[Faith-talk] Church experiences

Thu Sep 10 06:35:01 UTC 2015

What a great question and I've been watching the responses. I've been pretty blast silly years and been excepted pretty well into any congregation I've been a member of. Like many others I've done some church shopping in my time. We have to keep in mind when we respond hear that our experienceis just that. Every community – city and faith community are different. I've had better luck with the Lutheran Church is I've attended than anyone else as far as being welcomed and included in activities. Growing up my UCC congregation was willing to let me do most anything. Catholic, baptists, and fundamentalists either wouldn't have anything to do with me or wanted to fix me. They didn't want me just as I am. I believe Jules would want me just the way he made me and that's why I bailed among other reasons. It disturbs me that I see church members treating visually impaired differently than the totally blind. I've had this experience many times with my boyfriend who lost his vision later in life. I was a new person to their congregation in Madison. He had been attending this Baptist Church for a year. Nobody really came up to him and spoke to him at all except the pastor. A couple here and there came up and said hello Shook his hand and then walked off just as he was trying to engage in conversation. However they did speak to me and asked me questions about him like he doesn't exist or couldn't speak for himself. 12 years ago I could see my congregation doing this but I am very proud of them they have never done this to any blind friend I have brought to church with me. Not that I didn't have to fight or charm them into understanding that I was quite capable and had a calling from God to share talents with them. In my current ELCA church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) people joke that I've done almost everything but preach. Well, it's almost true since I've taught Sunday school for all ages, served on several committees, submitted proposals for Service projects to council which were amazingly excepted, began on homebound Ministry to shut ins, volunteered to be a part of the process to find a new pastor, and gave children sermons when we were between pastors a few times. I'm not as involved as I used to be because I am planning to move, but as one person said on here quite a while ago your actions and attitude sometimes affect how you are welcomed in a congregation. St. Paul's Lutheran Church has been incredibly wonderful to me but I have tried so hard to give back as well. God has truly blessed me by putting me in this congregation. I have lots of good friends who are willing to pick me up at the bus station when I come from out of town, they call me when they're going to the grocery store asking if I need a ride, and we do fun things as well. I went from nobody talking to me either from being asked to be at church council and having to turn it down. Nothing changed overnight and I'll tell you there was a lot of prayer involved in these years of how to ask. God gives you what you need and how to ask for it as well as how to be active in your congregation at the right time. Now most of my time is spent lectoring, assisting with communion/eucharist, and being my congregations representative to an interfaithfaith-based human rights advocacy group which the pastor actually sought me out to do. God works in mysterious ways we have to remember that. I can't wait to see what he believes I can do next. I certainly know it will not be singing in the choir! 

Ericka Short
"Friends are like flowers in the garden of life"

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 8, 2015, at 11:03 PM, Rob Kaiser via Faith-talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I will do that, but I don't believe Victorville has such a program. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll call the city tomorrow.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rob Kaiser
> hm#(442)242-7044
> email;
> rcubfank at sbcglobal.net
> -----Original Message----- From: tina sohl via Faith-talk
> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 7:56 PM
> To: faith-talk at nfbnet.org
> Cc: tina sohl
> Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Church experiences
> 
> Rob, we have a cab subsidy program in our area and wonder if there's
> something similar for you if you haven't looked, maybe asking the city
> about it. We can a certain amount of money load  a month to get
> specific dollar amounts loaded on a cab card that we can use and the
> city we're subsidizes the rest. It does help some. have you looked in
> to such a thing? it might be worthy it.
> Original message:
>> There are busses but the service is very limmited on sundays & like the pera
>> transit service, they stop @8 pm on week days & 5 pm on weekends. Cabs are
>> just very dificult to get & II as I wrote before, they are very expensive.
>> There probably is another church but it would be further away & possibly
>> harder to get to as far as  transportation. Victorville is a great town in
>> may instances, but it isn't a good place for disabled individulas. Right
>> now, because of my limmited income, this is where I need to live.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Rob Kaiser
>> hm#(442)242-7044
>> email;
>> rcubfank at sbcglobal.net
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: tina sohl via Faith-talk
>> Sent: Monday, September 7, 2015 11:23 AM
>> To: faith-talk at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: tina sohl
>> Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Church experiences
> 
>> Are there not buses or cabs there? are there other churches you can
>> try? We have so far found our new church to be a very positive change.
>> Itt's not easy, but we felt restless and like things werent going
>> anywhere so felt god urging us to try somerthing else and so far it's
>> been very good.
>> Original message:
>>> Since I moved up here to Victorville, I have had a not-so-good church
>>> experience: I wanted  to join the choir but because of the lac of public
>>> and
>>> pera transit up here,  I needed rides to and from church. Not a one person
>>> has come forward to help  me in this endever.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>> Rob Kaiser
>>> hm#(442)242-7044
>>> email;
>>> rcubfank at sbcglobal.net
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Roanna Bacchus via Faith-talk
>>> Sent: Sunday, September 6, 2015 11:24 AM
>>> To: Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion
>>> Cc: Roanna Bacchus
>>> Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Church experiences
> 
>>> Hi Adrijana this is a great discussion topic.  My church
>>> expeerience has been wonderful.  I joined the choir in October of
>>> two thousand eight and the people were gracious and kind to me.
> 
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