church2go

A number of years ago, my wife and I struggled with the behaviour and “quirkyness” of our eldest child, Jackson. With many trips to doctors and specialists the diagnosis eventually was that he was autistic or High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. This blew us away, we didn’t know where to turn or what to do. Thankfully, over a period of time we developed some support systems and found the assistance we needed to begin to develop the tools to give Jackson the best chance to reach his full potential.

Sadly, not everyone has access to that support. Rural NSW is often cut off from many of the support systems that are available in the city but as we have found living in the country has many of its own benefits.

We discovered that there is professional assistance, we just had to drive. We found that the local preschool and school offer support, help and encouragement beyond what we thought possible. Alongside that is the support from our family, local church and local community.

To highlight each of these support systems, to alert people in rural areas of the needs of children with autism, and introduce people to what autism is Marianne and I have decided to put together a series of “Rural Autism Understanding” events based around my hobby of riding Human Powered Vehicles, a pedal trike. Over a number of events I will ride 1000 kilometers at different venues around the Central West region of NSW. While I ride, we will have people available to explain autism and share some of the resources that we have found.

While this is not primarily a fundraising venture, more of a series of awareness rides, people can sponsor the rides or donate money to Aspect (Autism Spectrum NSW). To donate please go to www.gofundraise.com.au/RevJAmstrong At this website you can follow our fundraising progress and find out further details of the coming events. Also advertising space will be made available on the trike.

Part of the reason for doing this is to thank those who have helped us. Health professionals, doctors and pediatricians, speech and occupational therapists as well as other parents who have experienced similar issues with their children. Furthering that has been preschool teachers, school teachers and administrations as well as the people who attend our local church and live in our town of Yeoval. They have expressed care and love to us as a family and been specifically encouraging to Jackson and his little brother Flynn.

Please support kids with autism however you can.

 Rev John Armstrong 

Last week we talked about being accountable to each other, about judging people and such. This week we follow Paul’s thought processes as he uses the same principles to deal with the next issue.

He has heard that the people of the church are taking each other to court – suing each other.

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This is grose. This is against not only biblical law but was against the religious laws of the pagans and against the Roman law. 

This guy is part of the church – possibly in active leadership. Possibly a respected man of the church, How do we know that?

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Mums are amazing. That is a generalisation but when you think about it, it is true.

Their capacity for love is huge. They truly have a servant like attitude to their kids. From my perspective, I have seen my mum, and my grandmas and now my wife be servants. They have displayed to me the biblical principles of servant leadership.

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^{1CO 3:1} Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly–mere infants in Christ.

Hey now this is a huge put down. Not Spiritual people – they thought they were. Some thought they were more spiritual than others. And looking at it is a huge slap in the face because this was a growing thriving church. Very successful in church growth, they used their spiritual gifts, they were inclusive of the local people but Paul is hammering them saying they are not spiritual people.

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