DISABILITY
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I FEEL GOD ’ S PRESENCE MOST WHEN WE ARE SINGING AND MAKATON SIGNING AND WHEN WE PRAY FOR EACH OTHER .
were mainly living away from their families in care settings . We felt it was important though that WAVE Church also welcomed parents , carers , family members and friends of individuals with LD to worship together .
We gathered a team of people , from across different denominations , who were either parents of children with SEN , friends or professionals who understood the great need for this ministry . None of our team had experience in church leadership , but we had a heart for inclusion and simply wanted to provide meetings where those coming would feel accepted and relaxed . ‘ Where could we learn together , grow in faith and friendship with Jesus , as well as have fun together ?
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God , to them who are the called according to his purpose . [ Romans 8:2 ]
We needed to find an accessible place to meet , that was close to public transport links , with a safe , calm and intimate space . We discovered that our local Methodist Church in Muswell Hill had recently invested sacrificially in a refurbishment of their building to improve accessibility and were delighted to welcome our group to meet there each month .
We were also blessed by a startup grant and mentoring from a local Christian charity but in fact most of what we needed was , and still is , given freely – whether it be donated meeting space , materials or financial gifts from friends and team members . This has allowed us to acquire percussion instruments , Bible teaching and craft resources , a Makaton license ( allowing us to use symbols alongside words on our song sheets ) and to produce a printed meeting calendar postcard for members .
The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can ’ t do without .
[ 1 Corinthians 12:22 ]
We started with three members with LD , their parents and our small nervous team at our first meeting . We originally envisaged that WAVE Church would mainly attract young people with mild to moderate LD – it took several months before any new members joined us . The first new members that did join were older adults with profound LD , who were non-verbal . This took us well outside our area of familiarity and comfort .
There were times when we questioned whether these new members were getting anything out of our meetings , beyond enjoying the tea and cake . The signs of connection with something deeper were subtle but evident and such an encouragement
Wave Church members in 2017 .