“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Gratitude isn’t just a response to good times; it’s a choice to trust God in every moment. When life is going well, thanksgiving flows easily. But in challenges, giving thanks becomes an act of faith, affirming that God is sovereign, loving, and working for our good. By practicing gratitude in all circumstances, we align our hearts with God’s will and experience His peace and joy, no matter what comes our way.
During this week of Thanksgiving, I want to stop and give thanks to God for the many blessings we have received as a ministry. I also want to give thanks to all who support our ministry. Without God and those that support us none of the following would have been possible.
We celebrate the fact that God has increased our reach and Kingdom impact. We have now worked with and resourced churches in 47 different states! If you know of any churches in Hawaii, Utah, or Rhode Island we would love to help them. Send them our way!
Beyond our work domestically we have now worked with and resourced churches in 45 different countries. In two recent examples, we have been working with a church in Switerzland and Lebanon. For the church in Switzerland, we are helping them lay the groundwork for not only becoming accessible but also having a ministry game plan as they look to launch something entirely new. For the church in Lebanon, we are providing them curriculum as they are seeing people pour into their church in the war-torn area that they minister in.
As you can see in the graphic below we have crossed over the 10,000 downloads mark for resources on our website. While we love and believe in all of our resources there is one that we celebrate more than any other and that is our baptism resources. We have now seen these resources purchased 183 times. Just imagine with me if each church that downloaded these resources saw just five people baptized. That would mean we had a part in seeing nearly 1,000 people baptized and giving their lives to Jesus. Halleluiah!
Yes, many of you know us because of the disability ministry curriculum we sell. We love creating it and resourcing churches with quality materials. You can see below just how many people have used our curriculum. If you want a free sample take a look here.
The other reason that many know about our ministry is the FREE consultations that we offer. People over the years have asked me why we offer this service for FREE when we could be charging for it. My response is always, “I don’t want anything to stand in the way of churches getting the help they need to reach their disability community for Jesus.” I always trust that God will take care of our ministry financially as we see to bless Him with things that we could charge for. And guess what! He hasn’t failed us yet and He won’t! Below you can see that we have worked with 334 different churches through our consultation services. Are you interested in a free consultation?
Another amazing thing happened this year. The Intervarsity Press book “Ministering to Families in Crisis” that I worked on over the past two years was finally released this fall. It is a must-have resource for any ministry leader. I was honored to write a chapter on ministering to families affected by disability.
Interested in this book? It makes a great gift for your pastor or any ministry leader you know. You can find it at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
The final thing I want to highlight and give God praise for is our universal-sized changing table grants. Many of you may not know that we award grants to churches that want to become fully accessible. No church is fully accessible without a universal-sized changing table. To date we have awarded 12 churches with these grants. Want to know more about our grant? Want to help us build up grant funding for churches? Buy one of our books “The Tale of the Shrinking Toilets.” The sales from this book fund our grant.
If you want to help us in our mission “to equip and empower the local church to reach their disability community for Christ” you can! Below are three different ways you can support our ministry and help us to grow the Kingdom.
None of these things would have been possible without the blessing of God and the many who support our ministry.
So, I say thank you!
