Luke 5 Award
Our new award for Christian disability inclusion
Congratulations to Myles Pilling – the first recipient of our new ‘ Luke 5 Award ’.
The new award is for churches , ministries , or individuals , who are nominated by a disabled person to recognise the difference they have made in enabling true inclusion in Christian life .
Frenchie nominated Myles for the Luke 5 award – do you know anyone who deserves recognition for their work ?
Luke 5 is the chapter in the Bible where the four men lower their paralysed friend through the roof to meet Jesus . This passage gives our charity its name , and also our ‘ Roofbreaker ’ Project . It is a fitting name for an award to celebrate Christian disability inclusion .
Myles was nominated for the award by ‘ Frenchie ’ who is Deaf and uses British Sign Language and is also partially sighted . Frenchie wanted to take part in the recent series of online events held on Zoom , but was unable to see well enough to select the correct screen to see the sign language interpreters . Myles stepped in to help .
After a lot of thought , Myles set up a separate video link with Frenchie so that he could display the sign language interpreter ’ s screen large on his own laptop , and send the images directly to Frenchie , who then had both a connection to the Zoom event and also a separate screen highlighting just the sign language interpreter . When the interpreters changed over , Myles ensured the right screen was displayed for Frenchie .
Myles literally made the difference between Frenchie feeling completely excluded and being able to fully take part – able to follow the whole content of the events and to contribute herself to discussions as well .
Here is what Frenchie said in her nomination about the difference this experience made for her :
“ I never looked at myself as an anybody , I looked at myself as a nobody in the past , I didn ’ t think much of myself because people didn ’ t have much patience with me . But now all this has happened I ’ ve started to look in the mirror and not feel like punching myself for being useless , I ’ ve started finding identity which I never had before … it ’ s helped me totally accept myself for the first time . You have given me a voice that a lot of people can understand .”
“ You have given me a voice ”
We look forward to more disabled people nominating churches , ministries or individuals for this award . We are hoping that the stories the award highlights will encourage others to see the life-changing impact of true disability inclusion . We want to celebrate this and pray that it causes others to be inspired .
Myles going above and beyond to include Frenchie
If you are a disabled person and would like to nominate a church or ministry , please see the Luke 5 Award page on the TTR website or contact TTR by email or phone .
Congratulations Mr & Mrs Dakin
Congratulations to Ros , ( our Training and Resources Developer ) and Keith on their recent wedding . They were married on the 26th September in a lovely , socially-distanced ceremony . We ’ re sure you ’ ll join the whole team here in congratulating them , and praying for a very happy future together !
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