What’s more, a recent report from a U.S.-based analysis organization says there are grounds to believe that Ethiopian forces and allies committed genocide against Tigrayans in the war. In a report released June 3, 2024, New Lines Institute calls for Ethiopia and its allies to be held accountable for their role.

A map of Ethiopia with the Tigray region highlighted in red. (Photo courtesy of TUBS via Wikimedia Commons)

As these events unfold, we know there are deep wounds in Tigray that only God can heal. Johan Grobler with MegaVoice recently traveled to Ethiopia to bring nearly 300 audio Bibles to encourage believers in Tigray.

He said the team heard conflicting reports, even though they themselves had no incidents in traveling. “Some people would say, ‘You don’t dare to travel there, and even wider in the region for fear.’ But I think that’s often what happens, that the evil one wants to instill fear into Christians and eventually the work [is brought] to a halt or is hampered in the process.” 

Grobler and his team were able to deliver audio Bibles to a church, a special needs school and a local women’s ministry. MegaVoice estimates that every audio Bible reaches 10 people of all ages. 

“You usually wouldn’t let your children play with your phone. But you can leave the audio Bible with them and they can listen to the Bible or children’s stories,” Grobler says.

You can find your place in the story through prayer. Praise God for sending His Word to people in Tigray, and ask for peace and healing for the region. 

“People can pray for those that are persecuted to stand firm, because the evil forces want people to move out of the region because it gives them more control of the region. So we can pray that those that have left the region would be able to come back,” Grobler says.

“We can pray that the Church will grow, that the church would minister the Word wherever and whenever possible.”

Click to learn more about MegaVoice’s ministry to bring God’s Word to the world. 

Header photo of man walking by a destroyed tank in the Tigray region June 5, 2021 courtesy of Yan Boechat/VOA via Wikimedia Commons. 

Audio Bibles can also bless kids with a variety of special needs. In early May, MegaVoice connected with parents and churches who have special needs children. The event, Make ‘m Smile, comes from the foundation Nathaniel’s Hope; it connects these families to local resources available to them. 

“They estimate that 20% of kids under 18 have dyslexia. Another 13 to 15% have other reading disabilities, which could be because of physical disabilities, [such as] they can’t turn the pages,” Darrel Templeton with MegaVoice says. 

MegaVoice STORYTELLERS stuffed animals come with durable audio players loaded with Scripture for kids to use. (Photo courtesy MegaVoice)

“So here’s [a] possible population among our young people of almost 30% that have some kind of reading disability. We give them, through audio, a chance to engage with God’s Word.”

The handheld players are easy to navigate and full of content geared toward kids. 

“This is a way that parents and grandparents can help their kids with great Bible stories, audio scriptures to help give their kids truth in a way that’s fun and engaging that doesn’t require internet, doesn’t require a screen,” Templeton says. 

If you are part of a special needs ministry, Allen Decker with MegaVoice encourages you to reach out to their ministry, or to groups like Joni and Friends or Torch Trust. Whether you’re looking for help to start a program to reach kids with special needs, or build up an already-existing ministry, they have resources that can help you bring God’s Word to kids!

Click here to reach out to MegaVoice. 

Header photo: Millions cannot read Scripture. They need to be able to hear it, and not just on Sundays. Photo courtesy of MegaVoice.

LSESD Partner Relations Coordinator Daniella Daou says, “In Lebanon, we have no mandated special education, so students we serve at schools would leave at grade 9 or 10, with no future in sight in terms of academic or vocational education.”

How the partnership works

On NDU’s campus, SKILD operates an office that helps students struggling with their academic performance. NDU psychologists work with the students to help them find the best academic practices for their education.

The partnership also led to a new, 2-year certificate program for students that cannot enroll in traditional institutions. Daou says this program is the only one of its kind in Lebanon. “The students take academic courses, as well as life and social skills courses. They audit regular university courses, they have internships on campus and off-campus.”

“We want them to be equipped academically and in their social skills to become independent citizens.”

