News release: launch of Disability Awareness Week 2024

Join the launch on Sunday 15 September

The Revd Helen Cameron, President of the Methodist Conference and Moderator of the Free Churches Group, and President of Churches together in England, encourages all churches to celebrate Disability Awareness Week 15-22 September 2024. Helen will share her passion for church disability inclusion by preaching to launch Disability Awareness Week 2024 on 15 September.

How do I access the Disability Awareness Week launch service?

You can hear Revd Helen Cameron preach to launch Disability Awareness Week 2024 in a special launch service – it will be released online by 3pm on Sunday 15 September at: https://valeofstour.org.uk/daw2024

Join us online to explore the Disability Awareness Sunday 2024 theme: ‘Journey with Jesus’. As we travel on the journey of disability inclusion, He is with us in our lives, whatever storms may come. Worship is hosted by the Vale of Stour Circuit in the Wolverhampton & Shrewsbury Methodist District, from Brierley Hill Methodist church.

What happens in Disability Awareness Week?

Through the Roof encourages all churches to reach out and meet with disabled people in their community in Disability Awareness Week. This could be through organised church events or through individuals inviting a disabled person they know to meet for a coffee to get to know them.

UCB radio is also helping get disabled Christians voices heard by sharing five ‘disability diaries’ from people with lived experience of disability. On UCB1’s Talking Point programme, 9am–1pm, one disabled person a day will share a reflection on their experience of disability in church and society.

Through the Roof will also be sharing videos from Revd Helen Cameron each day during the week about the ABC of church disability inclusion: Access, Belonging and Commission. There will also be insights posted on social media @TTRChangesLives on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X.  

Why is disability inclusion in church important?

Jesus said disabled people should be included in God’s great banquet: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the town. Bring in those … who can’t see or walk ... compel them to come in so that my house will be full.’ (Luke 14:23, NIrV)

There are many barriers disabled people can face on their journey to join, or be fully included. Accessibility of church buildings isn’t the only barrier – there are lots of invisible barriers too.

A call to be a justice-seeking and disability-inclusive church

Revd Helen Cameron is clear that the Great Commission is to all and for all. She says:

"If we fail to recognise the call of all disciples, and commission only the able-bodied, then we've abandoned the Gospel ... Those living with disabilities, visible or invisible, need to experience justice, equality and access, as others do."

Join the journey! – mark Disability Awareness Week in your church

Order a free resource pack at https://throughtheroof.org/forchurches/disability-awareness-sunday/

Watch the service to launch of Disability Awareness Week 2024, available after 3pm on 15 Sept at https://valeofstour.org.uk/daw2024

Luke 5 disability inclusion award for breaking down barriers in Ely

The Rich Tea Community, a local group for adults with additional needs at the Countess Free Church, Ely – and its co-founder, Cate Allen – have received an award. Christian charity Through the Roof (www.throughtheroof.org) gave Rich Tea Community the Luke 5 disability inclusion award for 'breaking down barriers' in Ely.

Beyond the barriers

Freedom of religion is a right, but access to church is not always easy for adults with additional needs. Firstly, many people depend on others to bring them to church. Secondly, during traditional church services, there may be barriers to understanding and to feeling a sense of belonging – such as complex and figurative language, very few visuals to help with processing information, and sensory extremes from silence to loud music... All of these factors can be difficult for a person with additional needs. Rich Tea Community (RTC) was founded to overcome these barriers and to create accessible church in Ely.

Friendship, faith and fun for all

RTC gathers once a month on a Sunday, 3.30–5pm, at Countess Free Church for friendship, faith and fun for adults with additional needs – plus volunteers, family, friends and carers. There is often an engaging short talk including sensory objects and visual aids. People can sit and watch or take part in the activities. Sessions include:

• social time, conversation, refreshments, craft, games, drama, music
• sharing Bible passages; prayer and reflection; and (4 times a year) a simple communion meal.

The award was presented at RTC alongside parachute games, table tennis, craft and music. Margaret Human, co-founder of the community, gave the certificate to Cate Allen and flowers were presented by Sarah Best, an RTC member from Kings Lynn who discovered RTC through nominating her own church for a Luke 5 Award (see Sarah's story here).

"I feel part of the church and like I really belong"

Margaret Human from Ely, who has additional needs herself. It was Margaret who made the award nomination, because she really enjoys RTC. She said:
“At Rich Tea, I lead prayers and do readings. I feel part of the church and like I really belong and am valued. We started the group to share about Jesus with people with learning disabilities and let them know God loves them and church is a welcoming place for them.”

Cate Allen, a newly qualified Baptist Minister and Roofbreaker church disability champion, said: “The need is huge, for reaching people who are often left out of church and society, yet have amazing gifts to offer. I believe a church without disabled people is an incomplete church. We have been running Rich Tea sessions for people in local care homes, as well as providing small-group faith-building sessions for current RTC members.”

 

How your community can get involved

Janet Eardley, Programme Manager at Through the Roof said: “Our Luke 5 Award celebrates the difference made when barriers are broken down and disabled people are welcomed and fully included in Christian life. It is named after the account in Luke’s Gospel about the four men who brought their paralysed friend to Jesus by lowering him through the roof. This passage gives our charity its name, and also our ‘Roofbreaker Project’.”

Find out how to work together with disabled people as a Roofbreaker disability champion at: https://www.throughtheroof.org/roofbreakers/

Celebrate Disability Awareness Sunday and get a free resource for churches from: https://throughtheroof.org/forchurches/disability-awareness-sunday/

Jade and John Reynolds, The Power of Your Story

On Saturday 28th September 2024 from 10.30am to noon we held a free Through the Roof online event, 'The Power of Your Story,' with Jade and John Reynolds.

