{"id":2171,"date":"2011-11-19T21:45:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T02:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=2171"},"modified":"2011-11-19T21:45:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T02:45:10","slug":"why-cant-i-be-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html","title":{"rendered":"Why can’t I be there?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alone, I left the event which our members and I had attended.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I was once again saddened that there are so many mentally challenged people who live in our community who are still unchurched. \u00a0We were all attending a fall festival that is sponsored by the AKtion Club.<\/p>\n

Bob walked all by himself. \u00a0When I spoke to him, he was genuinely pleased. \u00a0Yet he soon wandered off by himself again because he isn\u2019t close friends with anyone. \u00a0He is a bit higher functioning than many people in our community but not beyond most members of The Special Gathering. \u00a0He needs friends but mostly he needs the One who desires to be his Best Friend and Redeemer.<\/p>\n

Seven young people in our community were hanging together laughing too loudly and being inappropriate. \u00a0Behind the silly giggles, their looks were much like those of many young people their age\u2013lost and afraid. \u00a0They know I\u2019m \u201cthe pastor.\u201d \u00a0When I approached, they scatter like roaches, laughing in embarrassment. \u00a0I wish I knew them well enough so they knew they could trust me and the Savior my presence represents to them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, I was met with hugs and joyful greetings by most of the people in our cloistered sub-culture but my heart aches for those who aren\u2019t sure they can trust me. \u00a0I hunger to share with them the love of the Lord.<\/p>\n

Who are some of the people you meet who aren\u2019t comfortable with you? \u00a0Could it be because of your relationship with the Lord?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alone, I left the event which our members and I had attended. I was once again saddened that there are so many mentally challenged people who live in our community who are still unchurched. \u00a0We were all attending a fall festival that is sponsored by the AKtion Club. Bob walked all by himself. \u00a0When I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,186,49,16,8],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,715,701,694,689,6],"class_list":["post-2171","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-mentally-challenged-community","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy can't I be there? - 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\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why can't I be there? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alone, I left the event which our members and I had attended. I was once again saddened that there are so many mentally challenged people who live in our community who are still unchurched. \u00a0We were all attending a fall festival that is sponsored by the AKtion Club. Bob walked all by himself. \u00a0When I…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-20T02:45:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/fall-festival-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why can't I be there? - 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\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why can't I be there? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"Alone, I left the event which our members and I had attended. I was once again saddened that there are so many mentally challenged people who live in our community who are still unchurched. \u00a0We were all attending a fall festival that is sponsored by the AKtion Club. Bob walked all by himself. \u00a0When I…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-11-20T02:45:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/fall-festival-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html","name":"Why can't I be there? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/fall-festival-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-11-20T02:45:10+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-20T02:45:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/fall-festival-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/fall-festival-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/why-cant-i-be-there.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why can’t I be there?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2175,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}