The Birth of IMAGINE Ministries

I have some very, very, exciting news!

We are only a few weeks away from launching Imagine Ministries!

This is a program designed for FAMILIES of children with special needs. When you have a child with any type of disability, it is very difficult to attend many community functions. Church is one of those difficult places to attend because there is seldom an appropriate place for the kids to be. We seldom attend church all together as a family. Mason either goes to Grandpa and Grandma's house, or Daryl and I take turns going to church with the girls. When we do take Mason along, we usually end up walking the halls, bugging the person in the library, pulling the public phone off the wall (he actually did that a few years ago) or Daryl often ends up taking Mason to Starbucks.

We have had help at times, which was great! But there still was not an appropriate room for Mason. He doesn't learn anything in the grade 4 classroom because his comprehension level is that of a 2 or 3 year old.

Here's the quickie version:
~ It will be available for the Saturday night service at Northview Community Church in Abbotsford (northview.org)
~ Each child will have a one-on-one caregiver
~ Caregivers will be interviewed and trained
~ Available to EVERYONE - the whole community! :) not just church members
~ A classroom is being renovated for sensory reasons, and will have a trampoline with handle bars, great toys, a private change table area, and more!
~ There will be free play time, KidsTown (Sunday school) worship/singing time, structured classroom time with stories and songs, colouring and crafts.
~ We will be implementing a buddy system with typical kids

Contact myself or Robyn at imagine@northview.org if you have a child with special needs or want information about volunteering.

So how did this begin?

Fall of 2007 was the first time I heard that Willingdon Church in Burnaby had a program for kids with special needs called Imagine. That was when I started bugging our new Children's pastor, Robyn about getting it to Northview. Then I heard she had been the pastor at Willingdon when it started there! She started waiting for someone to take it on. So half a year later, spring of 2008, when nothing had happened I met with Robyn to let her know I would help get things started, while we more actively looked for someone to direct it. I told her, "I have no time for this, and no passion for it." I knew it was needed and would do what I had to in order to get it going. Little things here and there started to happen, but no leader.

A week and a half ago my friend Thaleia shared her story of obeying God when she really didn't want to go where he was sending her. The very day she arrived, he gave her an unexplainable joy! I asked her how this whole experience had changed her life. I can't remember her exact quote, actually she doesn't either... but it was something to this effect: She learned that she needs to obey God no matter what her feelings were. She obeyed, kicking and screaming, but she obeyed. Feeling good about what God wants us to do is not a prerequisite. Feeling good once we do it is also not a guarantee.

Prior to this, there were some Bible verses that kept popping up in different places.
Isaiah 58:10-11 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Satisfy the desires of the afflicted ... satisfy the desires of the afflicted. Even now as I write this my emotions well up. Our community, Abbotsford, has so very many families, with a child with disabilities, that have desires. Desires to be accepted in a public setting. To not feel out of place. To not be on edge, wondering if the person looking at them is going to say something hurtful because of the behavior of their child or because of the way their child looks. Wondering of they will have the energy to go out.

afflicted
adjective
1.	grievously affected especially by disease
2.	mentally or physically unfit

Does that describe kids with special needs or what! ( I would differ with the unfit part, but that word is not used according to God's view of these kids,although that's the way society often sees them)

Anyway... these were the two nudges, Thaleia's experience (interesting note here: she went on her mission's trip last fall and did not have the opportunity to share her experience in our pastorate until recently...hmmmm interesting timing!), and the Word of God. So .... the next day I said yes to God and popped in at Robyn's office to tell her the news that I would fully take on Imagine Ministries, "add me as the contact person".

Was I crazy? Yup. I was exhausted from waking at night all the time with Mason, changes in his behaviour, new doctors to see (it's amazing how energy-draining a new investigation and seeing new doctors is!) etc, etc (just read my posts over these past months!). My brain was totally fried, I would go into the garage, I don't know how many times a day, and just stand there because I had no clue why I was there. I would do that when driving as well. No clue where I was going. So I would just keep heading in that direction until it came back to me. My kids are used to me making lots of U-turns anyway, so they didn't even notice! I had begun a Theology course, but gave it up because my brain could not process anything. (that was brutally difficult for me to do. I love studying) I was taking huge naps every day, laying around on the couch ... That's what I do when I'm depleted...

So this is where faith steps in. Believing in and following God even when and ESPECIALLY when it doesn't feel comfortable! Taking on something new when I couldn't even handle what I already had! People very often quote that God will not give us more than we can handle. Yet, he does give us more than we can handle! I think he gives us beyond what we can handle, so that we will ask him for help. That is when he steps in and does amazing things! If we are handling it, we don't need him. In 2 Peter the author is talking about how God has rescued different people, and even angels. Then he says this: "if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials".

So, an amazing thing happened the next day. I woke up refreshed and renewed. And it was not because I was excited about the Imagine Ministries. When I talked to Robyn, I was still wondering how on earth I was going to do it, and I still did not feel like doing it! On Thursday my gloomy feelings instantly turned to light, where I felt scorched, God was guiding me, and I felt strong again after feeling so weak for so long. The scripture was coming true in a way I have never experienced before! Ideas started pouring in, everything started to fall into place in amazing ways! I am totally awestruck by what God is doing!

This past weekend we had our first promotion looking for volunteers for Imagine with a video of different parents and their kids with special needs. Robyn and I were available after each service. We had 25 volunteers sign up!!! Incredible! If you were one, thank you! If you're going to be one, thank you! If you're praying for us, thank you! :) This means we can accept more children!

I'll be letting you know about some other WONDERFUL things that are happening, but I can't tell you yet! It's a SURPRISE!

Our God is an awesome God!!!!!!!!!!!!