Everyone has a story to tell and sharing our story connects us to people. God uses the power of story throughout the Bible: in histories, prophecies and parables. In this free event, we heard how the power of story can help change attitudes to disability and faith. 

Jade and John Reynolds are Spring Harvest speakers whose popular family comedy content has captivated over 1 million followers on social media. Known for their hilarious, heartwarming, and often candid take on everyday family life, John and Jade shared their unique perspective with the world. Watch the video here on YouTube @TTRChangesLives.

They are also theology graduates, public speakers, podcast hosts and authors. Jade has been paralyzed since the age of 12 and together with John, is seeking to dispel the stigma surrounding disability both online and in person. They live and work in Lancashire where they are raising their two children together.

Jade and John have a new book out... 'Able to Laugh - Finding joy though the struggle is real'. They also have a big following on social media, including on Tik Tok and Instagram: Jade and John.

People enjoyed the online event. One attendee enthused that the “webinar featuring Jade and John exceeded all my expectations. Presentations were engaging, authentic and humorous and I appreciated the opportunity to connect with new people during breakout sessions.”

Jade finished with an encouragement to those in a similar situation: “There is hope, we’re not without hope, and God can use us, no matter what!”

800 UK Roofbreakers are championing disabled people in their church or ministry context. To join this story and benefit from free resources, training, and events, register as a Roofbreaker at: throughtheroof.org

 

The joy of sharing God’s Word in Jinja, Uganda

Shaun Burrows, Though the Roof's International Missions Manager, shares how God's power transformed disabled people's lives for the better in Uganda on an International Roofbreaker mission trip. The mission was a follow-up to a Wheels for the World trip - to support the community and build on relationships begun during the distribution of wheelchairs and Bibles.

Hearing hope through God's Word

"Whilst on our recent Roofbreaker mission trip in Jinja, Uganda, I witnessed how our work is impacting the lives of those we serve. This includes both those who live with the assurance and the joy of their salvation, and those who are spiritually hungry for the Truth, which might yet be unknown to them. Pointing toward truth and salvation in Jesus is why we were sharing God’s Word in Jinja, Uganda.

I met Thomas, a local man, who sank to his knees, praising God for the gift of the audio Bible he had just received: a testimony expressed through the joy of his salvation. He and his wife Sophia are a lovely couple who live with their severely disabled teenage son and daughter, in stark conditions - alongside the outside wall of a disused factory. For them, the physical needs of their children and the conditions in which they live are relieved by the joy that their children can now hear and learn God’s Word as they lie on their blankets in the shade of an Acacia tree. A truly humbling encounter!

Three Muslim Imams came to our Roofbreaker event in Jinja. They sat alongside the Christian leaders and heard how spiritual strongholds and false arguments can cultivate the cultural beliefs that cause disabled people to be excluded from society. Returning the following day with approximately sixty people from their Muslim community, they requested Bibles. They wanted to hear more about God’s grace and the salvation that comes through the shedding of blood and not through good works – but by the blood that Jesus Himself shed on the cross.

'The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.'   (James 3: 17–18)

Please join us in praying for the people that encountered Jesus through our work – that God reveals Himself to them more through His Word."

Shaun sent back news from the Jinja Roofbreaker mission trip with stories of lives transformed. Here are just a few of the updates he sent while 'live' on the mission in Uganda.

Starting out - arrival day

"Today is our first Roofbreaker Leaders' Event day. The plan is for each day to be with a different group of people. Although there were only about 20 leaders who attended today, they were all leaders of various kinds of disability ministries - so the message will reach many disabled people. Tomorrow the crowd is expected to consist of church congregations and some disabled people and their families.

We arrived at Entebbe at 09h30 yesterday, and then a 6-hour road trip to Jinja, to meet our local partner contacts. Gill and I are staying in Pastor Joseph's home. Pastor Davis arrived on the bus early this morning and will be staying in another pastor's home nearby.

Prayers are needed for the mission, as the team shares a Christian perspective on disability, showing God's heart for disabled people who are also made in God's image. We pray the communities will love and include disabled people, so everyone is valued."

Life-giving support - on a day out

"Today was Earth Day - when we remember God wants us to steward and protect this planet and everything living on it. Our Uganda mission team had a day out to the source of the Nile and saw life-giving water bubbling up from the underground spring on the west side of Victoria Falls.

We stopped off to visit Juliet who received an audio bible last week and rode home on a bodaboda motorbike. Her daughter Judith was born with leg defects and cannot walk. Juliet herself struggles to walk and uses crutches given to her in 2022 on our previous mission. Juliet said that Judith's father abandoned them when she was born.

We gave Juliet an audio Bible. But we also tried to help practically. Juliet said that she doesn't have a job. After a few phone calls, we were able to arrange a place for Juliet on a course to teach her to make bags and other crafts items to sell.

We want to empower disabled people in developing countries to use their gifts to work and serve their communities. The changing climate does not make this any easier.

We pray for cultural change to change hearts and minds to see people and planet as God sees them."

A day sharing the joy of God's Word in Jinja

"Our Roofbreaker mission trip in Jinja, Uganda, continues. Large crowds, including community leaders, gathered to pray and hear Christian teachings about disability and faith that the team had prepared.

Many local people with sight loss have been gifted audio Bibles in their own language. Moses been completely blind since 2004. He had high blood pressure that caused it. He used to read and understand the bible. But hasn't since 2004. He can now enjoy hearing God’s Word.

Nathan has been completely blind for the past 3 years due to pressure on the brain. He has struggled with the way his life has changed, but now his heart is being lifted on hearing God’s faithful promises of hope and a future, read in his local language on the audio Bible from our International Roofbreaker mission. Nathan said: “This audio Bible will be my weapon against boredom and grief.” 

We thank God for watching over the mission and transforming lives."