Daou says LSESD wants to foster a culture of inclusion in higher education. “That’s what we don’t have right now. We are modeling the inclusive community on campus that we hope to see on a larger scale someday.”

SKILD’s work has brought together Christians from many different Christian and religious groups in Lebanon.

How to pray

Pray God’s love would be evident in the work of SKILD and the other branches of LSESD.

Since the economic crisis began, SKILD has lost a lot of qualified staff members as people flee the country. Daou says, “This has affected our capacity to run assessments as usual and serve kids. Please pray that we find qualified, passionate, people.”

LSESD expects more power cuts this month as well, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ask God to sustain the ministry.

The header photo shows Lebanon’s Notre Dame University. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

COVID-19 has shut down schools around the world, and kids with learning differences in Lebanon need extra support.

Hiba Al-Jamal explains the LSESD  program helps a lot of different students, both at public and private schools. As COVID-19 has prevented in-person work, SKILD has moved online. “That means whoever is able to do the online session, we continued with them online. That doesn’t cover all the population that we work with, just those who are able in different aspects: financially, internet wise, location-wise, and in terms of their needs.”

A SKILD summer camp picture from 2018. (Photo courtesy of LSESD on Facebook)

It’s a big shift for SKILD, since workers do a lot of one-on-one work with students. Al-Jamal says, “With the online thing, you are far away from the students, so you need the parent’s involvement with you. Whenever the parents were able to support, we were more successful than other areas.” SKILD workers have used a lot of different tactics for different students, like making videos for the kids to watch on their own.

Why Lebanon needs this program

SKILD goes to these great lengths because this program is so necessary. Al-Jamal says, “In the Lebanese educational system, providing support to special needs kids is optional as the government doesn’t have the financial and human resources means to do so at all schools. In many schools, SKILD is providing that support to help those marginalized students continue their educational journey.” 

Al-Jamal encourages Christians to pray for this vital work going on in Lebanon. “We set the train on the path, and we don’t want to have COVID-19 or the financial crisis in the country bring us back to the station. We want to continue the journey, so prayers will definitely help us open different paths so we can continue on this journey with special needs kids that deserve every education.”

The work SKILD is doing demonstrates the love of Christ for all people and the power of the Gospel. Pray this work can continue unhindered.

COVID-19 has closed classrooms around the world. (Image by Denise McQuillen from Pixabay)

We’re referring to people with disabilities. Kim Kargbo is the CEO of Women of Hope International. She says their ministry works in two ways to address the needs of women who have a disability or a child with a disability.

In Sierra Leone, they work directly with these women to bring them empowerment and a renewed sense of self-worth. In the United States, they train ministry leaders to rethink disability and find ways to incorporate individuals affected by a disability into the Body of Christ.

Sierra Leone

(Image courtesy of Women of Hope International via Facebook)

In West Africa, people with disabilities hang out on the margins of society.

Kargbo says, “For people in Sierra Leone — and also really what we find is in most of the developing world — people with disabilities are treated as outcasts because the mentality is that they’re either cursed by God, or they are a demon, or not fully human. So out of that then springs a lot of attitudes and behaviors that affect their life in general and how well they’re integrated or not into community life.”

It’s not uncommon for them to have a low opinion of themselves and their abilities. They feel they have little potential to do something with their life. All too often, they turn to begging. They are identified by their disability and their poverty.

Kargbo has lived in Sierra Leone for many years. She’s seen ministry come and go. Their failure, she says, stems from their focus. In their well-meaning attempts to bring about economic empowerment and help these individuals overcome their disability, they end up missing some of the deeper issues.

“What we do is really start much lower than that and begin to talk to people and educate people on their value. And as the women themselves have begun to change the way they think about themselves and who they are and what their potential is, they begin to act differently.”

She says they begin to take care of themselves — doing simple things like bathing again.

They start to own their dignity and interact with individuals who are without disabilities.

The community starts to take notice, and stigmas and traditions are challenged.

With a renewed sense of value, these women start to see, not only can they do something with their lives, they realize they can help others. And that, Kargbo says, is key.

