Let's Build The Church

Hey Friends,
Thanks so much for praying for my conference last weekend. It went great! If any of you ever get a chance to go to the North Carolina WMU Extravaganza...Go!

Before I share a few highlights, I wanted to explain a little about the kind of conferences I have been doing the last couple of weeks. I do two kinds of speaking. One is for Women's groups and you can read some of the topics here to the right. The other kind of speaking is through LifeWay. I speak/teach/train church teachers and leaders about how to either start, or enhance a Special Ed ministry in their churches. It is a much needed ministry and is affecting our churches more and more. I love helping churches start this ministry and I love encouraging and spurring on those who have been doing it all along.

This was the type of speaking I did the last two weeks. In Miami it was a an Associational Training. I led two breakout sessions, one on how to start a ministry and the other on creative ideas to enhance the ministry. The teachers I worked with there are dedicated servants and we shared and challenged each other with ideas and dreams.

The breakout session with the WMU of NC at Ridgecrest was on How To Teach learners With Special Needs About Missions. Here we shared the "why we should"...and practical and creative ideas to use in missions education.

I love this ministry. I have heard stories that have made me cry...like the man who came up to me at one conference and asked if I could help him. He told me of a family that had come to their church, with a boy in a wheelchair who hollered out a lot. He was the Chairmen of the deacons at the time and they had asked the family to leave...because it was disrupting the worship time. He told me this while tears are running down his face...saying, "That was wrong and we don't ever want to do that again...can you help me?"

But this story is my favorite so I will close with it:

A preschool teacher was just starting her Sunday School class, when a young boy came to the door. The teacher right away could see that this was going to take some special effort. The boy was missing his right arm. So she quickly looked at her activities and knew how to help him have a great time. The time flew and the boy, Johnny, had a wonderful time. As they sat in a circle, the teacher could see that that they had just enough time for one more song or activity. What had they not done? Oh! "Let's build the church!" she said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she felt terrible. Johnny couldn't do this finger play. What had she been thinking? She could not even look in his direction. Slowly she lifted her head and what she saw was the true church at work...for you see little Susie had taken her right hand and grabbed Johnny's left hand and together they were building the church!

Lets build a church!
Pamela