Our disability ministry started in 2008. And it pretty much all due to my Church's senior pastor, Dale Meador's daughter Anne. Anne had served for several summers at Joni & Friends family retreat, this was and still is her passion. In the summer of '08 Pastor Dale, even though he didn't particularly want to go himself, signed up so that his daughter could go again. But, that camp changed him and he came back with a vision to get a team together that could focus on this type of ministry within our Church.
It's not as though before now we'd ever refuse, turn away or shun anyone that did attended our Church if they or a family member had a disability, but we just never took the time or effort to make our Church accessible and then actively help and include these individuals and families in any way we could.
Pastor Dale quickly organized an informative meeting in which he shared more from his heart, we watched a couple of informative videos and Brent & Rachel Olstad of the Southern Oregon chapter of Joni & Friends shared. From that meeting several people stepped forward saying that they felt led to be part of the DM team.
Since that start in 2008 we've done quite a number of things, we've held 2 consecutive disability awareness Sundays, helped in several JAFSO Sometimes Miracles Hide luncheons, held multiple respite mornings, have volunteers that serve as buddies in Sunday school to children with disabilities, sent teams of people to serve at Joni & Friends Summer retreats and the list goes on.
We are grateful for all the Lord has helped us accomplish over these years are are excited at all that we've been able to do and continue to do.
Please browse the rest of this site for more information on how we can either help your family or how you can serve in this ministry.
