ministry@karis.org
As an occupational therapist that works in a variety of different faith contexts, a great day for me is when I get to answer the question, “How can I start including people with disabilities better?”
What is it like to be a person with autism and to be a pastor of a church? That was a question that I was curious about until one day I found out that I had been one for fourteen years.
At eight years old I was diagnosed with autism. The educational specialists and doctors informed my parents that I would probably never read beyond a seventh grade level, attended college, or have a career. My mom was determined to prove the experts wrong by developing my unique gifts. As Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won't serve obscure men.” For me to develop my skills and be a minister I had to overcome five main autism quirks.
At face value, Jesus was engaged in the supernatural and people were being healed. Having worked with people with disabilities for two decades and now working with people in extreme poverty in under-resourced countries, I have been blessed to have a new lens through which to see this story. These people healed by Jesus had no hope. Their poverty and disability, in his day, relegated them to begging outside the city. Being healed enabled them to be known again in the general population. Healing brought them back to community.
I thought I had outgrown that keen sense of yearning, but then I became a mother of a child on the autism spectrum. I found a whole different level of yearning for all of the answers to be revealed as I contemplated an unknown future.
We are happy to welcome Nicole Reinders as a guest author for this post. Nicole is a PhD student in Kinesiology at Wilfred Laurier University. We encourage you to check out [Read More]
It seems that when we see rich abilities in a person we are quick to label those things gifts – rightly so – and we easily see how those gifts are called into service. But what about the Jeremiahs among us?
These parents all have stories of dropping off or picking up their daughter or son from a ministry environment only to be told that the church is not set up to handle their child. These families have all experienced what Mary and Joseph felt when they were trying to find a place for their child to be born.
Guest Post by Matthew Arguin, Assistant Curate-Coordinator of Outreach and Evangelism at Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church, Diocese of Huron, Anglican Church of Canada. This post was originally the content of a sermon Matthew delivered on [Read More]
Our son caught on to touch screens immediately and can now stay engaged at school on the iPad for up to 40 minutes. The majority of his instruction comes in the form of these technologies because the information is visual, interactive, tactile and rewarding.
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