By Keith Stringfellow, who serves with InFaith in California
The Luv Em Up Ministries’ team of six adults with special needs and four volunteers joined the staff of Summit Adventure for an amazing week of camping amidst the Giant Sequoias, hiking to an overlook of the Yosemite Valley, viewing waterfalls, and rock climbing. Most people could drive away and do these things any day, but our folks bound by developmental disabilities rarely get beyond their city of residence, much less have others challenge them to overcome their simple fears with such activities.
The Go-4-It trip proved to be an incredible discipleship opportunity. More important than learning basic outdoor skills, our team experienced an abundance of God’s grace, joy, unity, and love for one another. Those more highly functioning team members learned to help the others who were restricted to wheelchairs. Those who were confident and healthy learned to pray for those who were afraid or not feeling well.
We learned to recognize the strengths and gifts God put in others. For example, our leaders lost the way to the rock climbing site on a maze of narrow, rugged mountain roads. Since no one knew which road we were to take at the last major intersection, I asked one of the team members to ask Jesus which way we should go. (She had been sharing many things the Lord was saying to her, and she was clearly hearing His voice.) She asked the Lord out loud in our van, and within a few seconds Jesus replied. “He said go right,” she conveyed. We turned around and followed the path she heard from the Lord and were soon right where we were supposed to be. Praise the Lord!
The theme verse for Luv Em Up is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We are all limited by some sort of disability, perhaps by God’s great design, in order to help us look to Him and rely upon the gifting in the body of Christ. Through Christ and His Spirit, we are all capable of much more. This team is a great testimony to that! Though their fears may look very different from mine, the character these campers demonstrated was a profound example to me. As a result, I found myself treating them very well – with patience, love, rejoicing in the little things, and helping them look to Jesus in every situation – and He convicted me that it’s time to do this better for my own family.
