In today’s society, if you have a disability whether it be physical or mental, you are viewed as a burden to society or labeled as fragile or mentally incompetent to make responsible decisions. Discrimination against people with disabilities occurs frequently in the workforce, educational institutions, and, sadly, even in churches. Due to a common stereotype, that people with disabilities are completely different from those who are “normal,” most Slavic people, in churches, tend to shun away from those who look and act differently from the set standards of normal behavior and physical appearance.
On the twenty-third through twenty-fifth of August, I had the opportunity to be a part of a camp for people with special needs, which gave me an eye-opening experience. People with disabilities are no different from humans without disabilities. Just like any other humans, people with disabilities experience various emotions such as joy, excitement, fear, sadness, etc. In fact, they can sing, play instruments, and even memorize poems. They also value friendships and long for acceptance and love from others. Some of them even have leadership qualities while others cooperate better as team players. Their genuine love towards God drew my attention the most. Whenever they sang about God or read the Bible, their faces beamed with... joy! I witnessed their true genuine desire to worship God and serve Him with their lives by putting their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and having the desire to be part of the Body of Christ through baptism.
Dear reader, I encourage you to reevaluate your view of people around you with disabilities. Do you discriminate them as someone of a lower rank than you? Are we not all equal in the eyes of our Creator? Stop suppressing people with disabilities in churches, give them an opportunity to worship God together with everyone else as one Body “...for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Those of you who judge a disability as a by-product of sin, how can you be so sure in your judgment. Recall the passage from the scripture in which God sovereignly created a blind man to later receive glory through healing him (John 9:3). God never makes mistakes; He created us all for a specific purpose so that we can serve Him through our earthly bodies with or without disabilities. To Him be all the glory and praise forever and ever, Amen!
Viktoria Ionova
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