Panel Discussion Moderator: Bill Gaventa Panelists: Chantal Huinink, Noel Fernandez & Ryan Wolfe
Joni Eareckson Tada: Bill Gaventa: I am Joni Eareckson Tada. You're listening to a resource from the Global Access Association, sponsored by Joni and friends. Learn, connect, and share at www.gaa.joniandfriends.org. Global Access, where disabilities and possibilities meet. We can start it on time and end up at 4:45. Delightful to see all of you in here down the home stretch on the conference. I hope you take a deep breath for the last few rounds. I'm Bill Gaventa moderating this panel. I'm a clergyman who's been working at the intersection of disability and faith for about 40 years in a variety of different roles. Currently writing and consulting and directing the Summer Institute on Theology and Disability at which Chantal has been at and helped us with. I'll be talking a little bit more about that at the round table later. Our charge in this panel this afternoon... The focus this week has been on Luke 14, and the verses about everyone coming to the banquet. That was directed at the faith community, but it was also directed I think at society. It didn't say the banquet necessarily took place in a church or in a synagogue, did it? It talked about when you invite people, and when people are invited and who goes and gathers people. And who goes and gathers people into this community, into this banquet. The film this afternoon about The Heart of the Matter really talked about some of the ways in which lots of people in this country, and other countries, are working on the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life. Not just in terms of the faith community, but all aspects of community life. We do that to varying degrees of success in different parts of the world, and in different parts of this country. And sometimes in different parts of the same town, or the same county, or the same state. Our charge this afternoon is to do some talking about how the faith community can be involved in this wider banquet. In this wider communal banquet, and how we can help that to happen. Not only just within our congregations which has been the focus of a lot of this week, but help that happen out there. Not exclude ourselves from that conversation that's going on out there, and the kind of work that's being done. Also then talk about how other groups and other people who are working on the full inclusion of people with disabilities and community congregations, society, citizenship can be a resource as well to faith communities. And what the crucial value of relationships and friendships are in the midst of that. Before we get started, I like to do something that's become a pet thing for me lately. It's a couple of years ago I heard a guy talk in fact at one of our Summer Institutes who does pastoral counseling with people who are dealing with mental illness. One of the things he said was one of the ways he's been Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 1 of 20
trying to adopt and include some empowerment issues into counseling is for the person to say how do they want to be talked about. To identify themselves rather than somebody else identifying them, or saying so... Giving people each a voice about that. Now I know this is not a pastoral counseling situation up here this afternoon, but I would like each of the panelists to do a little bit of introduction about who they see themselves as. And who they are and what they are being called to do, and let that be a fairly brief introduction. Then we'll move after there for the questions. Chantal Huinink: Ryan Wolfe: Noel Fernandez: My name is Chantal Huinink, I'm a pastoral ministry student studying Social Work in Canada. I am a woman with a physical disability, I have many other characteristics, and I'll hopefully elaborate on those as well. I think I love the way you said it about identifying ourselves. Because there is so much more to me than a physical disability. I hope to share that with you as we continue. Okay, terrific. Ryan. All right. My name is Ryan Wolfe, and as Nick said so well in this last session I'd like to be identified as someone who loves God, who loves his wife and his kids. My son is all the way in the back, what's up Rocko? I'd like to be identified as that first. For my profession, I am a disability ministry pastor, I do that full-time at First Christian Church in Kenton, Ohio. We have a lot of programs that we do, and a lot of different ways that we partner in the community. I hope to get to share some of that with you today. Great. Good Afternoon, my name is Noel Fernandez. I come from Cuba, I have been pastoring as a Baptist pastor for many years in Cuba. Let me tell you that I m not going to talk in English because I will talk in Spanish because Spanish is the language that is going to be spoken in Heaven. For 25 years I have worked on the issue of disability in the Cuban Council of Churches in a program named Pastoral Work of People with Disabilities. For 15 years we've been joining efforts with Joni and Friends ministries. I also happen to know that Rev. Noel Fernandez has also been a Latin American representative for the Ecumenical Disability Advocacy, that work of the World Council of Churches. They've been doing that for a long time, and that's another international network that he's played a role in. He and I have corresponded by e-mail for years at different times, and it's the first time here we've gotten a chance to meet each other. That's been one of the blessings of Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 2 of 20
