What's Your Experience?

What's Your Experience?

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Through the Roof has now completed the first phase of our research project to find out about disabled people’s experience of church. We set four questions, and invited answers through our website, facebook, Vital Link, and interviewing people at different events. We've now listed the top ten responses for each question, and are drawing up resources to help churches address these key issues.

A summary of the results so far is available here as a word document and a PDF.

Pastures New (Philippa's Blog)

“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path”. Psalm 119: 105

In the last 3 and a half years or so, I’ve visited many places in connection with my work for Through The Roof. I have had the privilege of spreading God’s word and love, as well as making people aware of the charity and what it does. I’ve given my testimony and drawn on my experiences of growing up blind to try and show people that life with a disability doesn’t have to be as much of a challenge as people think, and that inclusion really can work, both ways, with the disabled person giving and receiving.

I’ve enjoyed this work very much, and it's only by God’s Grace and Mercy that I have done it at all. However, now I feel he is moving me on to pastures new.

In December this year Will and I are expecting our first baby. This is a great joy to us and we are very excited! So it is with a lot of prayer and thought that I have decided to leave Through The Roof and become a full-time Mum. I feel that God is really leading me to this and that it will be very rewarding.

So this will be my last blog post, but thank you all so much for your prayers and support throughout my time at Through The Roof! It’s meant so much to me. I hope and pray for you all that God will guide you in all that you do.

My CDs will still be available for anyone interested from the Through The Roof online shop, and I will continue to follow the charity’s work closely.

 

Integr8 to Moldova

A team from Through the Roof will be travelling to Moldova training to deliver training and encouragement to our partners there, and helping them to realise the potential of the disabled people in their communities. The team will be there from the 20th to 27th September 2014, and we'll be putting up news and information as we get it.

Our Integr8 overseas programme is all about valuing disabled people and encouraging churches to recognise that where disabled people are fully involved, not just as members of the congregation, but actively using their gifts and skills in church life, everyone is blessed as a result.

Our teams travel to developing countries and provide training and support for local partners in churches, church groups, schools, or other settings. We aim to help educate, empower and equip our partners to serve the people and give them a new outlook on disabled people's potential.

The Glory of Christ (Ros' Blog)

Worldwide web watchers may have noticed recently that there has been some fresh controversy regarding a particular brand of 'prosperity Gospel' coming out of America. In this particular version, at least according to its critics, God has been portrayed as being rather like an over-indulgent grandparent whose offspring have only to name a wish for it to appear in front of them. If it fails to appear, there is something wrong with the way they are asking, the words they are using or their levels of faith. The focus of this type of spirituality appears to be our own happiness rather than God’s glory. (I’m choosing my words carefully because the speaker in question claims to have been misunderstood and misrepresented; although the original words were, at least, ill-chosen.)

The problem with a version of the Gospel which emphasises God showering material blessings on us is not that there’s no truth in it, but that it isn’t half (or even one-tenth) of the story. I certainly know there have been occasions when God has blessed me materially. There have been times when praying for things has been answered by those things happening. There have been times when speaking out the truth of God’s word has changed situations. There have also been times when I haven’t received what I prayed for, for reasons known only to God, and other times when I haven’t received what I prayed for, because I wasn’t really asking in faith. I am also convinced that, for the most part, when God sees me happy, it gives Him pleasure. But these things form only a tiny part of my Christian experience.

Moreover, when God blesses us materially in these ways, we see it from our own perspective. We have a little need; we ask in faith; God meets our little need and sometimes even goes way beyond what we asked for. We are blessed, we feel really happy and we have a great testimony to share. But God sees it from a far larger perspective. He has only one real goal in everything that He does, which is, in Paul’s words from Colossians, that in everything Christ might have the pre-eminence.

The times of most transforming, lasting joys in my life have come when God has not instantly gratified my desire, even for things that might seem a really legitimate good to pray for. I remember sitting in the paediatrician’s office when my daughter Ellen was 11 and being told that her scoliosis was now so severe that it was crushing her heart, lungs and stomach and putting her at imminent risk of heart failure. She needed a very risky operation to straighten out her spine and insert a metal rod to support it. The paediatrician explained that the operation might kill her or leave her completely paralysed, but that without it she would certainly die. He concluded with the words, “We can’t leave it a year. She hasn’t got a year left.”

For complicated reasons which I won’t explain here, ten months went by before Ellen was able to have her operation, by which time her condition was critical. I was convinced that God can and does heal, and I could see no possible good to a child from having a painful and traumatic operation, so I confidently prayed for her healing. I confessed the word of God over her. The pastors from my church came round and prayed for her, and, in obedience to James 5. 14, anointed her with oil. (I remain convinced that they were right to do so.) I had every expectation that she would be healed. After all, James 5. 15 confidently asserts that “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up”.

Eventually she went into hospital, but still my faith never wavered. I believed she would be healed at the last minute, the operation would not be needed, and God would be glorified by her testimony. When they came to take her down to the operating theatre, I was reading Psalm 27 aloud to her.

Ellen had her operation, and it was traumatic. But she didn't die and she wasn't completely paralysed, although she did lose some physical function. We were told that the operation would take at least 5 hours, she would need at least 48 hours in intensive care, and would be in hospital for at least a month. In fact the operation took less than 3 hours, she went straight back to the children’s ward accompanied by intensive care nurses, and was well enough to be discharged 3 weeks later. I remained at her bedside day and night for 3 weeks, catching some sleep in a chair whenever she dozed. The thing that struck me was how much genuine, deep joy I experienced during those 3 weeks. I had an unassailable inner peace, and the presence of God in the ward was so real I almost expected to see Him with my eyes. My closeness to Him was deepened immeasurably, and the effects were lasting. It was an important stage in my spiritual development and, crucially, it revealed to me a glorious facet of the character of Jesus as the God of all comfort, which I would never have encountered if all my prayers had been instantly answered.

