Summit raises awareness about care for special-needs families

ARLINGTON—When Jason and Maggie Whitt talk about the impact of ministry to families with special-needs children, they speak from personal experience parenting 7-year-old Camille.

“It is important for the awareness to be heightened for families of children with special needs,” Jason Whitt told the Childhood and Family Ministry Summit, held at First Baptist Church in Arlington. “This will raise the awareness of the entire church.”

The Whitts live in Waco, where they are members of Day Spring Baptist Church, and he is associate director for the Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor University. In addition to Camille, they also have a 9-year-old son, Henry.

Camille’s father described how he transitioned his research focus from theology of politics to the theology of disability, an area he continues to study and teach at Baylor.

From grief to blessing

At the summit, the Whitts described their experience—from grieving upon first receiving the news of Camille’s diagnosis of a neurological disease, to embracing Camille’s life and seeing her as a blessing.

Due to her neurological disorder, Camille never will be able to walk, talk, crawl or feed herself. Although she may never engage the world in those ways, she provides joy to every person she encounters, her parents said.

From juggling medical appointments and insurance claims to logistics involved in caring for Camille’s needs each day, the Whitts told how they have learned to rely upon God and an army of helpful family and friends—including their church family.

Logistical challenges

Detailing struggles involved in simple outings as a family, Camille’s mother described the need to consider location, temperature control, accessible areas for feedings and changing, and a myriad of additional logistics.

As ministers understand the day-to-day stressors parents of special-needs children face, they can learn how to help, she stressed. She suggested providing a list of specific services a church can offer special-needs families.

Sometimes, the offer of “call if you need anything” is daunting to a family, but having a list of tangible ways people in the church can help makes life easier, she said.

‘Camille’s Companions’

For instance, members at Day Spring Baptist Church noticed Camille’s mother or father sitting outside the worship service with their daughter each Sunday during the sermon, so she could move around and make noise.

Volunteers offered to coordinate a schedule to sit with Camille, so her parents could remain in the worship service. Now, a team affectionately known as “Camille’s Companions” take turns sitting with her, and many have told the family it is the greatest part of their week.

“We focus on the blessings,” Maggie Whitt said. “Some days, this is much harder to do than others. There is always blessing. Camille herself is the biggest blessing of all. God is showing me how to find blessing and good, despite the circumstances. She is a true delight, full of love.”

Summit prepares leaders

The Childhood and Family Ministry Summit, with 375 ministers in attendance this year, has prepared leaders to become better teachers, ministers and parents the past 10 years. The event provides opportunities for networking, workshops, keynote addresses and introduction to a variety of tools and resources for ministry.

“The success is really measured by the teachers putting into practice the information they learned,” said Diane Lane, preschool and children’s specialist in discipleship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. “Our prayer before, during and after this conference is that people will be equipped to teach, and the results are children being closer to God.”

Tommy Sanders, provost and vice president for academic affairs at East Texas Baptist University, taught a preconference seminar on preparing to teach students of varying learning abilities within a classroom.