this conference. Let me throw this question at you. There's a lot going on in the community around inclusion, making the banquet a participatory banquet for people with disabilities and their families. If the Church is going to be involved in that, what do you see as the biblical foundation for that? Let's start with Rev. Fernandez and then we'll... Noel: Thank you, Bill. I would like to refer to a biblical story that I think all of you know or are aware of. It is precisely about that Church that emerged in Jerusalem through the impact of Pentecost. The second chapter of the book of Acts says that Church had gained the favor in all communities. Also the book of Acts adds that the people that needed to be saved were being added by God to that Church, to that community. It is not by coincidence that the writer of the book of Acts tells immediately after this reference that we just made, a fact that occurred just at the door of Jerusalem's Temple. A man that had been rejected, that had been excluded by his fellow citizens, was just right at the door, begging. Precisely two of the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, those who had asked why this man is blind, because of the sin of his parents or because of somebody else's sin, ran into this man. Since the very beginning there are three important things happened. Firstly, these two men with what I think should have been a deep look, they looked at this man. They went beyond that and they were able to talk to that rejected and that unnoticed man. We have nothing to offer you, we have no gold, no silver to give you, but we have even a greater thing to offer you. They looked at him, they talked to him, but on top of all that they touched him. They took his hand, and helped him to get up and walk. You all know the result of all this, this man then full of joy, jumping, just got into the forbidden place. That place that ever since David took that fortified city from the hands of the Jebusites, and turned it into the capital of the place. And at that moment, even he dared to say I don't like blind or I reject lame people. And as a great curse it remained through the years that the people with any disability were not supposed to get into the sanctuary. Now that man who had been looked at with the law, who had received a message of hope, and who had been able to stand up, thanks to the hand that had been given to him from the apostles, is able to get into the temple. As a consequence of that, authorities from the political side and from the religious side criticized the actions of the emerging Church of Jerusalem. A Church that is able to change the established order to allow that people with disabilities become actors of their own dramas. A Church that just began to act in favor of those that society didn't recognize. Of course community was unable to understand the action carried out by the Church. In that same way the Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 3 of 20
Church of Jerusalem began. Amen. What you just said really struck me because I heard someone too say that not too long ago. A man that I'm working with in Atlanta for the Institute said, "When we use people with disabilities as objects rather than subjects then we're in trouble." They have just as much rights to be the subject of their story, the actors of their story, the definers of their story, rather than being the objects of somebody else's story. Chantal, all right, biblical foundation. For me the Luke 14 mandate is really important for a number of reasons. First, it claims that all people are welcome in God's House, which I think is really, really important to recognize. Secondly, there's a danger there assuming that people with disability can't contribute because it says, invite the poor, the lame, the crippled, and the blind because they cannot repay you. I think here what Jesus is actually trying to say is not that we can't contribute, but that we're not supposed to engage in anything, any act of service, for our own selfish gains except to glorify God. Thirdly, I'll just say that the welcome into Jesus' House is really, really important because I think that the Church is supposed to model what God wants for the rest of the world. As we are welcomed and included into the work of God's House we are likewise supposed to be welcomed and included into the work of the community. I think Jesus needs each of us to be at the table, because we are all gifted in different ways and can demonstrate different attributes of who God is and what God can do. Amen. Ryan, biblical foundation. Yeah. I like to look at the Great Commission in Mathew 28. I think it goes something like this: "Build a giant church and hope people come and see what we talk about." Actually I'm joking, but somehow in the Western world we've got things mixed up, and we've made faith a spectator sport. The Great Commission, I think, is very clear. It says go and make disciples of all nations. I think all nations probably mean all people too, right? Also in the Luke 14 mandate that she mentioned that says, "Go," and then it says, "Go quickly." And bring those people in, so I think we as the Western Church sometimes get guilty of waiting for people to come to us. The Scriptures clearly tell us to go. My life verse is Proverbs 31:8, "Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. And stand up for the rights of those who are being crushed." We can't do that if we are hiding in our offices, we actually have to go into our communities. And make friends, and let people Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 4 of 20
know that the Church cares. I've been struck by the fact that Jesus didn't sit in the synagogue and wait for people to come in. Exactly. He went, he walked, he traveled, he stopped. One of the wonderful things I think in a lot of the stories like with Barnabus and others... I think I've forgot the right Scripture but the guy who is crying out by the side of the road [Bartimaeus]. Tom Reynolds, who is a theologian who writes, if you've read a book called Vulnerable Communion. He's got a wonderful concept that says Jesus saw provocation as invocation. That if somebody provoked him, like his disciples were worried about the kids making too much noise, and should we send the children away? Jesus said, "No, let them come unto me." That a provocation, something that's disrupting the order is an invitation for the rest of us to do something different. And think about a way that we can really reach out and to include those people. Based on some of that, those things, and you all have all got your favorite stories. The one which you build your own sense of mandate and ministry. One of the most enjoyable things in renewal I think in disability ministry or any ministry is to share to stories with one another. And say why that is or where it comes from. I like to know... I don't think I remember the verse in Proverbs, so I like to know where that came from for you and thinking about that. How does the Church help the wider community welcome people into their places and relationships? I think we model selfless love. The kind of love that Jesus told the disciples to give one another and give the world. Agape, which means sacrificial love, putting others needs before one's self. If we all do that for each other then we can put our own needs behind ourselves, because we know that someone else is looking out for us as we look out for other people. I think that in order for the world to pick that up the Church needs to start modeling that in powerful ways. And show that it's possible. How do they model that not within their own doors but outside? That's a good question, Bill. I'll jump in. I think our community doesn't know that we care unless we're out there. I think about Proverbs 31, again my life verse. I could stand on top of the Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 5 of 20