Equipping the Body

Women of Hope helps women see because they are Image-Bearers of God, they are inherently valued and valuable. They have skills and abilities that are useful and needed within the Body of Christ.

(Photo courtesy of Women of Hope International via Facebook)

After an individual has started to recognize their value, they can begin to take on other things. Women of Hope is a multi-faceted ministry. They offer education, skills training, parenting classes, literacy training, job assistance, Bible studies, and discipleship groups. In addition, they have a fair trade initiative that helps these women generate an income. They even work with agricultural projects. Another big area of this ministry is advocacy. Not only do they work with Churches in the United States, but they try to educate communities, too.

When asked why they focus on Sierra Leone, Kargbo says,“I figure if something like this can be successful in Sierra Leone where people who are in the very bottom of the economic scale can become productive and can find Christ and begin living out their purpose He has intended for them, then it should be able to work anywhere.”

Considerations

The World Health Organization says about 15 percent of the world has a disability. Because of the social stigmas that come into play in some areas of the world, Kargbo says we’re talking about the biggest unreached people group there is.

She says, “There’s a lot of talk in missions about unreached people groups and reaching people who have never heard the Gospel. Even among reached people groups, the disabled among them are still unreached because they are so marginalized, so hidden away, and not given access to the information or the resources that the community has access to.”

She encourages us to remember to look past the needs of someone with a disability and see them as God’s valued creation. While it’s important to meet what needs we can, the biggest thing we can do help equip and integrate them into the Body of Christ. Just as any of us, they have a purpose and a function to serve God. In other words, they need to know they can minister to others just as much as they need to be ministered to.

Learn more about Women of Hope here.

A Terrible Experience

Image by The King’s Table Ministries

WOOD TV reports Brittany Miller’s son, Granderson, was imitating fire alarms as the two shopped. Granderson loves fire alarms and focuses a lot on learning as much about them as possible.

One of the ways he does so is by imitating their noise. Yet, he wasn’t only imitating fire alarms because he loves them, but also because it’s a coping mechanism when surrounded by a lot of other noises.

And at one point while shopping, Miller turned away from her cart to help her son with his shoe. In that moment an anonymous passerby left her a rude note in her cart which read, “Buy that kid a muzzle!”

With no idea to who planted the note, Miller took her story to a local news station in hopes of raising awareness.

But that’s the problem isn’t it, very few people are aware of autism and other disabilities. So when encountering someone with special needs, many people don’t recognize a disability or simply don’t know how to handle the situation.

Sally Gallagher with King’s Table Ministries says, “For a parent, it’s devastating. You know, I’ve been in that situation where people have made comments and you love your child, you love your sister or brother, and it’s devastating because you know who they are as a person.”

Gallagher, who’s sister and daughter both have special needs, has dealt with unkind people nearly her whole life. But these sad interactions have given her a heart for ministry to special need individuals and their families.

Why King’s Table Ministries Exists

King’s Table Ministries, a non-profit organization, strives to advocate for special needs people and their families. Doing so includes operating an office at the Grand Rapids Public Schools special needs campus – Lincoln schools, as well as through its presence in the Hampton House and local churches.

Andrew, a student at Lincoln Schools, makes a silly face for his picture.

However, King’s Table Ministries also connects with individuals and their families to help anyway possible. And in the process, King’s Table Ministries is sharing the Gospel, too.

“Parents are exhausted, they have enough problems trying to access the system trying to get help for their child,” Gallagher explains.

“There’s just a lot going on and so that’s kind of like the straw the breaks the camel’s back when you can’t go to the grocery store because somebody’s going to alienate you and your child.”

But this alienation can change — beginning with the Church.

Families with special needs children need a safe haven. They need people who love them, accept them, and try to understand their struggles. They need support.

And that support can be as simple as bringing over cookies to a tired mom, hanging out with a family on their own turf, and treating special needs people and their families with Christ’s love.

After all, for these individuals and their families, they experience a lot of heartache in society. But being loved by Christ’s body speaks volumes, not about Christians themselves, but about God.

