Fran

One of my children, Luke, is autistic. He’s eleven now, and all his life I’ve had to fight to get the help and support he needs, whether from the education system or social services and even from our previous church … it’s always a battle. The one exception is this church. We have a Special Needs Co-ordinator at St Barnabas, Heather, who has helped Luke with anything he’s needed, and the children’s workers have bent over backwards to accommodate him.

This term, as he’s eleven, we had to decide whether or not he will move up with his friends from the church children’s group to the youth group. In such a large church it seems nerve-wracking to lump him in with so many teenagers – can we be sure he is ready? Helen, who heads up the children’s work, said she was happy for Luke to stay with the younger children as long as he needed to.

The week I was considering this, I came across an organisation on the internet called ‘Through the Roof.’ I’d never heard of it before. It’s a charity which helps churches to be accessible to people with any kind of disability, including autism. It was a helpful site so I read a few pages in it, and found some advice that was tailor-made for Luke. They advise always keeping a child with his age-group. I realised it was true that if we held Luke back, then at what point would he graduate to ‘youth’? And in the meantime he would have lost touch with the children he’s grown up with. There was also a message about the benefits to other children who can get to know and understand disability in a relaxed way that just becomes part of everyday life.

I made a note on my calendar to talk to Liz who heads up the youth work, at some point before the end of term. I was really pleased with myself for finding this website and I mentioned it to a few people.

‘What does Through the Roof mean?’ asked one. ‘Is it to do with reaching up to praise God?’

‘No,’ I said. To me it had been obvious straight away. ‘It’s from that Bible story where a paralysed man is taken by his friends to be healed by Jesus. They can’t get into the house where Jesus is talking, so they make a hole in the roof and lower their friend down in front of him.’

It’s a brilliant picture of what the church could be doing – making any changes necessary to let people meet with Jesus, however disabled, even if they physically have to make a hole in the roof!

I was at church as usual the following Sunday morning. When I went to meet Luke at the end of the service, Heather was there. She started telling me how good Luke had been in the group, apparently bursting into song and leading all the other children in worship. Then, before I could say anything, she said, ‘By the way, I’ve been talking to Liz. We think Luke would be fine to move up to youth, and we’re going to talk about finding him a buddy to help him settle in.’

I was speechless. I hadn’t needed to talk to lots of people and push and persuade to get Luke's needs met. Someone else had anticipated his needs, and already taken action to help him!

After thanking Heather I said, ‘Have you heard of an organisation called Through the Roof?’

‘Yes,’ said Heather. ‘They’re going to do some training for us.’

Then we went back to church for the afternoon service the same day and guess what the sermon was about? The paralysed man who was lowered through the roof to meet Jesus.

It felt that God was showing me that he was arranging everything to allow my son to meet with Jesus, through some very helpful servants of his at our church, just as he had done for the paralysed man in the story.

Luke has since moved up to the youth group. With support from the youth leader and advice from his class teacher to help establish the right kind of structure, Luke is joining in the activities and enjoying the social side of the group.