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10 Things to Do When Someone is Being Rude to Your Child with Special Needs

Natalie Poster

...or anyone else with a disability for that matter! I've been reading a lot of those lists of 10 things lately: 10 Things to Say to Someone Who Just had a Baby with Special Needs, 10 Things to Do When Someone is Being rude, 10 things to Do with Rubber bands... Well, it was that list of 10 things to do when someone is being rude that got me to thinking. The answers were well, rude. It made me wonder about a healthier way to respond, one which could take a bad situation and bring some good into it. So, these are some of the things that came to mind: What to do when people stare: always ...[Read more]

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Extravagant Love

Rebekah and me

Returning home from another retreat for families touched by disability (my 26th to be exact), I stood in worship at our Sunday service just two days later and I was overwhelmed as we sang about our God of love. I realized in those moments that I had personally experienced more of God’s love than most people would in a life time because of the people that I have gotten to know whose lives are touched by disability. In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus taught, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you ...[Read more]

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Leadership…

butterfly catch

  Being in leadership and training volunteers is a role that must be taken seriously. It takes lots of time, energy, dedication AND...     Fun!!!     Lots of FUN!!!           ...and of course hugs- LOTS of hugs.         Being in leadership means...                                                   ...being blessed by serving others!   Kara  xoxo iamviable   ...[Read more]

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Serbia- April 2011

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Greg and I moved to Southern California to work with Nick Vujicic and his organization, “Life Without Limbs” during the months of January through July of 2011. So in April, I went with Nick’s operations manager, Elizabeth Gavrilovic to a Joni and Friends Family Retreat in Serbia which is the country of Nick and Elizabeth’s family heritage. Life Without Limbs wanted to build connections for future events and I agreed to go and help with training of the volunteers (Short Term Missionaries aka- STMs) and to also help wherever needed. Even though I am always excited to help lead and ...[Read more]

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Twin Rocks Family Retreat-for such a time as this

talent show

Cars began arriving to the cheers of the awaiting crowd of volunteers, also known as Short Term Missionaries or STMs. Each family who drove into the conference center was coming for five days of rest, refreshment and restoration. Each person who had a disability as well as young children would be given an STM, making the week a relaxing and enjoyable time for all and a week that would challenge, shape and change the lives of the STMs. Lorraine, who was new to Joni and Friends Retreats as well as the role of STM Coordinator, had spent hour upon hour matching the family members to their STMs. ...[Read more]

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Amazing Grace

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Every once in a while, something jogs my memory and a flood of emotions sweep over me from our trip to Ghana. Today, it was in the hearing of an old familiar hymn. Standing in the Slave castle on the Ivory Coast, our guide was describing to us the events that had taken place here, within these walls. His description left our minds imagining the African women, standing chained to a lead ball, naked, buckets of cold water thrown over them as the white officers stood on the balcony above, picking out the ones that would be sent up the secret ladder to their bed. Or the others, left behind the ...[Read more]

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Ghana- April, 2010

Ghana

Greg and I had the privilege of traveling to Ghana in April in 2010 to work on three separate projects. The first portion of our trip was with a team from Joni and Friends, distributing wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and canes through the ministry of, Wheels for the World. We heard story after story of children who had not been able to attend school because of their disabilities. A wheelchair meant having the mobility to leave their homes, enter into society and quite possibly, get an education. Before leaving, each person also spent time with our Ghanaian pastors who shared with them about ...[Read more]

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