roof of our church with a megaphone, and say I want to speak up for you if you can't speak up for yourself. But if they don't know me, and if they don't know that I care about them, they're not going to want me to speak for them. I think one of the things that we've done that has been a really good thing for us at First Christian Church in Kenton, Ohio is we've gone out into the community in different ways. We've talked with different community leaders whether it be superintendents of our County Board of DD and different providers. We've said how can the Church be a blessing to you, no strings attached? We actually have to mean that, no strings attached. Because then as we engage our community and find out what the needs of our community are then we can actually meet the need. One of the ways that I went out- as I finally, I think, in my ministry career took that Great Commission seriously- is I decided to go out and be a coach in a challenged baseball league. I didn't have a kid in the league and I was the only coach in the league that didn't have a child in the league. I stuck out like sore thumb, and people ask me all the time, "Why are you here?" Noel: You didn't stick out for being a bad baseball player, did you? No. But once you go out and you make an investment and an investment takes time. Trust takes time, especially if the Church doesn't have a presence. It took us a couple of years making that investment before this little community really embraced us and said they actually are here because they care. And because there are no strings attached. It took years of developing those friendships, and making those investments. But, over time we've been able to integrate into the community and see them trickle in the Church. Noel, you talked about the importance of touch. It's one thing for people being willing to go out and touch but how do you think the Church goes out to help build that welcome in the wider community? The text from the book of Proverbs that says something like this, "A people without prophecy just goes unleashed." Understanding that a prophecy is a message of God for fellow citizens to the style of prophets in the First Testament just to criticize or to applaud. Coming from my country, a very atheist country in Latin America, I come from an extremely atheist country, which is mostly based on an atheist point of view. The prophetic message hasn't been easy to share in the 60 s or in the 70 s, but at the end of the 90 s a very meaningful thing happened. Three persons from the United States related to the ministry of Joni and Friends came to us to talk and see the possibility of Joni and Friends ministry to go and Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 6 of 20
work in Cuba. As you know one of the goals was to give away wheelchairs together with Bibles, and I thought it was something beautiful. I knew that we were not able to do it. How were we supposed to give away Bibles in a place there was not a church? But baseball players always swing at the ball even when they can't hit it, then I swing the ball, and then Joni and Friends came into Cuba. First times were not easy, but step by step doors that had not been opened before were opened. A very singular miracle just happened. An institution from United States of America, an NGO from the civil society, and a religious institution, the Pastoral Walk of People with Disabilities, got together to serve community. This attracted the attention of political and governmental authorities of the country. And we were able to make the political and governmental authorities to support our work, that they opened all the doors necessary to do our work. There is not a doubt about when the gospel is in the hands of those who want to live the gospel, that want to turn it into a living fact, everything is possible. More than 3000 people have received a wheelchair. When they were asked whether they wanted to receive a Bible or not only two persons so far has said no. Maybe this is not the only important thing about this that we've been doing, but the understanding and support that we have been able to achieve with the authorities. December 17th the President of the United States and the President of Cuba at the same time made public declarations. They are just trying to reestablish diplomatic relations that were suspended more than 55 years ago. Before the declaration of these two Presidents, the churches and religious institutions in the United States and in Cuba had been working together even before this declaration took place on December 17 for making peace, law a reality. Joni and Friends and the Pastoral World of People with Disabilities through the work with people with disabilities taught the authorities in Cuba and in the United States that a better world is possible when God is in our journey. I think some people have begun to write. I know a few people have done some writing and some thinking and one of my visions is about if all communities could work together, government and religious, and cross-faith traditions and cultural traditions around, including people with disabilities. That would not be just an inclusion enterprise, it would be a peacemaking enterprise. Because I think when you're working to see what's really most important to people with disabilities of many kinds, it's not the kinds of things that usually tear us apart in a variety ways. What are the kinds of Chantal- Canada advocacy have you been involved in wider community advocacy and those kinds of initiatives? Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 7 of 20
