Opening Doors Archive
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Church of the Brethren Annual Conference
Accessibility Services, Equipping Session, Giveaways, and more!
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Come as You Are? Thoughts on Healing
Jasmine Duckworth grapples with the idea of prayer and healing in the context of her chronic illness.
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Little Deaths: Surrendering to the Life I Have
Reflecting on a chronic illness diagnosis, Laura Stone explores how she learned to surrender to a life she did not expect.
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Book Review: Dancing with Elephants
Mindfulness Training for Those Living with Dementia, Chronic Illness, or an Aging Brain.
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Service Opportunities for Young Adults
Register for We Are Able 2024
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Nurturing Accessible Family Ministry
Church volunteers who work in faith formation are called to help the gifts of all children, youth, and adults shine.
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Building Community with Neurodiverse Children
Jenn Svetlik shares tips and tricks for creating communities of support for people who are neurodivergent.
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God Hears Me
Read and Listen to Ann Hamlin’s newest song about talking with and hearing from God.
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Nurturing Accessible Family Ministry
Webinar with Bonnie & Lyle Miller on welcoming families impacted by disability and neurodiversity.
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Believing and Belonging
ADN field associates Bonnie Miller and Denise Reesor and executive director Jeanne Davies discuss exploring membership with people who have intellectual disabilities.
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A Different Trip to the Ocean
With a poignant reflection of the beauty and barriers of visiting a personally sacred place, Jill Keyser Speicher sheds light on the daily challenges faced by wheelchair users.
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Becoming the Baptized Body
Dr. Sarah Jean Barton and Jeanne Davies discuss baptism and church membership with particular attention to people with intellectual disabilities.
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MennoCon Sensory Room
Anabaptist Disabilities Network hosted a sensory room at the national Mennonite Convention in July 2023.
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MennoCon with ADHD & Autism
Landon Kauffman reflects on his experience at MennoCon.
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Amplifying Our Witness
Cindy Warner Baker reviews the book, Amplifying Our Witness: Giving Voice to Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities by Ben Connor
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Strides at Salford
Jennifer Svetlik recounts Salford Mennonite’s initiatives toward greater accessibility and inclusion.
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Creating a Playground for All
Plains Mennonite Church used a Barrier Free Grant to create a playground for all, a next step in supporting families with autistic children.
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Tiny, Little Awkward Steps
Pastor Nathanael Hofstetter Ressler offers tips for congregations beginning to accommodate for mental illness and support mental health.
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Helping Brings Us Together
Emily Krabill reflects on the 2023 We Are Able work trip.
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We Are Able 2023
Jonathan Shively reflects on the blessings and growth of the 2023 workcamp week.
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New Baptism Curriculum for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
Believing and Belonging: an accessible Anabaptist membership curriculum
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Building Community at Camp
At Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp, we provide a welcoming, peaceful gathering place where diverse groups of people experience life-giving connections with God, one another, and nature.
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Accessible Summer Camps
A list of accessible summer camps in the North American midwest and eastern seabord
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Accessible Gardening
Field associate Kathy Dickson talks about accessible gardening at Methodist Theological School of Ohio.
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Connecting with God in the Natural World
Sarah Werner shares about how she connects to God in the natural world.
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(Un)Loved: holding grace for myself in chronic illness
Jasmine Duckworth shares vulnerably about her struggle for self-acceptance after a chronic-illness diagnosis.
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Seeking Opportunities
Immanuel Mennonite Church’s experiences auditing their accessibility and addressing their congregation’s barriers to belonging.
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Fostering Spaces of Advocacy
Waterford Mennonite Church’s experience forming a disabilities committee and filling out the Congregational Accessibility Survey.
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Scripture Based Play
Ambler Mennonite uses Legos to engage with Scriptures across ages and abilities.
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Autism and Faith
Ann Hamlin relates her experience as an autistic adult in her church community.
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Litany of Dedication
New Creation Fellowship in Newton, KS, dedicates their new lift, which makes their sanctuary accessible to all.
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Lessons Learned
Shelly Kerchner shares her journey through addiction, illness, and disability.
