“He takes care of his flock like a shepherd.
He gathers the lambs in his arms.
He carries them close to his heart.
He gently leads those that have little ones.”
Isaiah 40:11

By Nancy Varga, Family Ministry Director

Amberlea’s vision is “Loving God, Sharing Hope and Growing Together in Christ”. One of our key desires is to reach families with young children and youth in our community. In that desire, Amberlea welcomes and supports all families with exceptional needs, in particular children with autism. We recognize that exceptional families may have different challenges and barriers as they seek to worship in community and grow in faith.

When we met in person (pre-covid), we were able to provide an experienced support person/therapist in a safe, caring environment where children’s unique needs could be met so that they could fully participate on Sunday mornings, including a sensory room. In addition, we were careful to consult and actively make all children’s programming and family activities fully accessible to all children. We are super grateful for Shelly Wedge’s leadership in our Exceptional Family Ministry supports.

In 2021, with the realities of the virtual world and changing dynamics, we are actively preparing to expand our reach in practically supporting exceptional families. On our webpage and social media, we will include regular features of growing in faith with an exceptional family perspective, share stories, offer education and host virtual gatherings. Please continue to pray with us as we seek to follow God’s leading in this expanded initiative.

Below, is an introduction to Shelly and how she and her family inspired and formally started Exceptional Family Ministry Support at Amberlea Church.

By Shelly Wedge, Exceptional Family Ministry Coordinator

This is my first official blog on family ministries from Amberlea Church.

We haven’t been in church for some time now but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been thinking about the future of our ministry and how we can support our community.

Raising one child with special needs can be challenging in the best of times. I have two teenagers that I am currently raising on the autism spectrum. Regularly, I will be sharing information with you, not to preach at you but to help support you and your family.

This week I would like to give you a little background about myself so that you can get to know me better.

My name is Shelly and I am the parent of two teenagers (15 and 17) on the autism spectrum. My son has ASD and my daughter has ASD and generalized anxiety and depression.

Our son was diagnosed at age 4 and our daughter was diagnosed at age 16. Our family has been attending Amberlea Church for many years now. We love the church and there are many reasons why we chose this church. One is the incredible minister that we have! She is awesome!

Another reason was that the church is relatively smallish. For both our children being involved in programs that had smaller numbers made it much easier to adjust as the social aspect of being on the autism spectrum is very challenging.

In future blogs I’m going to be sharing with you things about our church about the continued development of our program and how we collaboratively with the church made it work for us and strive to do the same for others.

In this my first post I just want to share that worship has always been important to our family and we wanted to figure out a way that our family could successfully do this together.

I believe that God does not make mistakes. He led us to the right place at the time and opened doors for us to implement this program, along with the support of our church. God is now leading me especially to future development of this as I not only have a passion for God but I have a compassion for parents and families who are raising children and teens with exceptionalities.

As you get to know me you will understand that I seek answers to questions and I take action. I’m not one to sit around waiting for things to happen and God has given me this strength through all of the lessons that he has already taught me and continues to teach me every day even in the most difficult times.

So please stay tuned as there is more to come……