"How does the Truth that your Child is Made in God's Image Compare with your Experience in the World as a Parent with a Child with Special Needs".

Disability service (click for link)

A few weeks back, Evergreen Baptist church held a disability awareness service led by our Journey's group leader, pastor Julie Ono.  Unfortunately, I was unable to make it as it was my weekend to work.  Although I encouraged Gabriel to attend, he seems a bit reluctant to attend church without me.   Fair enough, I think he still identifies more closely with his Catholic faith.  Children and young adults living with disability in the church community got up on stage and read bible passages or sang songs.  Videos of some family members were also showcased and Julie shared stories of families who were treated unkindly by other church members for their childrens' disability.  In one story, she recounts how a pregnant mother with a child with dwarfism was approached by another church member and admonished for trying to have another "deformed" child.  Hopefully, stories like this helps others to be more sensitive and careful in what is spoken to families living with a disability.  

This sermon was also a "coming out", if you will, for pastor Julie to share her struggles living with ADHD.  It was very brave of her to share her own struggles and expose her vulnerability and I appreciate how truly  authentic she is with everyone and in my mind, it gives greater credence to her as a leader.  

In one segment, a videographer visited one of the Journey's meeting to discuss the question of  "How does the truth that your child is made in God's image compare with your experience in the world as a parent with a child with special needs". 

 You can see the video on the link here: 
Journeys testimony  password is defy123

We have yet to experience unkindness from strangers for Luki's disability.  I think most people just don't care.  We live in a huge impersonal metropolis of LA with over 20 million people and I think people  are just too consumed by their own lives, their own problems and worries to take notice of us.  Which is a good and a bad thing.  We tend to sequester ourselves to our own little sphere of family, friends, church and the invaluable online Facebook community of other families living with Dup15q Syndrome.  

The thing I am recognizing is that everyone can learn something about themselves from people living with disabilities and their families.  It is not just the person with the highest IQ living in the loftiest ivory tower of knowledge who can impart wisdom and truth.  We can learn from everybody and encounters with people that have disabilities shine a mirror into our own hearts in a very visceral and immediate way.  Perhaps, everyone we meet, whether they have a disability or not, serves the purpose of helping us define and figure out who we really are at our core.  In the case of encountering disability, for some, it stirs up feelings of  disdain and the urge to reject or express disgust.  For others, it may be a sense of  pity and relief that it is not them or theirs that have to go through such difficult ordeals. But,  there are those more refined souls who have great compassion and understanding for God's deeply loving purpose for sending His children in such tortured bodies and minds. 
I am not saying those with a disability are all knowing and above others as some would like to claim and it would be a disservice to treat them as such as it ostracizes them even further as being "other" and "different".   They are just people like everyone else with their own issues, weaknesses and faults and they should be allowed to experience their humanness just like everyone else without ridicule or shame.  But having said that, as Lacey's mom noted in the video, I can't help but agree that people like Lacey are free from racism, sexism, hatred, resentment,classism, etc that most typical people are captive to.  Lacey just smiles at everyone without refrain which  leads me to believe that perhaps people like Lacey are more closer to the divine than human.  
Hopefully, this attitude of understanding becomes habit and spills over among all people, not just those with a disability. Can you image what a wonderful world we would live in if that were the case?  It is to reach this state of understanding , acceptance and love among all people that perhaps serves the purpose of having disability in our lives.