The Paralympics is an opportunity to inform, engage.

During the Paralympics, we invite you to take one of the Sundays of the Games to honor those with disabilities and to increase understanding and skills of how to help others.

IDEAS to consider:

• Use the attached insert in your bulletin – to provide simple ideas to help others.
• Interview a person during a service – a person affected by a hidden or seen disability (a person with a disability, family, friend or caregiver).
• Host a video stream of one of the Paralympics events (sledge hockey, opening ceremonies etc) on your large screen, and invite the community to watch together.  Host a party or meal alongside it.
• Consider attending a Paralympics event – as a church, home group to cheer and support.

Short Resource List:

• Online PDF:  "Hidden and Forgotten People: Ministry Among People With Disabilities" authored by Joni Eareckson Tada and Jack S. Oppenhuizen:    http://www.lausanne.org/documents/2004forum/LOP35B_IG6B.pdf.  The second portion of the document is full of practical ideas for churches.
• Website: The New Human Right's Treaty that echoes Biblical acknowledgement of those with disabilities.  UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities:  http://www.un.org/disabilities/
• Website:  http://www.invisiblenation.net
• Books:   "Friends" and "When God Weeps" both by Joni Eareckson-Tada

Scriptures:        

• Luke 14:21-23  Luke 14 Mandate, "Go find the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind....so My Father's house may be full."  Jesus underscored this mandate 3 times in this chapter
• John 17:21  God's whole enterprise on planet earth was built on the quality of our relationships, "May they be one, just you are in me and I am in you...so that the world knows that you sent Me."
• II Cor. 12:9  God's Power is Displayed in Our Weakness.   Do we honor Him with it?  "My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness."
• Micah 4:7-7   "In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame (those with disabilities) and gather the outcasts.... I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.  I will make a STRONG NATION... a showcase exhibit of God's rule in action."

Para:  to come alongside