This NFL Team Really, Really Loves Jesus - Faithwire

November 27, 2017

They. Love. Jesus. Carson Wentz Leads the Eagles in More Ways Than One From team baptisms, to Bible studies, to church service together, this team is one of the more spiritual teams ever assembled. He Should Be Dead - but Mom Never Quit Underwater for 15 minutes, mom continued to believe and pray. The teen fell in icy waters and was declared dead. 'I'm a Human Being, Just Like You' Powerful Rebuke of Those Who Wish to Eradicate People With Down Syndrome She is bringing truth, and the U.N. should be ashamed...

Faithwire, Inc. Faithwire 381 Park Ave S Suite 1201 New York, Ny 10016

All-Star Baseball Player Inspires the Israeli Special-Needs Community - N. J. SCHIAVI/KEHILA NEWS ISRAEL CHARISMA NEWS

Albert Pujols is making a difference in Israel. (Flickr/Keith Allison)

All-Star Baseball Player Inspires the Israeli Special-Needs Community

11/23/2016 N. J. SCHIAVI/KEHILA NEWS ISRAEL  CHARISMA NEWS

Baseball star Albert Pujols and his wife Deidre, president of the family's charitable organization, visited Israel for the first time, spending the past week in the Holy Land.

Pujols, who plays first base for the Los Angeles Angels, and Deidre made this off-season trip to the Jewish state to visit the spiritual sites of the country. The Pujols are strong Christians and very outspoken about their faith.

They are also advocates for people with Down syndrome. The Pujols' eldest daughter, Isabella (18), has Down syndrome.

One of the Pujols' stops in Jerusalem was Shalva National Children's Center, the premiere center in Israel for children with special needs. About 40 percent of Shalva's participants have Down syndrome.

Though Shalva has been in existence since 1990, in September, the organization opened the doors to its massive 200,000-square-foot center, which includes a semi-Olympic-size swimming pool, a basketball court and a municipal kindergarten for children ages 3 to 6.

Shalva's programs are offered free of charge, with programs for children with special needs from birth through 21 years old regardless of race or religion. With this new space, Shalva's programs will expand to include on-site vocational training for young adults, community sporting events and mentorship programs, while maintaining its traditional programs such as early intervention therapies, the after-school program and a respite center that serves 100 children each night.

After a tour of the facilities and a performance by Shalva's band for Pujols and his wife, the 10-time All-Star gave a quick batting practice for two Shalva teens with Down syndrome and signed autographs for the children.

The Pujols are a dynamo of life-giving endeavors. The Pujols Family Foundation, based in St. Louis, "promotes awareness of Down syndrome and works to support those who have it and their families, aids the poor in the Dominican Republic and supports people with disabilities and/or life-threatening illnesses," according to its website.

The foundation, founded in 2005, hosts events for people with Down syndrome, including a prom and cooking classes, and has supported the Down Syndrome Association of Greater St. Louis. In 2009, the organization opened the Albert Pujols Wellness Center for Adults with Down Syndrome in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Deidre Pujols, who developed a passion for cooking, started her own cookware line, the profits of which are donated to families in poverty. The couple's children attend the foundation's fundraising functions with their parents, and Deidre even took their eldest son on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

Pujols was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to America in 1996. He was drafted into the Major Leagues in 1999 and played for the Cardinals' farm team until he was called up to the majors in 2001. That year, he was named Rookie of the Year, and his career took off from there. After 11 seasons, three National League Most Valuable Player titles and two World Series with the Cardinals, Pujols signed a 10-year contract with the Angels in 2011.

Pujols became a believer through the Deidre's influence shortly after the two met and before his career took off.

"In the Pujols family, God is first. Everything else is a distant second," he writes on his website. "My life's goal is to bring glory to Jesus. My life is not mostly dedicated to the Lord; it is 100 percent committed to Jesus Christ and His will. God has given me the ability to succeed in the game of baseball. But baseball is not the end; baseball is the means by which my wife, Dee Dee, and I glorify God. Baseball is simply my platform to elevate Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior."

Isabella is the oldest of five children. The others are Albert, Jr.; Sophia; Ezra; and Esther Grace. The family lives in St. Louis.

The couple's visit to Israel was an inspiration to children with special needs and to believers in the land. 

For the original article, visit kehilanews.com.

3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!

Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.

Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.

The Group Forgotten by the Church by Ellen Stumbo

The Group Forgotten by the Church 

by Ellen Stumbo 

- Identity Network

 

I consider it an honor to be a pastor's wife. It is a privilege to be allowed into people's lives: their hurt, pain, devastation, joy, celebration, transformation. This church, this body of Christ - with all of its broken pieces along with its many gifts and talents - is beautiful. But it can also be so ignorant that it pushes away the most vulnerable.

