by Matthew 14:20 (the loaves and the fishes).
“Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own.”
“Little is much when God is in it!
Labor “not for wealth and fame.
There’s a crown and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ Name.”
Submitted by:
Roberta Lowenthal
Co-Director, Friendship Unlimited Ministries
Publisher, “Friends for Heaven’s Sake” newsletter
June 2007
Special is indeed the right word to use when describing the attitudes of our residents as they look forward to competing in Special Olympics games each year and 2007 was no exception.
Internationally, Special Olympics events provide year-round sports training and athletic competition to more than 1.7 million people with intellectual disabilities in more than 150 countries.
Locally, our residents participate in the Blount County, Tennessee competition.
Developed in 1996, the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes initiative has as its mission to improve athletes’ ability to train and compete in Special Olympics. Health screenings and services are vital parts of this project.
We all know that disease prevention and health maintenance are the keys to a longer, healthier life. To that end, scientists both inside and outside of the United States government have created Healthy People 2010. It is a comprehensive set of disease prevention and health promotion objectives for the nation to achieve over the first decade of the new century. It identifies a wide range of public health priorities and specific, measurable goals. It seeks to increase life expectancy and quality of life over the next 10 years by helping individuals gain the knowledge, motivation, and opportunities they need to make informed decisions about their health.
One of the focus areas of Healthy People 2010 is Disability and Secondary Conditions. The goal in this area is to “Promote the health of people with disabilities, prevent secondary conditions, and eliminate disparities between people with and without disabilities in the U.S. population.”
According to Healthy People 2010, people with disabilities do not necessarily have poor health. Often secondary conditions are prompted by the lack of access to health promoting activities.
Special Olympics events are adapted to suit individual challenges and abilities and our residents benefit greatly from this program.
Click here to view pictures from the event Special Olympics 2007.pdf
For more information visit:
Special Olympics - www.specialolympics.org
Healthy People 2010 - www.healthypeople.gov
Submitted by Sylvia Hemphill, CCFH Ministries
In the May 2007 issue of Connections, Jim Pierson discusses both autism and the recent Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church. We also show you what others are doing by highlighting a Special Needs Ministry Celebration Sunday event at Pentecostal House of God, Detroit, Michigan.
Click the link below to read Connections.
The May 2007 issue of our Connections newsletter gives details of Celebration Sunday at Pentecostal House of God, Detroit Michigan. Click below to see a copy of the printed program from the event.
By Jim Pierson
There are some pretty special people in my life that I couldn’t identify if I saw them. They are my Distance Learning students who are taking disability ministry courses through Johnson Bible College. Recently, at the Summit at McLean Bible Church in Virginia, I saw three of my students, from Pennsylvania, Arizona and Iowa. Now, I can put faces with their names as I grade their work.
At the moment, I am reading lessons from eight students from as many states. They are taking one of four courses: Introduction to Disability Ministry, Survey of Persons with Disabilities, Family Issues in Disability Ministry, and Ministry Strategies for Persons with Disabilities. The Certificate in Disability Ministry is awarded to the student, who takes all of the courses and passes them. Other students are taking a course for self improvement or to learn more about helping people with disabilities.
My students turn out some excellent work. A student from Indiana did an outstanding job on explaining how Jesus ministered to people with disabilities. I have her permission to put it on our Blog eventually. Another student labeled her church to make it easier for the people with autism to get around. For example, in the Sunday school wing, she labeled the doors with the name and a picture of the teacher. Another wonderful idea was making the bulletin available to attendees with autism. Using a popular set of symbols, she gave each section of the morning service an icon that makes it easy for the worshipper to know where he/she is in the service. Her work is in the additional resources section one of the six training modules of CCFH’s Exceptional Teaching Online.
I learn a lot from my students. Through Internet sites, magazine articles, and books they use in their research, I add a lot of resources to my personal bibliography. I discover disability ministries I didn’t know about. They tell me about churches in their areas with outstanding disability ministries. They share ideas that work in the Christian education of persons with disabilities.
Knowing that my students will make a difference in the field of disability ministry is a wonderful encouragement to me.
Readers who are interested in the program, should click the following link http://www.ccfh.org/education/certificate.html for more information. Use Want to enroll? Click here for a link to access the JBC Distance Learning Undergraduate Catalog. The catalog contains complete information on costs and requirements.
The Accessibility Summit 2007 at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, was a blessing to all who attended. Each year we come back refreshed and renewed, invigorated by what we have seen, heard and experienced.
Thank you to everyone who took time to come by our display or attend a session that Jim Pierson was a part of. If you did not get a chance to attend the Summit this year, plan to be there next year. Watch the McLean Access Ministry website at http://www.mcleanbible.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=1327 for developing Accessibility Summit 2008 information.
The opportunity to enter a drawing for one of three copies of the book Exceptional Teaching was offered at the summit. A drawing was held copies of the book were mailed to:
Ø Brent Claiborne
Ø Kimberly Elliott
Ø Yvonne Sanchez
The book Exceptional Teaching is still a potent tool for disability ministry. It is made even more powerful when partnered with Exceptional Teaching Online. If you have not already done so, we invite you to subscribe to Exceptional Teaching Online. Visit us today at www.ccfh.org to take advantage of all the site has to offer. The Exceptional Teaching book and other resource materials may be purchased in the Online Bookstore.
Please let us know if you would like to have a copy of a PowerPoint presentation using slides from the “Disability Ministry is Just a Click Away” session, presented at the Summit, to give an in-depth view of Exceptional Teaching Online. This may be useful if you need to review the website with others prior to subscription and will be provided by email at no charge.
We value your opinion. Please let us know what we can do for you. Contact us with your questions, concerns and comments. Our goal is to have constantly evolving website, programs and materials to meet the service needs of the disability community.
Sylvia Hemphill
CCFH Ministries
Director of Resource Materials