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Blessed Youth
Sarah Griffith Lund discusses the importance of talking to young people about mental health.
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Neurodivergence and Personal Growth
Sam Stoltzfus reflects on her struggles with neurodivergence in navigating college.
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Telling the Whole Story
JE Misz shares about the importance of building resiliency for mental health in youth and young adults.
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A Small World
ADN field associate and board member Jon-Erik Misz, MDiv, LCSW, speaks on trauma, resiliency, and hope for children who experienced difficult times.
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Loneliness: It Affects us All
M.Div. student Michelle Robichaud offers a few ways churches can support lonely youth who lack a feeling of connection.
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Epiphany: See Our Guide!
Brandon Grady draws a connection between navigating life as a blind man and searching for Jesus as a magi.
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The Kin-dom of Heaven
In this poem, Sarah Werner provides an eloquent imagining of what it feels like to be wholly welcomed into God’s Community.
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Wounded and Whole
Why does the Resurrected Jesus have wounds? Laura Stone muses in her sermon on disability and wholeness. Plus, a sneak peek of Laura and Peggy Gilbert’s performance poetry.
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Embodiment in Worship
Sarah Werner reflects on the church’s changing beliefs about physical disabilities and calls us to a more embodied approach to worship.
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A Seat at the Table
A story of moving from isolation to community with biblical hospitality by Heather Wolf
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Fully Embracing Differences in God’s Garden
Tom Szambecki shares about his experience working with neurodivergent youth and the wisdom all youth can offer on inclusion and belonging.
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The Comparison Game
An excerpt from Life on the Spectrum: Faith. Hope. Love. Autism. by Deborah Abbs.
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Talking to God When You’re Nonverbal
Ann Hamlin explains what it’s like to pray as a person who is nonverbal.
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Accessible Digital Communications
ADN field associate Katie Smith leads this workshop on creating print documents that everyone can read and access.
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Accessible Print Communications
ADN field associate Katie Smith leads this workshop on creating print documents that everyone can read and access.
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Friendship: a Two Way Street
Naomi Epp recounts the ways her friendship with Chantel has been a blessing for both of them.
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I’m Living with Dementia; are you?
Marie Harnish shares the way her mother’s dementia has impacted the life of her family.
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Seeking an Accessible Church Home
Jill Keyser Speicher writes about searching for a church as a wheelchair user.
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Dementia and Memory Loss
ADN field associate Heddie Sumner provides education on dementia: what it is, how to communicate with those affected, and how congregations can continue to minister to people affected and their caregivers.
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Welcoming People with Memory Loss
Heddie Sumner offers ideas for congregations wishing to accommodate people with dementia.
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God Never Forgets
John Swinton writes on the intricate relationship between God and a person with dementia.
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The Gifts of Spiritual Community and Prayer in Navigating Dementia
Susan and Don Jeffers draw on the strength of spiritual practices and a community of support during Don’s dementia journey.
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Accessibility Resolution Passes
Mennonite Church USA unanimously votes to grow in accessibility for people with disabilities.
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The “Me” You Don’t See
With a poem and essay, Chou Hallegra calls congregations and individuals to consider how to support people with mental illness.
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ADN Receives Innovation Grant
MHS awards funds for creation of inclusive membership curriculum.
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Estate Planning
Representatives from Everence, an Anabaptist financial agency, discuss estate planning for families with a dependent disabled family member.
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I am Here
A song of yearning and humor by Ann Hamlin asks people to witness her humanity as a nonspeaking young adult.
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Putting Faith to Work
Erik Carter and Bill Gaventa discuss how churches can support employment for peopke with disabilities.
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Competitive Employment Works
Douglas Gehr discusses strategies for employment for people with developmental disabilities.
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Supporting From Within
Julie Foster offers advice for churches working to create employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.
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Responsiveness and Relationship
Karen Pfahler talks about the importance of meeting the needs of children with disabilities in church and the special relationships that can form.
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Helping to Lessen the Load
Alison Flory Reploge shares about the need for churches to help ease the load of families with children with disabilities.
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A Place for Everybody to Play
Erica Landram talks about the building of the Lititz Tree house playground, an accessible playground for people of all abilities.
