The Perfect Storm

Does anyone ever feel like Murphy has taken over and anything that could happen does happen, and it all seems to happen at once. Well, that is what yesterday morning felt like. We are always saying to expected the unexpected and if it could happen, it probably will. That I would say describes what our experience was yesterday in our Sunday Servants Bible Study. It began really like any other Sunday morning. I arrived in the class to be greeted by some of our guys, such as Melvin, Gene, Debbie, Gary, and many others. The coffee was almost ready to be made. That is, Debbie had put the water in in order to help out and so all I had to do was put in the filter, the coffee, and push start. Once the coffee had been made, I refocused my attention onto how many donut holes each participant was taking. We have a limit of two per person. Tina and Sharon had both already arrived in the room and were greeting everyone as well. We then had a new person arrive named Jeremy. He seemed to be quit intimidated by all of the people and so Sharon began speaking with his aunt and introduced me to them both. As we were speaking with them, another one of our participants in a split moment, became ill. It was so all of a sudden and the look on his face was instant fear. He was apologetic and couldn't believe himself what had just happened. Suzy who was sitting next to him although didn't catch much, did catch enough to where we had her take off her jacket. Everyone at his point was amazingly calm and Judah being the person he is, stepped in and began helping with the clean up, and right away, Arturo offered to help as well. It was like some of them although are considered participants, are also amazing volunteers at the same time and willing to do anything to just be of service, even more so than some of the actual volunteers. I then had moved out of the room in order to phone Anthony's care provider and facilities. Things seemed to calm down if only for a moment, because then arrived Andrew, our 17 year old autistic boy. Now, this would not have been such a hectic thing except as I was on the phone speaking with Anthony's care provider, the person Jeremy and his aunt were still at the entrance of the room and so Sharon had refocused her attention on reassuring Jeremy that everything would be ok. And then, within just a blink of an eye, Tina quickly noticed that Andrew had made a bee line into the classroom and quickly made his way to the box of donut holes. She yelled out, "Andrew is at the donuts". Sharon and I both looked over and already Andrew had more donut holes in his mouth than we could count. I mean "WOW"!!!! Another intense moment. Sharon without even thinking, quickly ran over to Andrew and grabbing him by his sweatshirt, was able to pull him away from the donuts and get him back out into the plex. At that point, my phone conversation with Anthony's care provider had finally ended, I was able to phone facilities to come and help finish cleaning what we were unable to, and Sharon and I then were able to completely focus our attention on Andrew. It was probably about 9:30 by this time and all of this had taken place within maybe about 10 minutes. It was a pretty crazy morning but all in all, Anthony was picked up by his care provider and taken home to rest, the mess was cleaned, the bible lesson taught to the rest of the class, and Sharon and I had a pretty surprising easy rest of the time with Andrew. Now, after reading all of this, some might wonder how it is we do what we do and completely enjoy it all from start to finish. Well, for me it is easy, Jesus said that anything we do for the least of these you did for me, and anything that you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me. Now, the one thing that I believe many get confused about, is the context of what the "least" means. We do not in any way consider our guys to be even remotely less than any one of us. We are completely equal with them. We all just have different abilities. Therefore, they are much like children in the since that as a child is unable to independently care for themselves, so are our guys, and because of that, it is our responsibility to do for them as we would for a child. And when we seek to serve, we are blessed, because in the grand scheme of things, when we give and when we serve unselfishly, even in the midst of challenges such as these, we are doing it all ultimately for the Lord, and that I believe is what keeps us coming back. The smiles, the joy, and the blessings that Christ allows us to have in season and out of season, in the good times, and even while in the midst of the "Perfect Storm".

