I want to publicly thank Christine Guth for the ten years of service that she has given to Anabaptist Disabilities Network. Now, after a Spirit-led search for the next program director for ADN, I am pleased and excited to announce that Denise Reesor is joining us.
Following a sense that God had called her to the work of healing the wounds of war, Grace Mishler arrived in Vietnam in the year 2000. Grace soon found that her experience as a blind person would become an important part of her work.
Slate Hill Mennonite Church near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has found that a significant part of their mission in their community is to be with people from the Cumberland Vista Group Home for adults with developmental disabilities.
In this article, Lynn Swedberg introduces captioning as an important tool to assure that people with hearing difficulties are able to fully participate in community life.
A few weeks before Easter, the pastor made an announcement that we were going to have a baptismal service. Chrissie looked at me and gestured as if to say “What about me?” I said, “Chrissie, do you want to be baptized?” She said, “Yes!”
As I write this column, I am coming up on my one-year anniversary as executive director of ADN. Just as 2015 was a time of growth and transition for Anabaptist Disabilities Network in terms of adding resources, so has the past year been a time of learning and professional development for me personally.
n Chasing the Rabbit, Derek Volk’s soul-baring transparency offers a window into a world that will resonate deeply with the intensity, challenges, and triumphs that parents of children on the autism spectrum know intimately, even though details will inevitably differ.
The colorfully detailed illustrations make this a good book for reading aloud to a group of children. Information about Down syndrome at the end adds useful content.
My journey with autism has been like the weather in Michigan: days of rain, ice, and snowstorm, but also sunny beautiful days.
Pastor Don Longmore reflects on his own visual impairment and blindness, offering tips for assisting people who are blind.
Partnership expanded for increased disability resources.
When I was 22, I felt God calling me to live and work alongside adults with developmental disabilities. With the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit and after much discernment I began my life in L’Arche Daybreak in Ontario.
The Church of the Brethren’s 2015 Open Roof Award was presented on behalf of the Disabilities Ministry of Congregational Life Ministries to two Church of the Brethren congregations: Cedar Lake Church of the Brethren (Auburn, Ind.) in Northern Indiana District, and Staunton (Va.) Church of the Brethren in Shenandoah District.
David Gullman has written an appealing new book that weaves together personal stories and reflection on the transformation that can occur when we welcome people with developmental disabilities into our lives and our faith communities.
Lorna Bradley’s new book, Special Needs Parenting, offers needed emotional and spiritual support for Christian parents raising children with disabilities.
It is an unfortunate truth that children and adults with chronic medical conditions or disabilities are at increased risk for abuse and neglect. Some churches establish a protection policy to help ensure safety for the congregation’s children and youth.
Only as an adult did I fully realize I had a disability and what that would mean in broader terms of life and work. Living in the “big world” has challenged my beliefs, perception of self, and outlook on life. In this stage of life, I am grateful to have found a community of believers that welcomes me and helps me along life’s journey.
Josue and Norma Vazquez Maldonado were anticipating the birth of their third child, six years after their second daughter was born.
Everyone has gifts to share! Every summer, the Church of the Brethren provides opportunities for people to serve, worship, and have fun at workcamps.
This fall I visited with a pastor at Marion Mennonite Church in LaGrange County, Indiana. Only forty minutes away from Elkhart by car, the trip reminded me of traveling back in time or to another country as I carefully maneuvered around the Amish buggies sharing the roads.
We were sitting in the teacher’s lounge eating our lunch. I, and the two young adults with me, were taking a break from our on-the-job training. I was learning that Alex had a real love and knowledge of the online game, My Little Pony.
Growing up can be hard, but when you have a developmental disability it can be even harder. This summer, I got to make one small part of life easier for a few children with developmental disabilities.
After I moved to a retirement home, a friend asked where I attended church services. “Sometimes I go to local churches where my former grade school students lead in worship,” I replied. “Other times,” I added with a wink, “I go to the wheelchair walker united church.”
If you find yourself on the website of Beaver Creek Church of the Brethren, you will see the work of Doug Wood, photographer, a church member in his early thirties. When Doug, who is on the autism spectrum, took his camera to church in 2007, he was simply doing something that he had come to love—taking pictures.
In her recently released book, Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness, Family and Church, Sarah Griffith Lund reveals her own family’s devastating experiences with mental illness, and her personal search for spiritual truth.
For many pastors, depression can be a companion that accompanies their ministry in secrecy and shame. As Gary Lovejoy points out in A Pastor’s Guide for the Shadow of Depression, one in seven pastors will experience depression while serving a congregation.
The board of directors for Anabaptist Disabilities Network is pleased to welcome Kathy Nofziger Yeakey to the role of executive director for ADNet.
Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship’s new addition replaces an outdoor stairway and second floor entrance. A fully accessible entrance complete with a lift is out of sight, just around the corner.
David Anderson also makes the Word of God the foundation for his book, REACHING OUT AND BRINGING IN: Ministry to and with Persons with Disabilities. This book encourages followers of Jesus to intentionally include individuals and families who are affected by disabilities in our faith communities.
In October 2014, Timothy Burkholder, ADNet Executive Director announced plans for full retirement at the end of the year.
As we grow older, we find that we gradually develop disabilities. In the church they may escape the awareness of others and often are dismissed as an inevitable part of growing old.
Every week, Natalie comes to church, women’s Bible study, and other weekly activities. Although born blind, this does not stop Natalie from participating in various ministries in the church: from helping with crafts in the summer Vacation Bible School, to leading worship, to energetically participating in a prayer meeting.
Working five days a week, alternating between a packaging company and a local woodworking shop, Darryl has shown me first-hand the positive effects of working a steady job.
Mental illness is “the only illness in the world where you never get a covered dish!” remarks mental health advocate Joyce Burland.
Edwin Cardona Guzman and Jazmin Guzman Carrillo married young, and they were happy to start a family. When their daughter, Jeimy (now 18) was born with Down syndrome, they worried about the hurdles she would face.
Supportive communities can make an enormous difference for families struggling to cope with autism, a sometimes-baffling condition that runs roughshod over parents’ expectations and dreams, and shapes family life in unimagined ways.
Death can be a terrifyingly mysterious thing, especially when it happens in unexpected ways or to the most vulnerable people like children.
Every day, then, I am giving the choice: whether to enter into my disability and share my life with them or whether to stay on the fringes as an ableistic person who sees myself as somehow better.
In 2003, Seattle Mennonite Church initiated a hospitality program for homeless residents in their Lake City neighborhood. Since then the program has blossomed into a comprehensive ministry combining practical assistance with empowering companionship.
We at Anabaptist Disabilities Network express our deep appreciation to College Mennonite Church (CMC) for the rent-free space they provided us over the past decade.
“I feel like I have become a bionic woman,” Christine says with a smile. “I get up in the morning and I put on my eyes; I put on my ears; and I put on my teeth.”
I met Bridget at breakfast on Wednesday, on my third trip to the annual Summer Institute on Theology and Disability, this time held in Chicago.
In communities that struggle ecumenically around who can and cannot receive communion, the tradition of washing one another’s feet has become a sign of true Christian unity. I
My life has been filled with experiences of reaching out those who are affected by disability. All of them are important. My stories below do not even come close to describing all of my life-shaping experiences for this type of ministry.
Christine Guth’s understanding of the word “human” shifted as her understanding of her autistic family members grew.
Our family needed help in responding to paranoid schizophrenia, an unwelcome intruder into our son’s life. We needed others who could come alongside us, who were willing to share our burdens, help us overcome obstacles, and encourage us.
