The Hardest Place for Us to Take Our Special Needs Child? Our Church

life news ^ | Jesi Smith

[Hoodat]

See post 20.

[luckystarmom]

Our church provides buddies for special needs kids. The parents go to church, and the child participates as much as possible.

[katnip]

“the band” on stage should have included that man in their group. How joyous it probably would have made the disabled man feel, and useful.

“the band” leader is unkind. I wouldn’t go to a church like that, that separated the disabled people. Creepy.

[luckystarmom]

Partcipates in Sunday School.

[GeronL]

Church is not a place, it is the people.

[Slyfox]

I go to Mass at noon. These are the following in attendance every Sunday:

~ One boy about 10 or so who is mentally retarded and he is small enough that his father still manages to pick him up and hold him on his hip.

~ A set of 80 year old twins who arrive late. One of the twins is slightly senile and twirls one time just before he sits down.

~ At least one Down Syndrome baby about three years old who sits in the back and "sings" along with the choir.

That is just at one of the Masses at my Church. When I have went to Mass at other times there is a whole different set of disabled people in attendance.

I went to one Mass in Arkansas one July 4th weekend and the announcer said at the end of Mass, "And we will now sing 'God Bless America,' " and a young Down Syndrome teen said out loud, "Oh thank you Jesus!" That was really sweet and the parishioners loved it because they made a collective chuckle.

People who need us more than others are here to make us more human.

[MamaB]

Amen.

[Alex Murphy]

The mother should have taken her son to the Pentecostal church down the street, there the son could have hit his tambourine and fit right in.

The thread material was great. Then someone decided the thread needed a slam against non-Catholics.

[Morgana]

“Beside the homily, we pretty much know what’s going on.”

We had a priest that spoke so soft and low. Yes what you said it true till you get a priest like that. Then when this priest gets up to preach the sermon and that two year old in the back decides to belt it out like an opera singer. It would happen every freaking week! Have no idea why they did not take the kid to the cry room! Made me so angry. I guess that was their little darling and they just had to show her off even though we all knew she would belt it out just as the priest was going to speak. Never failed. Really sometimes it’s not the children it’s the parents who are not considerate.

[vladimir998]

“The music is for God - not for you.”

That’s why I said “participate” and not just “enjoy”. Pay attention.

[ozaukeemom]

I used to go to a church that had a family service and a more formal service. It worked out well.

[vladimir998]

Well, maybe this parish pushed more for “family worship”?

[Morgana]

“Then someone decided the thread needed a slam against non-Catholics.”

That was not a slam. I happen to have a lot of friends who are Pentecostal. I actually dig them. I was merely pointing out that the man in this story would have fared better at that church. I know this having been to a Pentecostal church and seen their tamborine collection.

[hoagy62]

At my church (Southern Baptist), we have what they call the 'Sunshine Room". It is for special needs kids. Volunteers staff it and make sure that it's a safe place for them to watch Christian kids videos (cartoons, VeggieTales, etc.) and play.

Why did they do this? My daughter, mostly. She's 13 now, severely autistic and developmentally disabled. She cannot sit through a service and be quiet.

Back about 5 or 6 years ago, when they started the Sunshine Room, we also had a couple of Downs Syndrome kids. All 3 of them would play in the room without incident. Over the next couple years, the two families with Downs kids moved on, but we still had my daughter.

These days, it's getting harder to find volunteers to staff the room. At least one Sunday a month there isn't anyone, so either my wife or myself have to stay home to watch her.

I'm glad there are churches out there who do what they can to help out this special kind of "the least of these".

(And for those who view these children as distractions and nuisances...I have this mental picture of you...

You might think of asking the Lord what HE thinks of these children.)

[papertyger]

I brought my son up and had them lay hands on him. Something broke loose at that service and he began to speak. Today he no longer has autism.

Oh come on now; that would take a miracle ;-)

[vladimir998]

“I doubt this man’s tambourine in the back of the sanctuary is making it impossible for someone to hear.”

So people were complaining for no reason at all? Really? You don’t think that people RIGHT NEXT TO THEM might not have had a problem hearing the music?

“Your comments indicate that you’re exactly the kind of person this woman is writing about.”

Maybe I am, but the problem might be this woman’s inability to see that she is helping to cause a problem that might be easily adverted if she were as generous of spirit as she demands everyone else be.

I don’t mind crying babies at Mass - I expect plenty of them in my parish where every single family follows Humanae Vitae. What I can’t stand is when parents allow their kids to wail, scream, and shout for minutes at a time rather than simply remove the child from the sanctuary for a few minutes.

[Alex Murphy]

I am working toward starting a church specifically for the disabled. I just started another thread so I need to keep checking that one, but I’m going to come back to this discussion when I can.

If you weren't aware of it before, I highly recommend Corrie Ten Boom's short book on that very subject, Common Sense Not Needed. She also mentions it in her book The Hiding Place

"Your other activities, Miss ten Boom. What would you like to tell me about them?"
"Other activities? Oh, you mean - you want to know about my church for mentally retarded people!" and I plunged into an eager account of my efforts at preaching to the feeble-minded.
The lieutenant's eyebrows rose higher and higher. "What a waste of time and energy!" he exploded at last. "If you want converts, surely one normal person is worth all the half-wits in the world!"
I stared into the man's intelligent blue-gray eyes: true National-Socialist philosophy I thought, tulip bed or no. And then to my astonishment I heard my own voice saying boldy, "May I tell you the truth, Lieutenant Rahms?"
"This hearing, Miss ten Boom, is predicated on the assumption that you will do me that honor."
"The truth, sir," I said, swallowing, "is that God's viewpoint is sometimes different from ours - so different that we could not even guess at it unless He had given us a Book which tells us such things."
I knew it was madness to talk this way to a Nazi officer. But he said nothing so I plunged ahead. "In the Bible I learn that God values us not for our strength or our brains but simply because He has made us. Who knows, in His eyes a half-wit may be worth more than a watchmaker. Or - a lieutenant."

[Raycpa]

Don’t discuss with pastor or elders, just make large public rant. Hint_ that is not best way or christian way to handle issues like this/

[Hoodat]

Fortunately, God is in the miracle business.

[PastorBooks]

“I brought my son up and had them lay hands on him. Something broke loose at that service and he began to speak. Today he no longer has autism.”

Wow... praise the Lord!