Having been challenged with a bipolar disorder, I feel a profound calling to serve Special Needs people because I know what it is like to live with illness. In “The Wounded Healer” Henry Nouwen explores ways a “minister can make his own wounds available as a source of healing.” To me this means: Make your sorrows and afflictions known to God and to others so that through the power of God your stripes might become a means of someone’s healing.

Nouwen writes, “When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.” For me, honest transformation happens when serving Special Needs people. For five years I worked as a Special Needs teacher in public schools in North Carolina. Currently, I am a student at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. My goal is to assist churches in serving Special Needs people.

Because of low cognition, many Special Needs people are in early stages of faith development even though they may have the life experiences of an adult. This creates a marvelous opportunity to communicate the Gospel of God’s love in such a way that Special Needs people can be transformed from feelings of isolation to feelings of acceptance. However, this change happens only when the caregiver recognizes his/her common humanity and thus is transformed. For example, what an amazing gift it was to be able to work on basic trust/mistrust issues with Mark, a 20-year-old man with severe learning disabilities, only to discover that he and I were both Stevie Ray Vaughn fans!

I am currently working on a project that is designed to determine where churches are in terms of Special Needs ministry. Please take a moment to fill out this survey.