Did you know that you can’t catch a disability? If you are around someone who is blind, you will not become blind. If you touch someone who learns slowly, it will not affect your brain. People tend to be afraid because they don’t understand why people are disabled.

Dear friends, I need to share my grief with you. As I become more involved in disability ministry, I realize how very far we as believers in Jesus Christ are from His model of including all people in His house. I see only handfuls of Christians scattered throughout the world who really want to follow in His footsteps. Their desire and effort are eventually squelched by the lack of support from their church leaders. The Lord must be weeping over this “disgraceful” reality!

In trying to answer our questions about how Christians can interact and minister to people whose disabilities are this severe, our professor gave us a simple response. “There is no such thing as a disabled soul,” he said with quiet passion.

I now have a permanent shift, in my mind and heart, from disability ministry being a “program” to a “plan” for successful inclusion. For inclusion to be successful and modeled like Jesus’ example, church leaders must act upon the legitimate need for disability ministry.

While attending Johnson Bible College, I made a presentation for one of my disability ministry courses. I answered the question: “How can Jesus Christ’s believers minister to a family who has a member with a disability?” My answer took the form of an acronym, resulting in the word UNDERSTANDING.

Many people have asked me that question throughout the years. There have been times that I responded with an uneasy “Yes, if . . .” It was during those times that my mind and heart were torn between earthly things and heavenly things.