 

Recently, I was talking to a friend who attends a large and thriving church. She wanted to ask me about a comment her pastor said from the pulpit, because she felt uneasy as soon as it was said.

 

"It saddens me to see people with disabilities in our church," he said. "It is a reminder that we do not have enough faith."

 

Now let that sit with you for a minute.

 

All Life has Value and Purpose

 

I wish this was the only time when well-intentioned church leaders show their ignorance on disability or their lack of understanding that all life has value and purpose. I wish this was an isolated incident in which someone failed to recognize that we are all flawed - all of us. 

Because what about the man that carries lust in his heart? Or the woman who is full of bitterness and jealousy? Are those not more damaging to our souls than a physical or intellectual disability? Do we not all need healing from the addictions, selfishness and pride that we carry?

 

Perhaps we have forgotten that life is a journey and the ultimate healing will come as we stand before the Lord, our bodies restored, our brokenness gone. All of us, every single one of us, healed!

 

My heart breaks as a member of this beautiful church when I see us failing the most vulnerable. When I see our ignorance crush a people group that needs us to come along their side and offer support, rather than judgment, of what we perceive to be a lack of faith.

 

So what do we say when someone prays and prays and prays for healing? That they don't have enough faith? That there must be hidden sin in their lives? Isn't that ultimately what we communicate? And what does that say about God? Doesn't this attitude foster a perception of an uncaring, detached, judgmental God?

 

When my daughter was born with Down syndrome, one of my friends confessed she thought I deserved it. She said that I must have done something wrong for God to give me a child with a disability. Sadly, this is the message she had heard from her church, the same church I had attended growing up, the same message I'd heard. Thankfully, at that point in life I had personal experience with children with disabilities. I also had a real, deep relationship with God, the same God that whispered to me, I don't make mistakes.

 

So I clung to this verse:

 

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

you formed me in my mother's womb.

I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking!

Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

I worship in adoration-what a creation!

You know me inside and out,

you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,

how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared

before I'd even lived one day (Ps. 139:13-16, MSG).

 

The Church's Response

 

So how does the church receive us families living with disability?

 

Here is a sad reality: 80 percent of families that have a member with a disability do not attend church. Yes, 80 percent!

 

Why?

 

There are several reasons, and I will let you hear from other families:

• My child is not welcomed in any of the children's activities; they said he is too disruptive.

• I took my child to Sunday school class, but they wheeled him to the corner, and he sat there until I came to pick him up.

• They said I had to keep my child with me because they had nobody that could help care for her during children's church. I tried, but she can be noisy, so an usher asked us to please leave the sanctuary because she was disrupting the service.

• I asked the pastor if we could possibly have someone help my child during Sunday school; they told me they were not responsible to find me babysitters.

• It's not worth it. My child cannot handle the sensory overload.

• When my child is loud, people stare at us and shake their heads. I even had people tell me that my child needs discipline. My child has autism, and they know it! I'm not going back.

• My child is welcomed, but almost every Sunday they call me and I have to go get her from her class. Why bother?

• I tried starting a special needs class for kids, but the church leadership did not support me; they said there was no need.

• For 20 years, my wife and I took turns going to church. One Sunday she would go and I stayed home with our son; the next one we switched.
• 
  

Sadly, there are many more stories like these, and I often wonder, "Why is it that nobody offered to babysit their child during the service? Or in their home? Nobody thought it would be good for the parents to go to church?"

 

I am especially astounded when I hear people say, "There is no need for a special needs focus in the church."

 

I'm going to switch gears just for a second here.

 

There is a strong home-schooling Christian movement where parents are concerned about the negative influence their children receive attending public school. Yes, it is a scary world out there, and I have considered home schooling myself. What our children get exposed to is devastating. Thankfully, there are so many Christian churches that fully support the home-schooling movement, investing time and resources to help this little community.

 

So isn't it sad, isn't it puzzling, that the only classroom where our kids with special needs are fully included is the public school classroom rather than the Sunday school class? Isn't there something wrong when the public school setting is more accepting, loving and supportive to kids with disabilities rather than the church?

 

Take a moment. Think about it.

 

Reaching Out

 

Did you know that 80 percent of marriages end up in divorce when there is a child with a disability in the family? So shouldn't the church support these families?

 

Did you know that special needs families feel isolated? So shouldn't the church be the place where they feel included?

 

Did you know that special needs families feel constantly judged? So shouldn't the church be a place where there is no judgment?

 

Did you know that people with disabilities are the largest minority in the world? Yes - the largest minority!

 

Disability ministry is a huge need! Let's wake up. We are the church!

