Disability Ministry

Vaneetha Risner contracted polio as an infant, was misdiagnosed, and lived with widespread paralysis. She lived in and out of the hospital for 10 years and, after each stay, would return to a life filled with bullying. When she became a Christian, though, she thought things would get easier, and they did: carefree college days, a dream job in Boston, and an MBA from Stanford where she met and married a classmate. But life unraveled. Again.

Now, as more families like Michael's are affected by a growing number of disorders and difficulties ranging from autism to food allergies, the need for programs and paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Beates thus seeks to motivate churches to pursue ministry to children and adults with developmental disabilities. He works through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability to develop helpful principles for believers and churches, teaching them first to embrace their own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken.

In Love Is a Choice, best-selling doctors Robert Hemfelt, Frank Minirth, and Paul Meier walk you through their 10 proven stages to recovery from codependency that results from external circumstances. Humans are susceptible to codependency because of our sinful tendency to use defense mechanisms to fool ourselves. In codependent relationships, deceitful games are played, and important Christian principles are often taken out of context and abused.

Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. While this revelation helped him understand and process his own experience, it also prompted a difficult re-evaluation of who he was as a person. And as a pastor, it started him on a new path of considering the way disabled people are treated in the church. Disability and the Church is a practical and theological reconsideration of the church's responsibilities to the disabled community.

Pastors and ministry leaders need a holistic framework for welcoming children and adults of all abilities—an approach that is rooted deeply in theology, applicable within every congregational size, denomination, and context, and practical enough to begin tomorrow. The “Everyone Welcome” sign outside church buildings too often comes with an invisible asterisk. Children and adults with varied physical, behavioral, intellectual, and socio-emotional abilities and needs are often excluded from the corporate worship conversation with God and the opportunity to live in community among ...

On a hot July afternoon, Joni Eareckson Tada's life was dramatically altered in a split second. A reckless dive into shallow water took an athletic young woman from health and success to life as a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. In the 45 years since the release of this book - which has more than five million copies in print in over 40 languages - Joni's earnest struggle to find hope has resonated with millions of listeners around the world.

Reluctantly, Chef Isaac finds himself working in the kitchen of his nemesis, Chef Piper Peyton. Why would he want to cook his way into her heart? To save a landmark family restaurant in Savannah, two chefs must put aside their twenty-year-old feud and cook together. Can they at least try to be kind toward each other without digging up old hurts? I can’t wait for you to read Piper’s story. Fans of my Savannah Sweethearts and Coastal Sweethearts Christian coastal romance series might recall that Piper is profoundly deaf. Here comes Chef Isaac, who does not speak American Sign Language at ...

"It sounded at first like something out of an old horror movie. I thought maybe someone was just playing around, but then I heard it again and again, a loud piercing cry, and less like Hollywood every time. The windows were down in my police cruiser on that warm fall day, but I still couldn’t tell where the sounds came from. I began looking around for the unlikely sight of someone being disemboweled in a mall parking lot on a Saturday afternoon. Seeing nothing, and still hearing the screams, I called in a “disturbance”.... Around the next corner I found the source of the commotion.

God's Immeasurable grace. It's the most important ingredient for the perfect love story. Tragic circumstances often stretch relationships to their breaking point. But God's grace is always more than enough. For Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada, enduring quadriplegia, chronic pain, cancer, and depression only made their love more vibrant through 30 years of marriage. Discover a bond that has seen the worst and claimed the best. Listen about Joni and Ken’s challenges firsthand. Discover God's immeasurable grace along the way, as their story inspires and enriches your own relationships.

Much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection, says Amy Kenny. It is time for the church to start treating disabled people as full members of the body of Christ who have much more to offer than a miraculous cure narrative and to learn from their embodied experiences. Written by a disabled Christian, this book shows that the church is missing out on the prophetic witness and blessing of disability.

Being unstoppable is about believing and achieving. It’s about having faith in yourself, your talents and your purpose and, most of all, in God’s great love and His divine plan for your life. Through stories from his own life and the experiences of many others, Nick Vujicic explains how anyone wanting a “ridiculously good life” can respond to issues to become unstoppable. What’s standing in your way? Are you ready to become unstoppable?

It's not what I lost. It's what I've found. I was only 17, just a girl, when God asked me for everything I had...my health, my hopes, my independence, my dreams, my freedom, and my mobility. He took it all. I was so angry with him that I tried to push him away. God relentlessly held me more closely. Looking back, 40 years later, I understand that God has changed and healed me - my heart and my mind - in the most unexpected ways, giving me rubies of his wisdom about an unbending faith and an experience of his mercy I can now tell you about.

A year ago, Mr. Darcy suffered from an illness which robbed him of the use of his legs. However, he is determined to never become maudlin and behave as though his life is over and ruined just because part of it has become more difficult. Since he could not expect to recover any further, it was time to resume the ordinary course of his life.

Quadriplegics simply do not walk again - yet millions watched as Chris Norton defied incredible odds and took step by impossible step across his graduation stage. With his fiancée, Emily, by his side, those unbelievable steps became the start of an extraordinary journey for them both. Told from both of their unique perspectives, this moving story invites you to find, as Chris and Emily have, that God can transform our lowest points into life's greatest gifts.

It only takes a second to change your life. At age 21, Ryan Atkins had everything going for him: A full-ride scholarship in a prestigious business program, a well-paying internship, an opportunity to pitch a business plan to venture capitalists in New York City. He was living his dreams and preparing for a future of success. But the day before leaving for New York, Ryan was in a life-altering car accident that robbed him of the use of his arms and legs. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, he found himself struggling to grasp just how fundamentally his life had changed.

Finding Re2pite is a diary that uncovers how suffering can impact the heart of the fitness-minded. Within this audiobook, you'll learn how suffering breaks us, shapes us, and sends us. Whether it's providing wheelchairs in third world countries or helping parents with local respite care, any exposure to those impacted by special needs will help you realize what is significant and what is not.

This comprehensive guide to church accessibility and inclusive ministry will help your church embrace people with disabilities, not only as recipients of God’s love, but as partners in ministry. Previously known as the Inclusion Handbook, this expanded edition features a plethora of new insights, resources, and tips for inclusive ministry. Maybe you have a disability yourself. Maybe you want to advocate on behalf of someone you know. Or maybe you’re a church leader hoping to work toward more accessible ministry.

Adventurous international teacher, Amy Bovaird, is diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease that will blind her. In spite of that, she manages to continue teaching overseas. Then her father's final illness brings her back home for good. There, friends and acquaintances begin to notice that she doesn't always recognize them and sometimes stumbles as if drunk! Insensitive students ridicule her in the classroom.

Being unstoppable is about believing and achieving. It’s about having faith in yourself, your talents and your purpose and, most of all, in God’s great love and His divine plan for your life. Millions around the world recognize the smiling face and inspirational message of Nick Vujicic. Despite being born without arms or legs, Nick’s challenges have not kept him from enjoying great adventures, a fulfilling and meaningful career, and loving relationships.

Each of us knows someone who is hearing, visually, or mentally impaired, or physically disabled. Millions more suffer from invisible disabilities that can be just as devastating. Writing from her own experience as a person with a disability, Joni Eareckson Tada joins with her fellow disability advocate, Steve Jensen, to share how you can overcome obstacles that have kept you from becoming friends with those who may be limited by their bodies or their circumstances.