{"id":1315,"date":"2011-08-05T05:39:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T09:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1315"},"modified":"2011-08-04T23:15:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T03:15:43","slug":"now-i-have-my-own-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/now-i-have-my-own-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Now I have my own church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For\u00a0almost a year, I thought Peter was non-verbal.\u00a0 Unaccustomed to his speech patterns, I didn’t understand that his low-bass mumbles were words.\u00a0 I had started our DeLand Special Gathering program, which is a ministry within the mentally challenged community,\u00a0with two members, Peter and Dale.\u00a0\u00a0 Our purpose is evangelism and discipleship of this wonderful\u00a0population.<\/p>\n

Dale was\u00a0less than four feet tall, vibrant, truly nonverbal and thin.\u00a0His black hair was straight and kept trimmed.\u00a0\u00a0Dale’s\u00a0dark eyes sang with joy.\u00a0 The smile pasted on his face was a sincere expression of a grateful, cheerful man. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter was overly thin and\u00a0stood at least\u00a0six feet, two inches\u00a0tall.\u00a0 Solemn, serious, observant and quiet,\u00a0Peter makes a variety of noises that mimic perfectly\u00a0the sounds of various vehicles and pieces\u00a0of equipment.\u00a0 \u00a0He loves to eat; but he doesn’t like ice cream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That first year, we met in the YMCA.\u00a0 I carefully and meticulously set up the room each week for 12.\u00a0 Soon Greg\u00a0 joined our trio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was after his friend Greg began to attend regularly that Peter joined our Bible study discussion. Each Sunday, during our refreshment times that bled into our final session which was a Bible study, I would engage the three in conversation.\u00a0 Dale had many signs that he used to communicate; but they were his own made-up language.\u00a0 His mother\u00a0sat \u00a0discretely at another table and interpreted for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One afternoon, I asked the men to share about the Lord with me.\u00a0 “Why are your coming to Special Gathering?”\u00a0 “Is Jesus your best friend?”\u00a0 “Do you love Jesus.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dale signed excitedly that he loved Jesus.\u00a0 Normally-talkative Greg smiled and shrugged, shaking his head in agreement to Dale’s signs.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the others had responded Peter began to speak loudly and clearly.\u00a0 “When I lived in Georgia, I went to church every Sunday.\u00a0 I loved going to church.\u00a0 Then we moved to Florida; and I couldn’t go to church any more.\u00a0 I prayed and prayed.\u00a0 For nine years I prayed.\u00a0 Every day I prayed that I could go to church again.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

He paused as though the burst of words had taken his breathe away. Then with\u00a0an intense\u00a0seriousness that I’d seldom seen from anyone, Peter said,\u00a0“Now I have my own church.”\u00a0 His eyes welled up with tears as he took a large gulp of his juice.<\/p>\n

I fought the tears as I absorbed Peter’s words.\u00a0 During\u00a0that first\u00a0year, I prayed almost every Sunday after the program, asking God,\u00a0\u00a0“Why am I in DeLand?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

This city wasn’t even\u00a0in our Master Plan for Expansion<\/em>.\u00a0 The next place we planned to grow was Vero, not DeLand.\u00a0 But a delegation of parents and professionals had met with our executive director and asked that we start a program in DeLand, which is 100 miles from my home and 20 miles from Daytona where we had another program.\u00a0 We had started with two people and after one full year of faithfully teaching and visiting and struggle, our numbers had grown to three.\u00a0 I could not understand why I was making this long trip each Sunday afternoon\u00a0for three people.<\/p>\n

I packed up my equipment, jumped\u00a0into my vehicle and headed for Daytona.\u00a0 There\u00a040 people would gather for a Sunday evening Special Gathering\u00a0worship service and Bible study. \u00a0Feeling more humbled than anytime I could remember, I could not hold back the tears.\u00a0 The familiar highway blurred as I cried.\u00a0 Out loud, I repeated again and again, “Thank you, Lord.\u00a0 Thank you for allowing me to come to DeLand.\u00a0 Thank you for allowing me\u00a0have\u00a0a part in your answering Peter’s prayers.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>God does not always\u00a0show his hand to us.\u00a0 Often, he desires simple obedience in the middle of questions and puzzlement.\u00a0\u00a0After more than 15 years, Peter still attends every time we have\u00a0Special Gathering.\u00a0\u00a0And I’m still\u00a0awed by the fact that God\u00a0allowed me to participate in the answer to\u00a0Peter’s nine-year prayer journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For\u00a0almost a year, I thought Peter was non-verbal.\u00a0 Unaccustomed to his speech patterns, I didn’t understand that his low-bass mumbles were words.\u00a0 I had started our DeLand Special Gathering program, which is a ministry within the mentally challenged community,\u00a0with two members, Peter and Dale.\u00a0\u00a0 Our purpose is evangelism and discipleship of this wonderful\u00a0population. Dale was\u00a0less…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,186,49,16,215,85,4],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,701,694,689,692,6],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-love","category-prayer-2","category-simple-truths","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nNow I have my own church - 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\/08\/now-i-have-my-own-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Now I have my own church - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For\u00a0almost a year, I thought Peter was non-verbal.\u00a0 Unaccustomed to his speech patterns, I didn’t understand that his low-bass mumbles were words.\u00a0 I had started our DeLand Special Gathering program, which is a ministry within the mentally challenged community,\u00a0with two members, Peter and Dale.\u00a0\u00a0 Our purpose is evangelism and discipleship of this wonderful\u00a0population. Dale was\u00a0less…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/now-i-have-my-own-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-05T09:39:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-05T03:15:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/old_church_chairs1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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