Yeah... Sorry that wasn't well spoken. You're not the only person who says yeah here, right? Yeah, that was my communication for you. As my colleague here was just saying, speaking up for those who can't speak up for themselves is particularly important to me. Especially because I know that many people who live my life circumstances, particularly with cerebral palsy, do not have the ability to articulate words and speak up for themselves. Wherever I can, whatever obstacles I come up against, I do my best to fight them. One of the most recent legal changes that I was involved in had to do with the public transit statement, and the ramps not working properly. And getting more legislation involved so that those things are checked more regularly. And regulated more intensively, so that attention was drawn to the fact that A; it s more accessible and, B; people should be able to ride them. But I think one of things that I learned through my journey is that advocacy that comes from a place of punitiveness, a place of bitterness, doesn't work as well as the advocacy that comes from a place of heart. And wanting to collaborate and work with one another. As a result of that, I don t mean to sound selfish, but I take my head of out issues that I cannot fix. Things that I cannot necessarily advocate for as well as Bill could advocate for, I let Bill advocate for those. And I advocate for myself being that people in similar positions to me will benefit from what I can offer. People that are in similar positions to Bill benefit from what Bill can offer. Okay, and the film that you saw this afternoon which I really like, What's The Heart of The Matter, and I think one of the things The beauty of that film was talking about the impact of the ADA and the importance of the ADA and the international The U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. And talked about particularly I think education, and access in the community, and employment as key areas that perhaps there're ways that we can be supportive of those kinds of initiatives. Ryan, do you want to say a little bit about that and what you all have done? Yeah, sure. As we continued over a multi-year journey to ask the question to the community, What can we do to be a blessing to the community no strings attached? Government agencies came to us and said hey, we'll take you up on that. Because government agencies, just like churches, have limited resources. We ve partnered together with the County Board and we got certified by the State of Ohio to be an independent provider. A faith-based provider of service for our county, and so anybody with a Medicaid waiver can come to our day program. We have a day program. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 8 of 20
We have a rec and leisure side of the day program, and we also have an employment side of our day program. First Christian Church employs 14 adults with developmental disabilities and they are employees of First Christian Church. They get minimum wage or better. We ve given a few raises this year, which is awesome, and they get a pay check. We have a group of girls that work on our clerical crew, that do attendance and they do mailings for the church. They do shredding, and they do all sorts of stuff. We have a crew of guys that are on our maintenance crew that do some outdoor, and indoor heavy work. We've got a housekeeping crew, mixed general housekeeping crew that sweeps the building, cleans all the restrooms, and keeps the church looking beautiful. The beautiful thing about that is the government pays us to pay them. The church and the state can work together, and have a big impact in the community. A lot of my work I've done is in provider systems and state systems. One of the words for... I don't know if you've heard this, but one of the words for day programs sometimes in this country is day wasting programs, rather than day programs that have any kind of real purpose. I noticed, Ryan gave me a brochure from one of his programs yesterday, and what's happening in some places around. I think you re the first church-based, faith-based one that I know of. There is a lot of creative work around helping to find people's passions and their interests, and support those and see which direction they go. You're doing rather than just putting widgets together or taking them apart again, which is some of the old kind of style. It's finding- it's pursuing- pottery, panting, music... Absolutely. A variety of doing things in the community as well as looking for employable skills and helping to train and that kind of things. They re beginning to be some of those, and people are paying attention. Because the volunteers are saying that more and more families are wanting to go to that kind of day program. Peaceful Living, a Mennonite-based community North of Philadelphia has got a day program where they promised to the families that half of everyday would be spent out in the community. With a small group of people, one or two staff and other people out there doing volunteering. They do Meals on Wheels. They go help out at garden places. They do other things, and again people don't get to know the people unless people see them out there. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 9 of 20