 

Disability is a part of life. It has nothing to do with faith. It has nothing to do with healing. It has everything to do with being human. It has everything to do with being the body of Christ. People with disabilities are part of the body, and we need them. We need them just as much as they need us. We are all connected in this journey - all of us. All of us!

 

We have an unreached people group in our own backyard. A people group that has been marginalized by society for too long. It is time that as a church, we embrace them, we accept them and we celebrate them!

 

Instead of praying for healing, let's pray for God to open our hearts and our eyes to the needs of people and children living with disability. Let's figure out how to do life together. And let's embrace, forgive, celebrate, accept and love unconditionally.

 

And let's never forget that people/children with disabilities are people first, fearfully and wonderfully made.

 

This beautiful church has much to learn about disability. We need to create awareness and educate our leaders, and in doing so, it is important that we extend grace and forgiveness. You and I can be a part of the solution. Grace and forgiveness - we all need it.

 

Ellen Stumbo

www.ellenstumbo.com

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Mindsets

E-book PDF Download

By Jeremy Lopez
Price: $15.99
Sale! $7.99

Click HERE to order.

 

 

 

Sign up to receive our daily articles and receive 

2 FREE MP3 Teaching Downloads

from Identity Network

by Jeremy Lopez automatically.

 

(New Subscribers Only Please) 

 

*The Seeing Process of a Seer

*What Next God? Discouraged After Your Prophetic Word.

 A $20.00 Value

 

Print Friendly

Refusing Moral Hypocrisy, Parents Refuse to Abort Baby With 2 Faces - Jennifer LeClaire

Renee Young and Simon Howie

Refusing Moral Hypocrisy, Parents Refuse to Abort Baby With 2 Faces

 2/12/2014 JENNIFER LECLAIRE

Doctors want to put a premature end to their unborn baby's life, but one Australian couple refuses to take this hypocritical action just because their bundle of joy has two faces—and two brains. That Australian couple, Renee Young and Simon Howie, are my pro-life heroes this week.

The parents were admittedly shocked when an ultrasound revealed their twin baby girls were actually one baby with two faces and two brains. A 3-D ultrasound shows the baby has only two legs, two arms and one body.

Who wouldn’t be shocked and upset? That’s a natural reaction. But when doctors called for an abortion “because it would be looked upon by the public as a freak,” the couple stood on the side of life—and love—saying they would give birth to their baby and surround it with “people who love it.”

No baby has ever survived this condition, known as craniofacial hyperhidrosis or diprosopus (only 35 cases of the rare form of conjoined twins have ever been recorded), but this brave couple is nevertheless choosing life.

There was no mention of God in their story, yet A Current Affair titled its segment “Miracle Baby.” And when asked if they had a religious or moral objection to abortion, Howie said his objection was moral. But I, for one, am convinced God is in this mix!

“It’d be the same as being a child with autism or Down syndrome,” Howie told A Current Affair. “I don’t believe in terminating the baby if it’s healthy and growing fine, and everything is going to plan.”

Doctors told the couple their baby would be a “freak,” but the couple's sense of right and wrong is guiding them to choose life—even if the baby’s life turns out to be short. And who knows? Maybe it really will be a miracle baby. Is anything too hard for God? No, God can do a miracle in the womb. Why not give Him a chance? Can you imagine the impact a miracle of that magnitude could have on the pro-abortion movement that likes to terminate if babies are defected (or even an undesired sex)?

“If I only get two days with the baby, I only get two days with the baby," Young, now 19 weeks pregnant, told A Current Affair. "At least I have some time with it. That’s just the time we actually get to spend with the baby and its brothers and sisters get to meet their little brother or sister.”

It appears that the parents are neither on-fire Christians nor married, but they are still choosing life in an era that is largely focused on death. (Some commenters, for example, have even suggested euthanizing the baby as soon as it is born.) This couple is showing a dark world that you don’t have to be a Bible-toting, churchgoing, pro-life-sign-carrying Christian to celebrate life. You just have to respect the sanctity of life.

I am not sure why God allows these sorts of trials, but we know that if God doesn’t perform a miracle, the baby girl will go on to be with the Lord. We know that these parents are expressing love and the will of God despite no mention of His name. We know that God is getting glory out of this story as the parents choose to go against traditional medical advice for the sake of life and love.

And I believe that some scared, pregnant mother somewhere may just hear this story and decide to keep their perfectly healthy baby. I believe this couple’s story will give courage and inspiration to young women who are considering an abortion. I believe God will work the story of the so-called “miracle baby” out in conformity to the purpose of His will (Phil. 2:13). Even Howie said he had “hope and a little faith.” Ms. Young and Mr. Howie, God bless you!

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet. You can email Jennifer at jennifer.leclaire@charismamedia.com or visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email from CHARISMA MAGAZINE.