Giving Thanks

One of the many blessings that I have received from the lives of the people within the disABILITY Ministry is their natural ability to continuously find happiness and joy in all things, and it just warms my heart each and every time I am around them. For example, it was about two and a half years ago that myself and about five volunteers decided to begin a Friday Night Live Bible Study, and I remember in the beginning stages of it, aside from us, we would have about 3-4 participants, and sometimes 5 or 6 if we were lucky. But I also remember the commitment that everyone had to seeing how God would move within the group and within the lives of the people who came. And now today to see the group averaging about twenty participants, about eight volunteers, and the passion that each person has for God and for one another warms my heart beyond measure. And when I think about how we can't out give God, I also think about how God values and uses each and ever person for His glory and this last Friday night was no different. It was the Friday before Thanksgiving and because we all decided to take the Friday after Thanksgiving off, we planned on having a Friday Night Live Thanksgiving Feast. A time where we would worship God, share in a meal with one another in community, and give thanks for everything that Christ has done and is doing within our individual lives and within the group as a whole. What an amazing time we all had. It was a pot luck meal where I was to bring the turkey and ham, and everyone else would bring the sides. This was an interesting experience for me in that because of circumstances, I ended up cooking two turkeys back to back on the Thursday before, and then heating up the ham about 2 hours before on Friday, and although it was work and required hours of my time, the moment I walked into room G in the plex with the food, I knew the presence of God was in the room. And then as people began arriving, Betty with green bean casserole and corn, Tina and Maria's group with mash potatoes, Trevor with rolls, Anthony with more corn, and Sharon and Rickie with the pies, we were definitely going to have a feast. And just one of the beauties of how this evening came together, was although some forgot to bring their food, and others did not know to bring some, there was more than enough to go around. But the biggest blessing of all, was that as there was plenty for all of us, the participants also brought bags of food in order to donate to the food pantry at Crossroads so that not only could the group experience the blessings of God, but so that they could be a blessing as well. And that is just what these folks are all about, from the Tuesday night, to the Friday night, to the Sunday morning, they might not have much to give according the standards of the world, but what they do have, they give, and what they give, goes beyond measure and God not only blesses them, but he moves through them so that they can experience what it means to also be a blessing to others, and for me to be able to see and experience just a fraction of that, I give thanks.

An Accessible Church Presents to Persons with disABILITIES an Accessible God!

I was reading an article yesterday evening that really placed a new perspective on how I view church, God, and people with disabilities. The article opened up with a question that stated, "do you have many disabled persons attending your church? If not, why not?" After meditating upon this question and how I would answer it, I began to broaden my scope of thinking beyond just the walls of Crossroads and think about the church in general. And what I began thinking was how affective are we as a church reaching and ministering to people with disabilities and how that is translated into whether God is or is not accessible. I mean, yes, Crossroads as a whole has truly embraced the importance of accepting people with all forms of disabilities and really making it a place for all people to come. Unfortunately, that is not the norm. Most churches do not have an interpreter for the deaf, or a braille bible for the blind, or a class for the developmentally challenged. All they typically will have is a few parking spaces and if it is a new building, a larger bathroom stall. But as I read this article, it presented me with the two extremes that have gone from the Old Testament to the New Testament with regard to attitude regarding disabilities. For example Lev 21:17-23 displaying exclusion while Jesus in Luke 14:12 reminding us of the importance of inclusion. So when considering the church at large, what attitude or what position ought we embrace. Well, of coarse for many of us we would say inclusion - but when we see a person with any form of a disability and we choose to do nothing or nothing more, then which one have we truly taken? You see, as this article presented to me, the amount of accessibility that a church provides for the disabled will often times be translated into how accessible God is. The writer of this article then ended with this statement, which caused me to think a little differently: "persons with disabilities have a lot to teach able-bodied persons about living their faith. Many of us have overcome lifelong obstacles that most of you will only face in the final few years of your life. God makes his presence known through his church. He makes his church's presence known through his people; all his people! An accessible church presents to persons with disabilities an accessible God." So my prayer is that we never take on the attitude that what we are doing is enough - let's continue to pray and have a longing to do more in order to love more and reach more, all for the sake and the glory of Jesus Christ!!!!