Noel: Absolutely, yeah. In Cuba, in terms of church involvement, I don't know much about the state of public supports and services for people with disabilities. Has there been any cooperation between church and some of those services in the community? A person with disability in my country could receive free education from elementary school till university. The people with the use of the sign language, and on the other side blind people with the use of Braille or other technical aids, help themselves to pull through the whole education system and get to university if they want. But since it's a very secular society in which there is not any religious influence on the educational system or quorums, the church has to get on task and find a way to implement things that could provide people with the opportunity to learn more about faith and religion. Either from the cultural point of view, or from the religious as such point of view. I have two examples that come to mind right now. The Cuban sign language didn't have any sign to express any religious thing, so that people could be able to have a general cultural background. The word salvation, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit would never be known to them. A group of pastors and Bible experts, and deaf sign language specialists had to gather together and come up with signs for this language. Then a whole process began to make the official institution, the government and non-government institutions that have to do with deaf education, to understand that these signs were needed in the official sign language. It was the first time we ever worked with the education ministry to do something on the benefit of the deaf community. Today we have more than 975 deaf people in the Cuban churches. Currently we're in the process of translating different text from the Bible to the Cuban sign language. The other example that I think could be of any help. The printed Bible was always present in the Cuban libraries, public libraries. But the libraries didn't have any Braille Bible for blind people. In a joint venture work with the United Venture Bible Society and the Ministry of Culture and net of public libraries in Cuba, we were able to present a Braille Bible for each and every library in the country. And one especially for the national library of the country. The presentation was not merely a drop off of the Bible on the shelf. In every city that we delivered Bible in the library we gathered together the blind community. We spoke to them about what the Bible was about, and the message that the Bible wanted to bring across to people. Maybe you can think about this as something very simple, but for us in our country it's something very, very deep. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 10 of 20
What I'm thinking about in relationship to it, any of you working with public service agencies and provider agencies. One of the things that have been going on is trying to find the words and the language to talk about people's spiritual interest and their spiritual lives. And help that to be a part of a person s inner planning or some of the works and services and supports for that. Because in the states what we ve done In the workshop I did this morning, there's often been a miscommunication, that says just because we're funded by the government we can't talk about faith or spirituality, which is not really true. You can't proselytize but you can talk about spirituality. And these days a person s inner plans and community inclusions, not talking about it is in fact not a good person s inner planning. That's what somebody said, it's not just about the issue of faith. It's not just a good person s inner planning and not good inclusion. Now I wonder about finding that language, Ryan. Is that something that you all have worked on? Yeah, when we first started down this road taking government money to run our program, a lot of people were a little bit nervous about that, saying no, if you take government money you can't talk about Jesus. And it's actually not true. As you look at Medicaid s 24 rights of an individual, one of the rights is the right to religion. When they chose us as their provider, they're saying we want this as part of our plan as an individual, so it's actually their right to talk about the religion of their choice. For us, it's all about Christianity and Jesus. And so yeah, it's part of all of their plans to have a faith elective every single day that they come to our program. Every single day we talk about Jesus and we talk about faith development. And we try to personalize that as much as possible. Chantal, anything? No matter what a person s disability might be, every person has physical, spiritual, social and emotional, and cognitive needs. And so as a church and as a community it's important to address each of those rather than overstate someone's disability-related concerns, be it physical or cognitive. We can't forget that they are still a multi-dimensional human being. One of the things that's beginning to happen in this country, Eric Carter who couldn t be here this week and some other people are beginning to do is, research happening from the secular side of things showing that people who are involved in faith communities or spiritual supports in fact have other higher outcomes in other ways as well, in terms of the kinds of quality of life issues that they think are so important. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 11 of 20
The possibilities of more friends, better employment, less behavioral issues are beginning to be researched that say people who are involved in an active spiritual life have those kinds of outcomes. Not just in terms of which of the outcomes are important to that side of the world, but also then correlate with that spiritual... Sure, yeah. If I may just elaborate a little bit on what you re saying in my own experience. It's been my faith community that has been instrumental in reminding me that there're a lot more to my life than disability management. In addition to disability management, there s a responsibility I have to the Church and to Christ to hold responsibilities there including children's ministries, including campus ministry, including ministry with Christian leaders and serving other pastors and elders. And regardless of the fact that I have challenges, I have responsibilities that God has given me. And He's give me the resources to meet those and attend to myself, my faith community, and my community. I learned to identify what those responsibilities are, and identify the reasons it was given to me, thanks. Thinking about some of the other concrete needs that congregations have began to meet here, and the needs in the community, and then how people respond. How many of you run rescue care programs in your ministries? That's one very concrete kind of thing that 20 years ago rescue care was a foreign term in ministry settings. What kinds of other specific involvements and concrete kinds of things have the couple of you all have done? Any couple of things, yeah. Caroline, could you come up and hand this around? Let's get some other examples. I just heard of self-advocacy group of young adults that meets in a congregation in Georgia, at a town in Georgia. They decided they were tired of doing what they usually did, and they turned themselves into a self-advocacy service club. And so every time a church had a cleanup day, they showed up. Every time somebody in the community was doing something, they showed up doing service. The perception towards young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in that town has completely changed. Because now congregations are saying could say please come help us? Will you come do something? It's not just what can we help you, but can you show up and help us? Audience 1: Yeah, in our church our pastor has been very supportive of foster care and adoption. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 12 of 20
