As I mentioned in the previous post in this series, God has been nudging me about beginning a special needs ministry at my local church. After all, the new building is completely handicapped accessible, so we will soon have the facilities for such a ministry. Our town is full of families who could benefit from it. All that’s missing is someone to spearhead the efforts, kinda get things going. I’m...

After almost 10 years of meeting in a high school for Sunday morning worship my church family, Grace Community Church, will soon move into a new building. We’re excited about how God will use us and the new building to reach out to people in our small town. Uneasy and Uncomfortable Lately, God has been nudging me about starting a special needs ministry at our church. So I wrote a column about...

The first post in this series introduced you to Deborah Arrona, her husband Salvador, and their daughter Aria. If you haven’t read Part 1 of the series, the background information it provides will help this post make more sense. Salvador and Deborah were only 20 when their premature baby arrived, and they’re only 26 now. But they have valuable wisdom to share. While everything can’t...

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Meeting parents of kids with special needs and hearing their stories is the best part of what I do. Recently, I met Deborah Arrona via the Coffee Klatch, a Twitter community for parents of kids with a wide variety of special needs. Later, she agreed to be interviewed, and her testimony of life with a child who has significant special needs impressed...

A little less than a month ago, Steve Siler’s first monthly song, Dignity, was posted at this website accompanied by a short devotional by Shelly Beach. We Forgive You This month, Steve’s new song, We Forgive You, reaches out to those struggling with remorse over irrevocable decisions from the past. He is looking for vocalists to help make the final recording. If you’re interested...

The February 26th blog post at www.DifferentDream.com introduced you to Steve Siler’s ministry, Music for the Soul, and his website where you can learn about his efforts to reach people who are suffering for many different reasons. What’s New with Steve Siler Today, it gives me great pleasure to tell you about a new way Steve is using his musical gifts to comfort the brokenhearted. Each...

If you’re the parent of a child with special needs, you’ve come face to face with inexplicable suffering. Though my child, husband and I have come to a place of peace and acceptance in the midst of pain and suffering, it’s hard for me to put my belief in words. Enter Tim Keller However, this sermon by Tim Keller articulates the theology that helped me accept the suffering in our...

The previous posts in this series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) focused on how to pray for your child with special needs. In this final post in the series, we’ll explore ways parents can pray for themselves. Pray for the Fruits of the Spirit Remember the list of fruits of the Spirit and character traits listed in Part 1 of this series? You know, the ones to pray for your kids? Well, you can pray...

In the previous posts in this series, I briefly described how I prayed scripture for Allen, my son, during his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). WebTV4Women Radio Interview with Linda Goldfarb Instead of writing the whole story here, which would make this a ten part series, I encourage you to listen to Linda Goldfarb’s recent radio interview with me at WebTVforWomen.tv. (The...

The first post in this series discussed general ways to pray for kids with special needs. As promised the second post provides specific ideas of how and what to pray. How to Pray Finding time to pray while caring for a child with special can be almost impossible. Nevertheless, God commands us to pray, and whatever he commands us to do, he also enables us to accomplish. With that provision in mind,...