Full Access
By Jenny Edwards M.B.E.
Many of you will know the phrase
‘the penny dropped’, meaning that
a realisation has come to your mind
about something – well that
happened to me yesterday during
our church service. It was during
our worship time when someone
from the congregation came up to
the front and spoke about the story
in Mark 2 verses 1-18. This of course
is the story of the friends lowering
the paralysed man down to Jesus’
feet through the roof. The part that
was emphasised was the amazing
faith of the man’s friends, faith that
caused them to persevere in
getting the disabled man to Jesus.
This is of course true and we all
know
times
when
others
encouraging faith has helped us
overcome a difficulty. So what
‘penny dropped’?
At Through the Roof we are very
conscious of problems of access in
Access all areas!
buildings of all kinds, and this subject
often comes up when we relate this
story. But, due to the work Christ did
for us on the cross, we no longer have
to go to such lengths to see Jesus or to
worship, or to talk to Him. There are
NO access barriers to Jesus now, we
can access Him whenever, wherever
and however we want or need to.
Those with a disability have no
challenges of access to Jesus, He is
there for them every minute of the
day and night. We are aware that
friends help us and often their faith
helps bring us to a conclusion we are
happy with, BUT we no longer have to
rely on friends to take us to Jesus or
lower us through the roof in order to
speak with Him. How amazing is that.
We have a wonderful risen, living
Saviour who is there for us every
second of every day, and there are NO
access issues – Hallelujah!
Water Team!
14 intrepid paddlers (apparently they’re not called
rowers), plus one crucial drummer to keep everyone
locked to the beat, took to the River Thames as part
of Through the Roof’s first-ever team entry into the
Kingston Rotary Club Dragon Boat race.
The organisation, atmosphere, race format,
scheduling (and weather) were all excellent and
with some disabled team-members in our boat we
were impressed by the inclusiveness of the day.
Pleasingly we were able to improve on our time in
each of the three races, with our fastest time of 1
minute 2 seconds placing us in a very respectable
20th out of 53 boats. As well as having a lovely day
Thank you, watery fundraisers ! (photo by Sam Goodridge)
on the river, our goal of £200 per person was blown
out of the water, as the whole team raised a fantastic total of £3,346, plus gift aid. Thank you to everyone who took part! If
you’d like to fundraise to support Through the Roof’s work, please get in touch. We can supply resources, and even suggest a
few fun ways to get together and raise money.
www.throughtheroof.org