Audience 1: Okay. He's offered our churches as a place to meet, and so it's funny but we have more attendance. Parents that want help, they're more likely come to our church than they would some government agencies, so that's one thing. We've also offered activities, we work together with our city. One of our members of church is on the Parks and Recreation Board. And so when they are doing activities to support disability form of activity, we volunteer from the church and support that. We are trying to build relationships with our city. Let's see what else? One thing that we just recently did was we're starting to work with other churches. If they're sponsoring an activity We had a Christmas activity to reach out to parents of children with disabilities, and offer free Christmas presents and things like that. We gathered a whole bunch of volunteers, and we connected with a bunch of other churches to support that, provide stuff, it turned out to be an awesome event. What's exciting is to see that once you get going on this other churches are interested in supporting your activities and stuff. That was... Audience 1: A lot of congregations have a lot of space. Yes, and our church doesn't have that much, but other churches do. They are willing to reach out to the disability groups, parent support groups and others and say we've got space. If you want to be able use it, come here. Some of you maybe have support groups and others have heard of a wonderful phrase from George Galloper about 15 years ago talking about the number of support groups that met in church basements. But he said it's time for the church upstairs to meet the church downstairs, and to begin to do the kind of relationships building that s part of that. The Christian Church in Kenton does something pretty unusual about relationships that s similar to foster care. Yeah, yeah. It probably started... Oh my goodness, over a decade ago when my family built a relationship with one of the individuals in our class called Hidden Treasures, a class for adults with developmental disabilities. Her name is Carla, over the span of years both of her parents passed away. She wasn't really close to her sister, we both had friendship together and we felt like nobody should spend a holiday by themselves. Our family "adopted" her to be a part of our family for major holidays, Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 13 of 20
birthdays and things like that. As we built that relationship it became a vision that would happen for everybody within our church family. As that vision grew and as our community partnerships grew and our relationships grew, one day the judge of our county called me. And she said, "I'd like you to come to my office." I was a little intimidated by that, but she said that we need help with guardianship in our county. We know of all these great things that you're doing. There are 30 adults that are on our guardian waiting list that don't have someone to speak up for them and for their rights. Could your church recruit volunteers to become guardians for people? We have recruited about 20 people to date to become volunteer guardians of persons not in the state, because the state gets tricky with all the financials. But yeah, we have released people from our congregation to be that Proverbs 31:8 in our community. To be a guardian for folks with developmental disabilities. One of those relationships developed in such a way that a family actually adopted their ward into their family, so she's no longer their ward but their daughter. It's just a beautiful thing what happens when you open yourself up to the possibility. Noel: That leads into one thing that s part of our discussion. It s about the crucial importance. One of the things that a church can offer, I think the strongest thing perhaps is not a program but a relationship, right? Relationships and friendships, and I wonder are there other ways Chantal have you seen the importance of that? How friendships spilled over into not just some Sundays but other parts of somebody's life? Can you come back to me while I sit on that for 30 seconds? You can indeed, I don t mind. But knowing you, you won't have to take very long. Noel, in terms of relationships, and relationship building with people in the community and people with disabilities...? Before going to the meat of this, I would like to talk a little bit about Latin America. According to the Pan American Health Organization, around 14% of the population in Latin America lives with any kind of disability. Churches most of the time are very critical about different measures taken by government. Because they consider that they're merely black and white things, and nothing happens about it. But despite this, there're probably no church in Latin America that 14% of its membership would be people with disabilities. That as a solidarity process and Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 14 of 20