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Taking the Mystery out of Mental Health
Clinical social worker Jon-Erik Misz reflects on his experience with mental illness and therapy.
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Churchwide Change, Part 2
Janelle Bitikofer offers practical ways for congregations to engage in mutual care by reducing stigma and supporting people who experience mental illness.
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Choosing Life
Verne Sanford relies on his faith and support from his community while he lives and leads as a person with low vision.
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Accessibility Benefits Everyone
Bonnie Miller recounts the practical and emotional effects that a sanctuary ramp had on the congregation of Waterford Mennonite Church.
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Seeing is Believing
How Frederick’s deaf community finds faith and fellowship through the use of American Sign Language.
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Brothers and Sisters, Listen
Tyler Hartford reflects on the use of hearing in the Bible and offers ways congregations can be accessible to people with hearing loss.
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An Introduction to Hearing Loss and Deafness
an introduction to the biology of hearing and how hearing can be damaged, as well as the options for someone experiencing hearing loss or deafness.
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Churchwide Change, Part 1
Janelle Bitikofer offers an introduction to mental illness: what it is, causes, symptoms, and ideas for providing mutual support to those affected in our communities.
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Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
Hannah Thompson and Peter Graber offer their honest reviews of this Sundance film.
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Making Spaces Welcome for All
Jeanne Davies calls congregations to greater belonging and inclusion.
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Resources for the Transition to Adulthood
Here are a few resources for navigating the transition to adulthood for people who have disabilities.
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Growing Pains
Katie Smith shares her firsthand experience of moving from adolescence into adulthood with a disability and how she now helps students navigate this change.
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Stepping Stones
Julie Foster discusses the importance of meaningful work for adults with disabilities and how the church can help.
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Authentic Connections
Hannah Thompson talks about how she came to the Christian faith in college.
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Weathering the Storm
Jonathan Shively shares about his experience working to provide a meaningful life for his adult son with an intellectual disability.
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SEEDS: a disability ministry at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church
The process of beginning a disability ministry at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church, Perkasie, PA, which turned into a thriving community.
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Former ADN Executive Director Passes Away
We mourn and remember Eldon Stoltzfus
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Do We Want to Get Well?
Amy Julia Becker reflects on God’s call to healing, both within ourselves and within relationships.
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Mutual Care in Difficult Times
Keith Dow, Katie Smith, Leonard Dow, and Jeanne Davies discuss practices of sharing joys and hardships in the church community.
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Book Review: White Picket Fences
In White Picket Fences, Amy Julia Becker examines how able-bodied privilege and white privilege have affected her life.
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Practices for Resilience
Jeanne Davies shares practices that build resilience in the midst of the pandemic.
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My Daughter with Down Syndrome Helped Me Understand Racism
Amy Julia Becker recounts how her experiences of exclusion with her daughter, who has Down syndrome, helped her understand racism in the US.
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My Privilege and Disadvantages
Chou Hallegra Gabikiny reflects on the privileges and disadvantages that have shaped her life and her career.
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Connecting with Older Adults during COVID
Paula Ziegler Ulrich shares ideas for connecting with older adults who are sheltering in place during the pandemic.
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Cultivating Resilience
There are those who seem to defy the limitations of aging as they grow into the last decades of life. But the reality is that aging brings inevitable disabilities for everyone.
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Life is Good
I am 82 years old. In spite of my age-related challenges, I believe that most of the time I can honestly say life is good.
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For Someone of Your Age
Peter Graber reflects on the realities of aging and how these relate to our use of the term ‘disability.’
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ADN Names New Executive Director
The ADN board is pleased to announce that Jeanne Davies has accepted the board’s appointment as the new ADN Executive Director, effective June 1, 2020.
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ADN Names New Executive Director
Eldon Stoltzfus resigns, Jeanne Davies appointed.
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Disability Across Cultures
Deborah-Ruth Ferber shares about her experience visiting a L’Arche community in Warsaw, Poland and the warm welcome she received.
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New Dawn Educare Center
The New Dawn Educare Center is a day care, residential center and sheltered workshop in Taiwan.
