Transition Into Deeper and Fuller Life

-
God is at work in Tucson helping our friends with disabilities be welcomed, celebrated and needed!


After months of meeting with pastors and churches throughout Tucson in order to share the vision of our friends transitioning from YL Capernaum into the life of the church, God brought us to a church and a pastor with a passion for that same vision. As a result of this vision, this spring volunteers from the church have started attending our Beyond Capernaum to form relationships with our friends and have committed to start a mid week connection ministry for our friends graduating out of Capernaum in fall, 2016. Their vision is to embrace and disciple our friends, live life alongside them, and encourage them to use their gifts in serving in the church and community.

Many months of collaboration with this church brought us to this past Sunday when the church had a service celebrating and highlighting that each of us, no matter our (dis)ability has been invited to the table of the King! Throughout the service, our friends were given opportunities to participate in all aspects of the service using the gifts that God has given them. Capernaum friends helped take the offering, shared a testimony, and sang and signed with the worship band.

Another aspect of our transition plan has been to find “camp” experiences for our friends as they age. This past weekend we took 3 Capernaum friends who are young women, 2 of their moms, a Capernaum leader and 3 ladies from the church to the Young Life Women’s Get Away Weekend. Our friends were embraced by the speaker, the program team, and many others that attended the retreat; they were given opportunities to participate throughout the weekend. Cabin time sharing was rich and had an impact on all that attended from Tucson. After the weekend, one mother shared that many women came right up to her daughter (who has cerebral palsy, cognitive delay, and is deaf) looked her in the eye, said hello and gave her a hug…”No one ever does this…usually people just turn and walk the other way.”

We are celebrating that the transition mandate has been a catalyst for us to imagine so much more than Young Life Capernaum clubs for our friends. We look forward to deeper and fuller life for them as they transition into this next phase together!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas/Winter Club Game Ideas

-
Image
  Mixer Q-tip war: Split room in half with tape down the middle. Pass out straws and Q-tips (make sure you test that the Q-tips fit before hand). You will shoot the Q-tips across the line via placing the Q-tip in the straw and blowing. Keep this going for a while and then stop the music and pick a winning side (one with the least amount of Q-tips). 12 days of Christmas: divide the room up into 12 groups (numbers in group vary based on size of club) Each group is a day of the 12 days. Give them some time to think of a motion/dance move that represents their day. Then perform the whole song! Dice Doubles: Have prepared a gift (candy from dollar store goes over great!). Wrap it in MANY layers, including tape! Sit the group in a circle. If you have more than 20, it’s best for multiples circles to play the game. Place the wrapped gift, gloves, a Santa hat and dice in the center (from playing this game with Capernaum many times, I’ve actually learned that one dice with each side
Read more

Great Visual for Club Talk on Sin

-
Image
During club recently, Katey and her friends were talking about sin and the cross during their club talk. They created this great visual that ended up being so helpful for their friends to understand how sin effects us and how the cross offers us such a beautiful way to live instead! They had 5 boxes- one large box named “SIN”, one large box named “GOD”, one medium box named “ME”, one tiny box named “SIN” and one tiny box named “GOD”. They explained how God created us to live in perfect relationship with Him where we live in Him (put the “ME” box in the large “GOD” box) and where He lives in us (put the tiny “GOD” box in the medium “ME” box). Then, take everything out. They then explained how because of sin (with explanation of sin) it looks like this: put the tiny “SIN” box in the “ME” box and then put the “ME” box in the large “SIN” box. They explained how there is nothing that we can do on our own to get sin out of us and there is nothing we can do on our own to get ourselves out
Read more

Valentine's Day Club

-
Image
Mixer Couple Match-up: You will need stacks of two different colored sticky notes (let’s say one green stack and one pink). You will write couple pairs that your friends know on these. For example, on a green write Minnie Mouse and on pink Mickey Mouse. Place the pink on the backs of your friends and greens on the back of leaders/buddies…no cheating! Don’t let them see who is on their back. Once everyone is ready inform them that they are to find their “couple pair.” They will do this by walking around the room and having friends describe their character WITHOUT saying the name! Once you know who you are you can find your pair. The reason it’s important to have the buddies and leaders be the matches is so they can help their friends out! Once you find your match sit down! Game Heart Target: Place heart shaped paper on the floor, walls, or wherever you want. The person playing the game will be handed a balloon, not tied off! They will release the balloon trying to get it to land on one
Read more