action that we are invited by the action of Jesus Christ doesn't take place. Theoretically we are invited as church to reach out to people with disability, and when we share our faith with them, but also when we are in solidarity with them. Be it not to remember something that we all know very well, three quarters of public ministry of Jesus Christ was dedicated to people with disability, chronically sick people and poor people. What percentage of the Latin American churches is devoted to the same task? Theoretically we have the spirit of friendship and partnership, but we're lacking the maturity of being ground at the same sides of Jesus Christ. Noel: Amen, that's not just Latin America. Not just Latin America. Everywhere? Yeah. I have a story of friend of mine, Nela, who used to be the head of Friendship Ministries. She used to talk about they worked on people from group homes coming to congregations. And one church was really so proud that this group of ten people had come to their congregation for years, and she turned around and said, "Do you know their names?" And they didn't. The group had come together, sat together, people had not taken the time to build relationships and connections with people so that people actually knew people by names. It was that group that came. We've got a few more minutes, some questions from people. You want to come in, yes. I was going to come in. I've been thinking about it and in my view the social service system is predicated on real relationships. I'm the consumer, you are the service provider, therefore I'm the burden and you are the burdened. The problem with that... Another word for relationship I think is reciprocity. And the value that the church can show in terms of developing the gifts of individuals with challenges and showing that they can not only be served but serve others. One of the primary areas in which I experienced reciprocity in my relationships are with my personal care assistants who their primary responsibility to me is to provide physical care and ministry assistance. While my primary responsibility to them is to offer emotional and pastoral support, and the existence and the reciprocity shows their value as well as my own value. Is that not the model of what we re about? That there are people living with a sense of reciprocity that no part of the body That the head gets helped by a little toe just as much as the little toe gets helped by the head, to say about that. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 15 of 20
Any couple of questions in the back. Audience 2: Audience 3: Just to let you know, you can get free Bibles on tapes through Audio Bibles that comes out of Florida, and you could get them in any language. Also you can get free blind canes from the National Federation of the Blind. There's a lot of resources if you have a specific disability. I just wanted you to know that. And for them to get those Braille Bibles it takes six and a half feet of corporate space. They are really, really big, and I don't have one for that reason. Other questions, one back over here. Coming over here. Thank you very much. There's this thing that troubles me when it comes to Africa or when we talk about relationships and creating friends or having a program. With us in Africa it's very, very important. Because in Africa if you create friendship especially in the area of disability and you don't make the friendship to be so deep, people will take you for another thing. They'll feel like you want to use their disability to enrich yourself. They'll feel like you want to use their disability to exploit them. We have encountered that a lot in Africa. I really want that we look into this area. If a person or a missionary is coming to Africa, friendship is not the best way in Africa. It's good we have like a program so that you'll be able to educate the people to make them to know what disability is all about. And to also make them know that you are relating with that person not because of friendship or what the person will benefit from your relationship with that person or what you'll benefit from that person. But a program that would develop the capacity of that person to know that disability is a cross-cutting issue, that will be able to make him to be able to withstand and face the test of time. If we only come by creating friendship, and talking about friendship not looking the other aspect of a program that will bring a lot of program in African. Because many of them feel like seeing you with a missionary, a white person, that person has given you a lot of money. And you just want to take that money and get snaps shots and show to your donor. Your donor... That's how it really looks like in Africa. I believe if you're talking about friendship, creating a friendship in a church with another church. In Africa it will not work that way. A program will work, thank you. Thank you so much for that. I think one of the reasons it s focused here in the States is because we have a lot of programs and people don't have any friends. You ve come from a culture where people are so entirely connected. The Ubuntu thing of I am who I am through other people, that sense some connection and relationships. But here you've got people who could say I've got Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 16 of 20
plenty of programs that do stuff but I don t have any friends. I d rather have friends. One of the biggest quality, or one of the biggest measures that people are saying now about quality of life in this country for people with disabilities is, how many friends do they have that are not paid? They have how many that are not paid, and that's the kind of price. But I hear you. I was a missionary kid in Nigeria, and the church that I was part and my family was part of, my dad was a doctor. That same mission board later decided they weren't going to do medical missions anymore. Because... Which was a shock to my father and others, because that's a program that offered something concrete. You can't just go and offer a relationship. It's got to be something that's concrete and helpful in ways for people like that. Thank you for making that statement, yeah and helping us realize once again that the world looks different from other places than from United States, yeah. Audience 4: Thank you, my question will be do you have specific safeguards in your church where you bring disabled folks in? We recently, we ve embraced a lot of the disabled community. We have particularly a group home where some mentally challenged individuals live, and I recently was trying to help that person feel welcomed, and he seemed to. But later found out that there were others who were paying for his cigarettes at the grocery store. When they wanted to get rid of him because he seemed to be irritating, they would