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Disability: a gift from God?
Alexandra Meneses Andrade reflects on the changing attitudes towards people with disabilities as an Ecuadorian Mennonite.
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The Prince of Peace
Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming Messiah, well known to so many during this Christmas season, paints a radical picture of the Lordship of Christ.
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Christmas in the Midst of Loss
Rebekah Flores offers a reflection on celebrating Christmas in a time of loss.
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Considering the Intersections of Trauma and Disability
Dr. Sarah Jean Barton provides resources and education for congregations seeking to provide trauma-informed care.
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Book Review: Does My Child Have PTSD?
What to do When Your Child is Hurting from the Inside Out
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Adverse Childhood Experiences
Darial Sterling introduces how adverse childhood experiences affect a person’s physical and emotional well-being.
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Trauma-Informed Care for the Congregation
Pastor Staci Williams provides an introduction to trauma and encourages grace and compassion when interacting with people with trauma.
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Jesus Street
I’ve lived for the past six years with chronic, phantom, pain caused by scar tissue that developed after radiation treatment for a brain tumor.
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We Are Able Workcampers Inspire
Karen Norton Biddle shares about being part of the We Are Able work camp over the summer.
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Praying for Healing?
Rachel Joy recounts a discussion with a Colombian woman about the balance between seeking healing and valuing people with disabilities for who they are.
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Slow Your Roll
One of the many blessings my youngest son, Luke, who has autism and is nonverbal, has brought me is this: He helps me slow down and live in the present.
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The Least of These
A blog about the Intersections of Poverty Culture, Race and Mental Health
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Welcome, Emily!
We welcome Emily Hunsberger to Anabaptist Disabilities Network as a part-time Office Administrator.
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Living with Auto-Immune Disease
No one knows why auto-immune disease comes, but it does. And when it comes we have to determine how we will deal with one disease, or perhaps several, and maybe a disability or two.
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Can the Church Be Good News to People Who Use Drugs?
Chris Schaffner offers some practical suggestions for how the church can support those who suffer from drug dependency.
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ADN Names New Executive Director
Anabaptist Disabilities Network welcomes Eldon Stoltzfus of Goshen, Indiana, as its new Executive Director beginning May 1, 2019.
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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
“Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free,” as the Advent hymn goes. Oh yes, these weeks are full of anticipation of Christmas!
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The Hope of Waiting
The season of Advent is about the hope of waiting. When you’re the caregiver to a child with a disability, your life is all about waiting.
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Joy
Deborah Ferber reflects on finding joy during the Advent season at the L’Arche Community in Inverness, Scotland.
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The Oasis
Jeanne Davies talks about “The Oasis” a sensory space created for the recent National Youth Conference of the Church of the Brethren.
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Why I Went to a Funeral
It isn’t easy in the slightest to go to a funeral for someone you knew well and cherished, so why would one ever go to a funeral for someone they never even met?
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Shouting Out About Mental Health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. A good time to beg the question…. Are our pew-mates who experience persistent darkness finding support here?
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Member of ADN Community Passes Away
We mourn and remember Kent Gunden
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Accepting the Gifts We’re Given
Anxiety and depression often escalate during the Christmas season. While the push-and-pull of joyfulness and despair during the advent season is exhausting, sometimes it’s more important to accept the gifts we’re given, regardless of how they’re wrapped.
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Impaired Speech in Silence
The Gospel of Luke precedes the birth of Jesus with the birth of John the Baptist. According to Jewish law, custom, and tradition, newborn infant boys were to be named eight days after their birth and were to honor their fathers by being named after them.
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A Vision We Long For
On October 13, 2017, folks from a dozen Anabaptist congregations gathered for Anabaptist Disabilities Network (ADN)’s annual Circles of Love Banquet hosted this year at Prairie Street Mennonite Church.
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Book Review: Detour
The problem with opposition is that it often hits us blindsided when we are least expecting it.
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The Harm of Self-Stigmatization
I’ve lived all my life with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). When I entered kindergarten in 1949 few doctors, mental health professionals, teachers, or parents were familiar with ADD (or ADHD).
