Monday, September 19, 2011

Special Needs Ministry

A couple of months ago I asked the pastor of my church if he had ever thought of starting a special needs ministry at the church... he said another family there had the idea on their hearts and that he would look more into it. Well I never heard anything else about it for a while, and then in church about 2 weeks ago he mentioned that there was going to be a special needs ministry luncheon after church to discuss ideas about starting one!
We had the luncheon yesterday and it was so exciting! I was hoping to start one because in our case, I love going to my church, but everytime I bring Lucca into the service he freaks out because the music scares him, and even if I wait until the music stops he is not guaranteed to stay quiet for an entire hour lol.. obviously. And I can't put him in the nursery because there are usually only one or two workers for like 15 or so kids! Not to be selfish, but Lucca needs one-on-one attention for many reasons.. So I always end up walking him around in the lobby until church is over and don't get to hear the sermon, so it is basically pointless for me to rush getting us both ready in the mornings to get there on time just to walk around in the lobby ya know? Well thats how some other mom's felt too.. So we all got to throw out ideas on what we thought would be needed.. Some of the things mentioned were texture and sensory toys, consistancy with caregivers, and nursing staff. And honestly I thought this was just going to consist of a separate room that special needs kids could go to and that they would be staffed accordingly.. No. They are taking this way serious! They are going to have nurses and paramedics on call, and they already have more volunteers than they have children! Which means one-on-one care isn't going to be an issue at all! They want the parents to train the volunteers on how to take care of their child during playtime/tantrums/soothing methods/in case of choking/etc.. This is so much more awesome than I would have imagined! I can't wait to get everything started, and can't wait to actually be able to enjoy a church service and not have fear that Lucca is being taken care of properly and safely!

1 comment:

KimberlY said...

Thats Awesome!!!