give him some candy or try to hand off And actually he had to leave the area for another reason. But trying to think about the next time someone like him comes to our church. How do we protect people from almost victimizing... The church folks are almost victimizing by really making him depending on them, and I think that's not a healthy perspective. Have you done certain things? Or is there I feel like education is part of it. But I just want to know what else you do? You can go first, I'll help you. All right. As far as safeguard goes I think a lot of our folks that come to weekend services are from group homes. Several of them do come with staff members and that's incredibly helpful. Because it's hard to get to know everybody, so in order to get to know everybody one of the safeguards that we have in place is, in a room of 50 to 60 that's about how big our adult class is on Sunday mornings. We re broken down into tables of eight, and on every single table there's a volunteer. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 17 of 20
You've got to almost have somebody there that can make a personal touch. Because as you grow largely, you have to grow smaller because you can't as one individual know everybody. Hopefully to come up with staff member, but if not that's okay, as long as you have that table host. Depending on what your environment is like, that's how we try to make sure that we have a piece of accountability in there. Not only are there table hosts, but we want them to get to know and to become friends with them. Because until you become a friend with somebody with a disability, you re ministry to instead of with. And you don't want to objectify or victimize. Yeah, I think the biggest issue is people being victimized in the service system more so in the church. I mean Bob Persky is a wonderful guy who said the more eyeballs there are on somebody the better off they re going to be essentially. The more relationships that people have, the better it's a safeguard for that, Chantal. I want to advocate safety and I want to advocate specific supports in the cases where that contributes to a more positive experience for all. But I also want to point out that often times we over-protect those with challenges in their interactions in the sense that it doesn't need to be sanitized every time. There may be some risks that we take in a sensible ministry. But it's not as though the ministry to people who are able bodied is without risk itself and so sometimes I'm not advocating stupidity but, I think we need to be smart and do what we can to make sure that it s a positive experience. Sometimes we just need to trust that if we have good intentions God will make it work somehow. I don't like when people with disabilities are viewed as more dangerous than the general population. Because we are not. That's not true for one. It's not true for one. Thank you. At least in my experience when people are raising liability question, it s saying we're scared here, and we don't know, and that's where we need to really work together. I mean how many of you have heard the story that gets on the wire these days. You've heard the bad church story. The story about the church where they wouldn't let a kid who had CP I think. They wouldn't get a stool for him, so he could get to the water cooler because it was too much of a liability on the church. I mean wait a minute, you've got liability policies that cover the rest of your kids, don't single out that one kid. We need to finish up, I like a final word from the three of you, thinking about some of these issues... Noel. Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 18 of 20
Noel: No, I was just thinking in Mark chapter 2, when four persons expressed their solidarity Excuse me. Mark chapter 2, when four persons wanted to show their solidarity, there was a person with disability. The way they expressed their solidarity was carrying that person with disability towards the feet of Jesus Christ. It was impossible to make the way to Christ, because there was a great crowd that made it impossible for them to get there. The hardness of the human heart, the lack of solidarity, the lack of love, made presence in this earth. But before like now, there are men and women who are ready to make whoever needs to get to the feet of Jesus Christ make it even through the roof. Let us be able to break all barriers in our ways, so we can make a path for people with disability to Jesus. I look at that passage and call it the first circle of support - of those four friends did that radical accessibility issue to get- first circle of support. Ryan. I would say, don't be the guilty Western Church that says come to me, take the time. Because it takes time to go into your communities. Infiltrate your communities and just try to be a blessing, no strings attached, to your community. Meet needs in your community, when you meet a need in your community God would open up doors. And make kingdom connections through your community partnerships. That would be beyond anything you could dream up or game planned or strategic planned if you're just a presence in your community, but it takes time. I can t stress that enough, that the community needs to know that they can trust you, and trust is built over time. It may take a few years before you see a return on your investment, but stay the course and God will open doors that you could never dream of. Remember that if we were all designed identically we won't really need each other. But it's like God gave us diversities that allow us to serve and support one another in meaningful ways, and we need each other. It's not just a nice part that we need, we need each other to fulfill God's kingdom here on earth. That's a wonderful poet who has a saying that said Ken Patrick said, Any God that created the elephants and Eskimos must have had two or three kids of his own. Just about the enjoyment of diversity and the wonderfulness of diversity. A couple of things, just if you're interested in a relationship between agencies and congregations, look at Let me give you a website www.faithanddisability.org. We've got a webinar series going on once a month just looking at those relationships, and trying to build partnerships and Gaventa, Huinink, Fernandez & Wolfe Page 19 of 20