It’s a living testimony of the Gospel where actions speak louder than words. Christ didn’t die for only the physical and mentally adept, but for all who believe He is God’s perfect son who isn’t dead in the grave, but alive.

Be a Solution

So if you would, help. Be a part of the solution in a society that is seemingly unaware of some of its peoples’ struggles. It can start with a simple hello, special needs education, and loving people.

(Photo Courtesy King’s Table Ministries)

“I’m available to speak and share [about] the different disabilities. Basically, though I go at it about their personhood, because that’s what it’s really about,” Gallagher offers.

“The disability helps you to understand maybe why they respond or react or behave the way they do. But understanding them from a personhood perspective is a much better foundation to build relationships.”

Gallagher is willing to speak in front of churches, organizations, and even just friends gathered together in a backyard. Just contact Gallagher at sallyktm@gmail.com.

Prayers

But also, please pray for the protection of special needs individuals, their families, and for a solid support system.

Pray for special needs awareness, for people and communities to see people with special needs not as someone who acts weird or is incompetent, but as someone just like them who lives a little differently and still needs love.

And pray especially for churches to open their doors to the special needs  community. As for King’s Table Ministries, pray for its expansion from Grand Rapids, MI into the Muskegon, MI area as well as for the finances needed to sustain the ministry.

Lend a Helping Hand

Another big way to help King’s Table Ministries is through volunteering. The non-profit organization is always in need of extra helping hands. So take a chance and join their team!

To volunteer with the King’s Table Ministries or to learn more, just contact Cathy Tyska at cathy@kingstableministries.org.

Another way to join the King’s Table Ministries in its work is coming this October. The King’s Table Ministries is hosting a fundraising dinner at Cornerstone University. Tickets can be bought for individual seats or entire tables (seating 6).

To learn more about this fall’s fundraising dinner, contact the King’s Table Ministries at cathy@kingstableministries.org or call 616-648-4301.

Want to tangible help the King’s Table Ministries? Then click here!

Contact King’s Table Ministries via postal service using the following address,

PO Box 225, Ada, MI 49301

(Photo courtesy of The King’s Table Ministries)

Today, that elephant is the fear and discomfort many face during interactions with special needs individuals. So, who is a special needs individual?

Well, a special needs individual is someone who may be cognitively and/or physically impaired, but it is mainly defined by a person’s developmental and the intellectual impairments.

The King’s Table Ministries, a Christian non-profit, for years has been serving special needs people, their families, and many others, such as caregivers, who are regularly in their lives. But the ministry is also connecting these people and their families to the message of the Gospel. Sally Gallagher, with the King’s Table Ministries, has a few words of wisdom to share.

The Elephant and Special Needs

“I think that people are basically fearful of anything, more when there’s an unknown. So I think that the unknown with a person with a disability is really where the fear stems from. They don’t know how to talk to them,” Gallagher explains.

“They don’t know what to say. They don’t know what to do. They think there’s something special that you have to do. They don’t know if they’ll understand them if they talk to them. So, it’s a combination, but I think the fear basically comes from being with them and not understanding their personhood is like anybody else’s personhood, even though they have a cognitive impairment.”

It’s an interesting concept, especially since people generally have relationships and usually pleasant interactions with animals, such as pets, on a fairly regular basis. Yet, there’s an unknown there too. And with people who are disable, there is enough fear and innocent ignorance to influence how the disabled population is often treated as a whole.

So how can this change? How can this fear, innocent ignorance, and discomfort become a thing of the past.

“Well, the best way of doing that is being able to become a part of their life. When you become a part of their life and really get to know them, because each person is different as they are a person, then you’ll know how they respond, how they react, what they’re understanding,” says Gallagher.

(Photo courtesy King’s Table Ministries)

Gallagher knows first-hand this works because for one, she grew up as a sibling or a disabled sister, and two, she is also the mother of a disabled daughter.

“My sister’s non-verbal, and I usually know what she wants. I talk to her, we do a lot of different things together. But I wouldn’t know that if I was a person who didn’t know her. If I didn’t just, you know, come in and sit with her and do things with her,” Gallagher shares.

