Hope for Hannah: Part One

I had a great breakfast meeting this morning.

Pastor Bob sent me an email and asked if I would join him at Paneras to meet with the Szymanski Family, Stan and Cindy with their children Joshua (age 10) and Hannah (age 8). I know Hannah. Hannah is very small for her age, permanently confined to a wheel chair, requires the constant love and attention of her parents and is a story of God's faithfulness and provision.

When her parents had to deal with what was Hannah's progressively worsening condition (but they found ways to turn that around-see Hope for Hannah: Part Two!), they have also had to learn to deal with what it means to become a family of the disabled. I listened in ernest as they told me of the treatments, the breakthroughs in finding vitamins that actually reduce some of Hannah's suffering and the trips and weeks in the hospital that work not only days but weeks at a time.

I found out that her disease has a name; actually two names: Williams Syndrome and Batten Disease. She is a "one-in-two-billion" child as her dad told me that there will be more people that die of choking on French fries then these two diseases.

What struck me however, wasn't the technicalities of a family dealing with a disabled child but what Stan and Cindy told me about what should be an opportunity for the church. Like many people, I don't think that we in the church want to avoid the disabled, we just don't know what we are to do. Fortunately for those that want to know, Jesus gave us some advice. He said, 'Go out quickly into the streets and the alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled (obviously before our PC language became important), the blind and the lame" (Luke 14:21). These are the people that are invited to the great banquet.

One of the words of advice that Hannah's family gave Pastor Bob and me were to make sure that we tried to find ways to truely engage the families of the disabled. They need angels that can help. Angels that can come and help for an hour, an afternoon or even a day. Many of the families come to church and need to sit with their son or daughter or family member in the hallways or in the lobby. Church becomes a difficult place as we've made sure that we've become "accessible" but that is typically the building, not the people inside.

With over 600 million people in the world that have disabilities that are in need of a friend according to Joni and Friends, an international Christian Ministry with a focus of helping the disabled. If we are the Body of Christ, we can and should be reaching out to them.

If you are interested in helping Hannah. Go to the family website at www.stashsongs.com