Volunteering and Exceptional Kids (by Shelly Wedge)

I would like to talk about volunteering at Amberlea Church.  There are still ways to volunteer, even in COVID times. Firstly, at Amberlea we believe in inclusion, even in our volunteer opportunities. You may ask yourself, how is this possible? How can my exceptional child or youth possibly participate?

Well, I am here to tell you that you can no matter your ability, everyone has something to offer. We want to build on your child’s abilities and give them confidence to be a part of a community that cares about them and that will help them achieve their goals, no matter how big or small that may be.

 At Christmas time, our church did a Drive-Thru Live Nativity event. There were different stations with magi, shepherds and even live animals. It was a great community experience and we had so many volunteers for this outreach.

You may ask yourself, how could my child possibly be a part of this? Let me tell you that they can. As I mentioned to you in a previous blog, I have two teenagers on the autism spectrum. My son definitely has more outward challenges, than my daughter. So for this experience, we decided to volunteer as actors at one of the stations. We had to be outdoors, dress up like magi and then we just had to point and pick up a few items off the table and pretend we were doing things with them.

This turned out to be just up my son’s alley as he struggles with conversation, so he didn’t have to read or memorize any lines for this. We had a lot of fun dressing up and just being together with all the other volunteers.  We got to wave at people in cars as they drove by, so it was very exciting for us! We also have another little boy in the church on the spectrum as well and he and his mom dressed up with us. He stayed for as long as his attention span would allow him and we all had lots of laughs and fun doing this together. We took pictures together and had such a great time re-living our experience later.

We as a church also had all the kids and youth create a Christmas pageant video that was uploaded to our Amberlea Church YouTube channel. Each family that wanted to be involved did so and was provided words to say and costumes to wear. You had to video tape your part and then send it to the church and they were all put together to create the Christmas story.  It was a blast watching this at Christmas and everyone who participated did such a great job!  Again, our son was able to do this and when he had lines, I wrote them out on a wipe board so that he could read them while I was doing the videotaping. Sometimes we had to do more than one take, but we had fun doing it.

 What I have found is that I have to think creatively. I have to think of the strength of my kids and how I can use their talents in the activities that the church is doing. I find that kids with different needs can do anything, it just has to be approached sometimes in a different way.

There are many other examples that I can give you at Amberlea where exceptional children can not only participate but thrive. (We are looking forward to being part of the Easter Drive-Thru and virtual Easter play coming soon.) That is what we hope and wish for all of our children, no matter what. We want them to be included. We want them to smile and most of all we want them to know that they are loved, not only by the community but by God.

 Matthew 19:14 – “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”

 God gives us the strength and ability to be the best parents we can be. We need to trust Him completely and we need to find love and support in God’s people. God has never ever let me down and I feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing congregation of people who care so much about our entire family.

 By Shelly Wedge

Exceptional Family Ministry Coordinator, Amberlea Presbyterian Church

We're Easter People!

At 6:30 am on Monday, I received a text from a dear friend simply saying, “Happy International Women’s Day!”  

The first thing that I thought of was Mary Magdalene. Weird, right?

Each week before Easter (and maybe even after ;) we will be looking at individuals from scripture who were directly affected by, who were a part of, the Resurrection Story. We are calling the series, Easter People. 

On Sunday the first person we highlighted was Mary Magdalene.  

Mary Magdalene’s life has long been the subject of controversy and mystery. While historically, many have portrayed Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, scholars now dispute this belief. What is clear from the Bible is that Mary of Magdalene was healed by Jesus and became a devoted follower. She was strong, courageous, and generous. She was a leader and was fully and completely devoted to Jesus and what’s even more incredible is that, she was the first evangelist/preacher.  Ever!  

In my opinion she is the first, of many women from scripture, we should celebrate on International Women’s Day!

Mary Magdalene, was present throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, was the first to see Him after His resurrection: “When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping” (Mark 16:9-10).

The question is why Mary?  Why would Jesus reveal himself first to any woman? Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ, explains “During that time it was frowned upon — even considered embarrassing — for women to deliver information. So much so that belief in the news of Christ's Resurrection could have been jeopardized by the involvement of Mary Magdalene and the ‘Other Mary’ who were first to deliver the Good News.”

But make no mistake, God purposed Mary Magdalene to play an important role in Jesus’ ministry. Find out more about Mary.  And throughout history, God has used many other women to build and further His Kingdom. God loves and values women. Women too, are created in God’s image. (Genesis 1:27) God’s grace and mercy extend to all human beings. (2 Corinthians 5:15). Despite cultural expectation, her past, her role in life or how she had been treated, God chose Mary Magdalene to deliver the most important news in all of history. 

God uses all kinds of people and God can use you and me, because we too are Easter People!

Join me this Sunday on Amberlea Church Online as we continue our Journey to Easter by visiting Easter People!

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……