A Response

A great way to get to know individuals with disabilities, their families, and to learn more about them is by volunteering with the King’s Table Ministries. At the King’s Table Ministries, there are a myriad of ways people can donate their time to working with special needs peoples and their families.

For example, there’s always extra hands needed during the holidays as the King’s Table Ministries prepares for different events. Or, there are regular year-round programs through the King’s Table Ministries, such as the dance team, that needs volunteers here and there.

Regardless of which way you get involved, volunteering with the King’s Table Ministries is a way to serve God and to answer His call to serve “the least of these.” For whatever we do to others, we do to Christ.

So why not show others the unconditional love, mercy, and grace Christ shown us to those who maybe can’t move or speak on their own. But they still have hearts that need to hear the Gospel.

In fact, the very unique aspect about the King’s Table Ministries is that it’s not only trying to fill a great need for families, but that it’s also sharing the Gospel with these same people who society often gets weirded out by.

Can’t Volunteer, No Worries

But, if there isn’t time to volunteer in the midst of a busy schedule, there’s always the option to financially support the King’s Table Ministries in a couple of ways. For one, there is the option to donate to the King’s Table Ministries, either as a onetime gift or a monthly gift, right on their site.

To donate, click here!

However, this October, the King’s Table Ministries is hosting a fundraising dinner at Cornerstone University. Tickets can be bought for individual seats or entire tables (seating 6) may be purchased as well.

To learn more about this fall’s fundraising dinner, contact the King’s Table Ministries at cathy@kingstableministries.org or call 616-648-4301.

But for now, please pray for God’s provision both for volunteers and financially for the King’s Table Ministries. Pray for the families and individuals with specials needs to hear the Gospel and to have changed lives and hearts because of it. And finally, pray for peoples’ eyes to be opened to the needs disabled individuals have and the love they need to be shown.

Jonathan Bollback of Help India Kids spoke with us regarding this issue. “Girls in India are not highly valued. And so, [with] a healthy girl not being valued, you can imagine that any girl who has any kind of a physical disability or an emotional one, they are even less valuable.”

Girls with disabilities have little value in an impoverished family

It’s not uncommon for families in India to abandon children because they can’t feed them. Unfortunately, this happens more often to girls. Abandoned children are susceptible to gangs, drugs, and the sex trade. So it’s easy to see how a child with special needs who is born into this culture doesn’t have much of a chance. In the family’s eyes, a child with disabilities can’t work and therefore will not bring in money. They are another mouth to feed: a financial burden. In the worst cases, they are kicked out, forced to face the world all on their own.

Bollback says there’s a little more leniency with boys. Some disabilities will still allow them to do typical work.

Building into the lives of abandoned children with special needs

This is the way things have been for a long time. In 1889, Pandita Ramabai founded Ramabai Mukti Mission, known as Help India Kids in the United States. She was burdened by the plight of Indian women and children and wanted to do something to help. Healthy girls and women were abandoned, but they weren’t the only ones. “There were the ones who had disabilities, there were the ones who had special needs. Pandita Ramabai “said, ‘Well they have value just as much as the next child,'” Bollback explains.

Pandita Ramabai, founder of the Ramabai Mukti Mission/ Help India Kids. (Photo courtesy of Help India Kids via Facebook).

Today, her mission fits in with one of the few entities in India willing to help: The Church.
Bollback says help for children with special needs is not as readily available in India as it is in the West.

“The Church in India, actually, is probably the best advocate for any kind of handicap and disability–having homes for the blind and the deaf and so forth.”

Nobody can reach their full life potential on their own. We need nurture and encouragement, and somebody who believes in us. Check back tomorrow to learn more about how Help India Kids is fulfilling those needs to make sure children are loved, valued, and given a chance to live their best life. Best of all, learn how they are teaching children about the love of Jesus.

One afternoon, Linda removed the cold-air return register from her wall and created an opening big enough for her to enter the adjoining bedroom. She repeated the process, and was about to enter a third bedroom when she was interrupted by caretakers.

“I am digging a tunnel so I can go to church when I want to, and not wait for a ride,” Linda explained, when questioned about her activities. It was a straightforward answer, though maybe not what the caretakers expected.

