It was the Summer of 2007. A mother wanted to bring her son with a disability to one of our programs. He was diagnosed with severe Cerebral Palsy and she wanted to come as his caregiver.
In the process of filling out our Staff Application, she came to the Pastoral Reference page. There was one small problem, she didn’t have a Pastor, because they didn’t attend any church. They hadn’t attended church for years, as multiple churches of their faith did not accept them into the life of the church family. The reason was straightforward, stinging and cruel, “Because your son’s disability is distracting to others and makes them uncomfortable. It ruins their worship experience.”
She wanted her son to have the faith-based camp experience. Learning that Special Touch Ministry was affiliated with the Assemblies of God she did the only thing she knew to do, she called the local Assembly of God pastor. After listening to her situation he said, “I’ll tell you what. I’d love to meet you and your son. Why don’t you bring him here to my office and we’ll see what we can do.” After meeting them both, speaking with them more, and learning a bit about their history, he signed the pastoral reference for her.
They showed up at camp and both of them accepted Christ THE VERY FIRST NIGHT! They had the best experience of their lives the rest of that week! They decided they needed to go to church their first Sunday home and where do you suppose they ended up? At the Assembly of God church whose pastor took a risk signing a reference form for a woman he barely knew. She explained further, “And, since that Sunday, we’ve never left the church. We absolutely love it!”
But…there is more to the testimony. As an on-going result of their life-changing experience at a Special Touch Summer Get Away, his non-disabled, twin brother got saved!
It doesn’t end there. His, devout Orthodox Jewish doctor noticed the change in the young man’s countenance asking, “What happened to your son? Something is different! He’s so happy and doing so well.” The mother replied, “Oh, he went to camp and got saved. We both did. We’ve become Christians!” The doctor said, “I knew something significant had happened!”
What a testimony! But… it still doesn’t end there! His Muslim girlfriend, who also had a disability, received salvation and so did her practicing Muslim mother and they both joined a local Baptist church!
That’s what Special Touch Ministry is all about… bringing Christ into the center of disability, making the Cross accessible and allowing God to use anyone... He changes EVERYTHING!
