{"id":1010,"date":"2011-06-26T04:11:39","date_gmt":"2011-06-26T08:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2011-06-25T12:29:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T16:29:16","slug":"giving-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/06\/giving-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Giving back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Giving Back<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>by Michelle Demeree<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Shelly is a deacon at The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. \u00a0Her work has appeared in several places, including being a regular guest columnist for A Simple Life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to share some thing with you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to share ourselves and our group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We are The Special Gathering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to be like others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We also want to give back to others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to put smiles on your faces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to share what we have with you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We will share our seats with you.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1011\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1011\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/234\/2011\/06\/Shelly-will-be-sharing-her-thoughts-on-this-page3.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1011\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/234\/2011\/06\/Shelly-will-be-sharing-her-thoughts-on-this-page3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1011\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelly Demeree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Come and sit down with us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to sit with you and be together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We want to show you our love for Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giving Back by Michelle Demeree Shelly is a deacon at The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. \u00a0Her work has appeared in several places, including being a regular guest columnist for A Simple Life. We want to share some thing with you. We want to share ourselves and our group. We are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,20,3,182,40,186,49,16,8,4],"tags":[690,21,688,696,7,699,715,701,689,24,692,6,700],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-disability","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-simple-truths","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-michelle-demeree","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Giving back - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/06\/giving-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giving back - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Giving Back by Michelle Demeree Shelly is a deacon at The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. \u00a0Her work has appeared in several places, including being a regular guest columnist for A Simple Life. 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Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Giving back - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/06\/giving-back.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Giving back - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"Giving Back by Michelle Demeree Shelly is a deacon at The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. \u00a0Her work has appeared in several places, including being a regular guest columnist for A Simple Life. We want to share some thing with you. We want to share ourselves and our group. 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