To Sally Gallagher of King’s Table Ministries, Linda’s story is a good reminder for Western believers. It’s easy to take freedoms–especially the freedom to attend church and fellowship with other believers–for granted.

“It’s very humbling to hear a story like that…that somebody, a sweet girl, would dig a hole in a wall… [to get to] her local church.”

You see, Linda is a member of an unreached people group that can be found within every nation. Though they often want to learn about Christ, Linda’s people are usually overlooked by Christians, even within the U.S.

“Sometimes we think they just go along happily in life; maybe they don’t understand Jesus, maybe they don’t worship, whatever the case may be,” says Gallagher. “Sometimes I think the Church forgets that…by developing relationships with them, it’s a huge blessing”

(Photo courtesy of The King’s Table Ministries)

Linda is a member of the special needs community. According to World Bank data, one billion people–or 15% of the world’s population–experience some form of disability. In the U.S., more than 56 million people, or 18.7% of the population, live with a disability of some kind.

King’s Table exists to connect this population with the Body of Christ. Often, Gallagher says, it’s a Matthew 9 scenario: the fields are ripe, but the workers are few.

“We could use another 50 to 75 volunteers,” Gallagher shares. “I could use some really solid, loving Christian people that would like to get involved in this ministry.”

Call the MNN office (800-284-9361) to be connected with Sally, or click here to fill out an e-mail form on the King’s Table website. If your church would like to open its doors to the special needs community, click here to learn about the King’s Table Local Church Initiative.

“I have many families that would like to be plugged in to a local church. I get phone calls and notes [asking where to go].”

Finally, remember Galatians 5:13 and 14: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Now, “the least of these” need your help more than ever.

Last April, Michigan launched its Healthy Michigan Plan, which expanded the income limit for those eligible for Medicaid. It shifted state coverage expenses from Michigan to the federal government, saving the state millions of dollars. But thinking Medicaid would cover the difference, the state cut funding by more than half to services for the developmentally disabled.

Now, it’s taking a toll.

“The budget cuts that are coming now down from the state of Michigan from the top down to the different counties are just horrendous,” says Sally Gallagher with The King’s Table Ministries, an organization in Grand Rapids, Mich. that connects the disabled community to the local church. “It’s causing a huge problem. It’s already displacing some of this people group because they’re coming in, and they’re cutting their services.

“The other thing that’s a huge loss is also the day programming and the skill building that they go to during the day. Normally it’s 5 days a week or 4 days a week for this people group, but they’re coming in and cutting it right in half, where they’re only able to go out in the community one day or maybe two days a week.”

One organization that’s especially bearing the brunt of the cuts is Network180. This mental health organization in West Michigan serves more than 50,000 individuals annually. In April, it was forced to make several cuts to its staff and services, citing a $5-million “funding shortfall.”

“We will need to begin to immediately reduce services to all populations we serve,” said Scott Gilman, Network180 executive director, according to an April 7 article by the Grand Rapids Business Journal. “This is extremely challenging, because the individuals we serve have severe disabilities and/or mental illness.”

Now more than ever, Michigan’s developmentally disabled need your help. It’s also a perfect time for the body of Christ to step in. Christians can make an eternal difference in the lives of everyone involved in the disabled community–and not just in Michigan.

“It’s just a really special thing to be a part of and watch when a church takes hold of one or two group homes in their community,” Gallagher says. “And they can engage them then by inviting them back into their church, so that they have a place to go and worship and be a part of the family of God.

“When the church comes in, the spiritual aspect of this is when they invite the people from the home back into the church, they can’t go anywhere alone….” Gallagher says. “So with them will come their caregivers, their families may take them, siblings. It may be a neighbor. It’s the best opportunity for evangelism there is.”

The King’s Table isn’t active in the political realm, but it’s being a voice for those without one. Can you come alongside this organization during this desperate time? Gallagher invites you to contact her, and she will help you find ways to get involved in the developmentally disabled community. Or, follow this link to provide financial resources.