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Three Barriers to Spiritual Formation
As mere humans, we are not the “givers” of God’s salvation, hope, or love. That’s God’s work and God’s gift. We are, however, called to provide the invitation and the environment in which all people can connect with the gospel message and grow in relationship with Jesus.
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Celebrating Birthdays
Birthdays are usually times of celebration. We celebrate the fact that one more year was added to a person’s life. For parents of kids with special healthcare needs, birthdays take on a deeper meaning.
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New Words of Thankfulness
Around a turkey dinner families will share words of gratitude and thankfulness. We typically thank God for good health, happiness, leisure time, quality time with family, the changing of seasons, delicious food.
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Spiritual Growth
These inspiring stories of spiritual growth among students with differing abilities show ways of worship as individual as they are.
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Faith, Disability and Bioethics
While we rejoice in the promise of God’s presence and comfort through life’s changes, many people face the fear, confusion, of transition. For people with transitioning to new limitations or disabilities, it can be hard to discern what God’s plans are.
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A Place to Belong
12.6 percent of the US population lives with a disability but few churches reflect this proportion. Tragically, it’s no secret that people with disabilities are under-represented in religious circles.
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Finding Strength in Grief
October 12, 1982 marks the day when I thought my heart would stop and the world would come to an end.
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Pain is Such a Pain
Pain is such a pain. You can seethe, groan, swear at it, pray over it, even scream, and it is still there. You just want it to go away, but it doesn’t. Finally, you wonder if there is anything you can do to put balance back in your life.
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Turning the Ground by Standing Still
The theme of a conference I attended a conference this past April was April showers bring May flowers: How do we prepare, plant, and cultivate inner (and outer) change in our lives whether quickly or deliberately?
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Getting Messy – Suicide Part 2
During Tiara Coleman’s most significant experience with depression, suicide, and self-harm her youth pastor Ross reached out to her and entered into her struggles head on.
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Suicide Personified – Part 1
I grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia and come from a well-known Mennonite family. In sophomore year I moved from the local public high school to Eastern Mennonite High School (EMHS). This is when I remember life started getting really hard for me.
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Discerning Baptism Together
Peter and Mary Graber share about their daughter Emily’s membership ceremony at Sunnyside Mennonite Church in 2008.
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An Extraordinary Life
nspired by the life of and love for her brother born with Down syndrome, author Rhoda G. Penny weaves together a fictionalized, but genuine, account of the challenges and triumphs of a family touched by this disability.
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Camp Safari
Camp Safari began its mission with the focus of providing a Christian camping experience for campers with special needs.
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Book Review: Deaf Ministry
Ministry Models for Expanding the Kingdom of God.
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Healing the Wounds of War
Grace Mishler’s ministry in Vietnam with people who are blind increases access to care, raises awareness, and supports education and empowerment.
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Captioning Services
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.
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A Worthy Part of God’s Family
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!”
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Beautiful Day
My journey with autism has been like the weather in Michigan: days of rain, ice, and snowstorm, but also sunny beautiful days.
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Walking by Faith: Tips for assisting someone who is visually impaired
Pastor Don Longmore reflects on his own visual impairment and blindness, offering tips for assisting people who are blind.
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ADN Renews Agreement with Church of the Brethren
Partnership expanded for increased disability resources.
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A Generous Exchange
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.
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Building God’s Kingdom
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.
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A Church for All People
Mental illness is “the only illness in the world where you never get a covered dish!” remarks mental health advocate Joyce Burland.
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A Gift for Loving
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.
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Autism in the Congregation
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.
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A Truly Perfect Heaven
Death can be a terrifyingly mysterious thing, especially when it happens in unexpected ways or to the most vulnerable people like children.
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Anti-Ableism 101
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.
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And Who Is My Neighbor?
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.
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A Salute to College Mennonite Church
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.
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Bionic, with a Sense of Humor
“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.”
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Bridget’s Blessing
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.
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A New Commandment
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
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A Lot of Fun Miracles
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.
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Horses Live to Run
Christine Guth’s understanding of the word “human” shifted as her understanding of her autistic family members grew.
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Blessings of a CARE Network
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.
