Exceptional Family Ministry at Amberlea

“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……

How Devoted Am I? (By Nancy Varga, Family Ministries Director)

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Acts 2:42 (NIV)

 I am a follower of Jesus and I want that to be evident in all that I do particularly in my role as a Mom and Grandma.  I know that my actions speak louder than my words and what I model matters.  Going to a church building on Sunday mornings to sing songs of worship and hear God’s word taught and to connect with other believers has been a regular part of our family’s life for many years. Certainly not without its challenges when our kids were small and when they were teenagers and other things fought for our time.

 Then the pandemic came and attending church in person suddenly became a luxury.  At first, watching church from home was a little bit refreshing to view it from our couch in our pajamas and at a later time on Sundays. For us as a family, it was restoring to be able to worship all together.

 Then the days kept moving forward and Covid was still with us and a new regular routine fell into place in an abnormal time.  Unfortunately, the new routine took some liberties.

We told ourselves, church was accessible anytime, so we would watch it later.

We told ourselves we could watch it separately and we’d talk about it together later. 

We told ourselves we could watch it while we were doing another task and reflect on it later. 

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Acts 2:42 (NIV)

 Passively watching a video was no longer devotion to teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. Admittedly, this is my story and maybe doesn’t properly reflect yours.

Maybe your kids are young and they are playing around your feet and it’s hard to focus.

Maybe the technology is a burden and hasn’t been available to you or you’re tired of it.

Maybe you simply miss the fellowship and the breaking of bread together.

Maybe you are doing it alone in a house full of people.

Maybe it’s hard to feel connected in prayer in a video.

Maybe you miss singing and hearing the voices around you.  

This is hard.

 Truthfully, I’m writing this blog for myself as a way to work through how to make my actions reflect what I believe. To make sure my life models what is true.

“He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Luke 4:16 (NIV)

The Scripture says, it was Jesus' custom—his regular practice—to go to church. If Jesus made it a priority, shouldn't we, as his followers, do so also? Granted, church looks and feels different than we are used to after an entire year of this. Or maybe church in any capacity is brand new to you and you’re not sure what to do with church online.

 How do we experience church in a way that is meaningful?  How do we model devotion to Bible teaching, to fellowship with other believers, to communion and to prayer? The Sunday morning worship video is a good start but it doesn’t need to end there.

 Tips for ‘doing’ church:

• Try to watch the service in the same place and at the same time each week. Have a routine you follow before the service starts.

• Share the experience with someone and ask questions.  It could be the people you live with, or join the Zoom call at 11:45am on Sundays, or connect with a friend at another time.

• Stand and sing and dance to a worship song together.

• Pray. If you’re with other people, pray out loud together.

• Reach out to others and see how they are doing. Don’t wait for them to reach out to you. 

• Ask about any needs in your church that your family could help with.

Tips for ‘doing’ church with children

• Make a worship bin with special toys (magna tiles, legos, etc.), art materials, Children’s Bible, books that you only get out during worship.

• Give your children instruments, scarves, or blankets to wave around during the worship songs and sing and dance around with them.

• Help them look up the scripture passage in their Bible.

• Use a sermon notes sheet. (www.amberleachurch.ca)

• Encourage your child to draw or create a piece of art in response to the sermon that they can send to a grandparent or prayer champion.

• Find parent encouragement, great family conversation starters and faith activities on our website with regularly updated ideas and links.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”  Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

We are not alone in this. Let us encourage each other as we learn to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer in this new normal.

www.amberleachurch.ca
familyministries@amberleachurch.ca

There is hope!

On Sunday we concluded a two part sermon series on Love: An Extraordinary Kind of Love.  Over two weeks we looked at the story of Jesus’ dear friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This story tells of a time when Jesus grieved. There are so many facets to the story of Lazarus. Jesus knew him — this wasn’t just someone who pursued Him in a crowd or heard of His miracles. This was a friend Jesus spent time with. We know Jesus loved everyone, but the Bible specifically says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). 

Jesus had dinner with Lazarus. Jesus even found Himself in the middle of sister drama with Martha and Mary. He knew this family, and they knew Him. Personally.

That was one of the many reasons why the death of Lazarus was such a shock. It was hard to understand why.

We all know how the story ends — Lazarus didn’t stay dead long. Jesus displayed what He proclaimed: He is the resurrection and the life.

But in the middle, between death and life, something else happened. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This is scripture’s shortest verse—and one of its most profound. Imagine the Son of God, who would defeat death forever, weeping with mourners at the grave of the man he was about to resurrect.

This begs the question … why? Jesus knew Lazarus would live again. Why weep? He could have started with “Lazarus, come out!” but He chose to shed tears with Mary and Martha instead.

Why? Because God is present.  God is there in the midst of our grieving and grieves with us in our pain. It is all about this Extraordinary Kind of Love that God has for humanity — for you and me.

Ash Wednesday (Feb 17th) marks the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent (find out more here) is a time that invites us to grieve as Jesus grieved, and to glory as he gloried—in the death of death. There is HOPE!

You are Loved!