So to go back to the controversy about the ‘prosperity Gospel’, when God blesses us with answered prayer it’s not primarily for our own benefit (although of course we do benefit) but for His glory. And when He withholds answers to prayer, even to prayer offered in faith, it’s primarily for His glory, although we do benefit too. Any Gospel which misses this point has an incomplete view of the glory of Christ – and this matters because it’s the glory of Christ around which the whole of creation revolves, and towards which the close of the age will draw us.

In 1864 a puritan named John Owen wrote a little book entitled The Glory of Christ. If you can cope with 17th century language, or find a modern abridgement, I recommend it to you. In this book, he meditates upon different facets of Christ’s glory - the glory of His love, the glory of His mystery, His glory as mediator, His glory in the church, and the glory of His eternal being. He shows how beholding the glory of Christ with the eyes of faith in this world is preparing us for, and will be completely overtaken by, our sight of His glory face to face in heaven. Any Gospel which has anything other than the glory of Christ as its chief focus is at best lopsided and at worst misleading.

As C.S. Lewis discovered, when he pursued happiness it eluded him, but when he encountered God he received joy as a surprising by-product. Yes, our happiness gives God pleasure. But only when our happiness is derived from our pursuit of God and His glory. Any other kind of happiness brings him sorrow because He knows it is a deceit that will ultimately leave us empty and unfulfilled. He has created us for relationship with Him, and it’s only in seeking to know and worship Him in all aspects of His character that we will find true and lasting goodness and joy.

'Whispers of God' - Our September 2014 Come Fishing

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Here's the latest episode of 'Come Fishing', from Jenny Edwards MBE. Each episode contains news, stories, music, and inspiration. We hope you enjoy it!

Messy Church For All

A church in Hertfordshire have used the popular Messy Church concept to provide a place of acceptance for families with disabled children or additional needs. Their aim is to introduce Jesus, and an opportunity to encounter Him within a safe place of belonging, acceptance, love and support. Read the case study of how they provide for people’s different needs (follow this link to download a WORD format case study of the Messy Church) and watch the video below...

Brothers and Sisters, Pray For Us (1 Thessalonians 5.25) Ros' Blog

In Baghdad a mother in her sixties looks after her three adult sons, all of whom have poorly controlled epilepsy and learning disabilities. As a Christian in Iraq, her position is precarious. The added burden of the care of her sons is unimaginable. St George’s Church, Baghdad, is able to offer them medical care at home, without which they certainly would not cope. Staff from the clinic based at the church visit weekly to take them medication for the epilepsy and provide general health care.

 

In the north of Iraq, there are people whose lives are in danger simply because they are disabled and cannot escape the merciless onslaught of Islamic State fighters. International aid workers came across a little girl with epilepsy who was taking refuge in a school. Despite relatively well equipped health centres and hospitals in the region, she had run out of medication, and her parents had no means of getting her any more.

 

Further south near Mosul, hospital staff have fled, meaning that there are no longer any medical services for the disabled people who remain in the area. One organisation working with the refugees had this to say: “When tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people need food, shelter and care, people with disabilities and older people need even more support because they can’t move around very easily and go out in search of assistance.”

 

Living with a disability is challenging in the UK. Imagine living with a disability and having to flee on foot or in a wheelchair from violent insurgents, or having to live on a tiny patch of ground in a refugee camp, with no support or medical services. Our disabled brothers and sisters in Iraq are facing unspeakable horrors right now.

 

What does this have to do with us? Everyone is aware of the terrible situation in Iraq, it hits our television screens every night. But I wonder how many people think about the Iraqi Christians with disabilities, because there are many of them. So what can we do? As disabled people here in the UK, is there anything YOU can do that will make a difference? I believe there is.

 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians with these words: “We should like you, our brothers, to know something of what we went through in Asia. At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead. It was God who preserved us from imminent death, and it is He who still preserves us. Further, we trust Him to keep us safe in the future, and here you can join in and help by praying for us, so that the good that is done to us in answer to many prayers will mean eventually that many will thank God for our preservation.” (2 Corinthians 1. 8-11)

 

Paul was aware that praying was far from a pointless exercise. He had personally experienced great deliverance in answer to the prayers of many people. The outcome for Paul was different because people were praying. So please don’t say to yourself that you can “only” pray for the disabled Christians in Iraq. Praying is not a poor substitute for action; rather it is the most powerful weapon in our armoury, the means by which God acts to turn around hopeless situations. So I would like to encourage you this month to pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq, and in particular for those who have disabilities and find themselves in desperate need. You will be making more difference to their lives than you know.

'Unconditional Love' - Our August 2014 Come Fishing

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Here's the latest episode of 'Come Fishing', from Jenny Edwards MBE. Each episode contains news, stories, music, and inspiration. We hope you enjoy it!

August 2014 TTR Podcast

The Through the Roof Podcast returns for August. Philippa has more news, stories and interviews from Through the Roof, focusing on a very encouraging report from our Wheels for the World distribution to Kosovo. There's also a thought for the day from our CEO, Tim Wood.

Music is used with the kind permission of Andre Luis and comes from Andrelouis.com

Enabling Church Audio

Audio recordings, and some presentational material, from June's 'Enabling Church' conference is now available at the Churches for All Website - please follow this link to see what's available and download the files.

You can also find video from and about the conference on our site by following this link.