Who's Plan is it Anyway?

Every 6 weeks, a local church in town schedules a Red Cross blood drive. I faithfully sign up each time, I figure that it is an easy way for me to give.Yesterday, as I made my plans and schedule for the day I added "give blood" to my schedule of things to do. My schedule was very full with many good plans.

I was so disappointed when I was turned down because my iron level was too low. What a waste, I thought, I had so many things that I needed to get done and here I wasted 30 minutes sitting and waiting to find out that I couldn't give blood. But as I thought about it, it wasn't a waste of time and I am so glad that I went...


While I sat waiting, I had the opportunity to visit with a Daddy of a little boy with Autism. He asked me which church Steve and I were going to. I told him, but then asked "why?" I knew that it was a bit more than him simply concerned about our family going to church. Then he asked if the church we were going to have a Sunday school class for children with special needs.

My heart was broken as I visited with this Daddy. This Dad shared with me his concern about his family and his want to go to church "as a family". As I stated earlier in this post, their little boy, who is 6 years old, has Autism. The family had been attending this church for many years, in fact, the Dad grew up in this church and his parents and some of his extended family also attended. The problem? The Children's program isn't set up for children who don't fit the "norm". The family was told that their precious little boy is a disruption to their program. They will allow him to attend, however, he must be accompanied by a parent at all times. The parents tried this for a few weeks, but it didn't seem to work well. They felt in the way in the classroom and they longed for a time that they could go their own class or go to worship.

The solution that this family came up with... Dad goes to early service. He takes older sister to Sunday school and attends the 1st service, while mom stays home with their son and gets him ready for the day. As soon as the 1st service is over, Dad drives home and trades places with Mom, while big sister stays in the Children's department awaiting the Children's church hour. Mom then goes to 2nd service, while Dad stays home.

This made me so sad... It also reminded me that Mark 10:14 Ministries needs to be more than just "Night Out!". This church, like so many, doesn't realize that they are giving the impression that children (and adults for that matter) with disabilities and special needs are rather a bother that the church and God doesn't want to deal with.

My prayer is that Mark 10:14 Ministries can be developed into a model of love and acceptance that other churches can use and develop. So... even though I was unable to give blood, I had the chance to listen, share, and pray with a Dad in need of encouragement.

And We're off and Growing!

My head is still spinning with disbelief! I can hardly believe how fast "Night Out!" has caught on! We already have families signed up for our next "Night Out!" , which is in a couple of weeks. People who have volunteered in the past are willing and ready to volunteer in the future and if it happens that they have other plans for that evening, they are very sad.

I just had someone tell me that they are very interested in getting a "Night Out!" program started at their church. She asked me if I could send her a copy of the manual for "Night Out!" my reply was, "sure, no problem..." there is one tiny, little problem... THERE ISN"T A MANUAL!! I have one in the works, so I guess I need to get at it and finish it. This is truly a "God-thing!". Already this has blown-up into so much more than I even imagined