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!

God Works in Mysterious Ways :)

So I found this whole situation pretty amazing & I wanted to share :)

Sunday after church I sent my pastor a message asking if he had ever thought of starting a special needs ministry, and his response was that they were looking into it and he had a couple that he wanted to introduce me to that had showed interest in ministering in that area.
So the next morning I e-mailed the girls in my Bible Study group asking them to pray about the possibility of this special needs ministry taking off at my church, and one of them answered saying that she had a sweet friend that had recently starting going to my church and had a little boy with Down Syndrome, that I should get in touch with her. So I did, he she told me that they were new to Evangel but not new to the ministry and that they had known Pastor Garry for a while now and that it would be really neat if her and I could be apart of making history in special needs at Evangel! Then I got to thinking.. I wonder if her and her husband are the couple Pastor Garry was wanting to introduce me to?! So I asked him, and it was! How amazing! That ONE day after I mention it to him, someone totally not involved tells me I should talk to a lady that started going to my church and it happens to be the SAME couple that the preacher wanted me to get to know! I don't know about how everyone else sees this situation but I think it is pretty amazing and think that God works in mysterious ways and this was something meant to be!! Please everyone pray that this special needs idea takes off at my church because it would be so incredibly awesome and I feel so passionately about it!
I know from personal experience how hard it is to go to church and actually be able to sit through an entire service , because Lucca gets anxiety as soon as the doors close and I have to take him out, and I can't put him in the nursery because he can't keep up with the other 2 year olds, and basically has to have someone constantly watching him because he falls back unexpectedly and can hurt himself. I know that I am not the only one out there experiencing that, so this would be such a great thing and I can't wait to see what the future holds :)