I’ll jump right in to my viewing recommendations for today, with an emphasis on developing relationships with families of kids with disabilities who aren’t currently a part  of our churches…

Libby Peterson made a great video on the theme of how we can move from being “with” to “one of” in the way we connect with families impacted by disabilities in her presentation Inclusion: An idea, an event or a lifestyle? Libby’s church began their ministry for families of kids with special needs through respite events and weekend worship inclusion. Libby discusses their efforts to move from ministry through programs to ministry through lifestyle. . .from asking families to come and be with us – to going to be one of them. Libby’s church has “left the building” to share Christ’s love through forming relationships with families of kids with special needs…on their own turf.

Barb Dittrich discussed the benefits of mentors for parents of kids with special needs in her video Making the Case for Mentoring. Barb describes the components required to create a strong special needs mentoring program and healthy mentoring relationships. She also provides an overview of SNAPPIN’ Ministries’ new mentor training curriculum, mentoring program, and ongoing support system for mentors and mentorees…developed with the assistance of another of our Inclusion Fusion faculty…Jolene Philo. Barb’s presentation is a useful introduction  to churches and organizations interested in launching mentoring initiatives to families of kids with special needs.

Marie Kuck of Nathaniel’s Hope discusses creative strategies to help the most fearful and inexperienced individuals begin to reach out to kids with special needs and their families through using fun and meaningful outreach opportunities in her presentation… Bridging the Gap Can Be Fun And Not So Scary. Nathaniel’s Hope has engaged thousands of “green” volunteers thru their annual Make ‘m Smile festival, Christmas Outreach and respite care programming.

Harmony Hensley and Rebecca Hamilton put together companion videos introducing Key Ministry’s FREERESPITE initiative. Would you like your church to join with Christ-honoring churches across the U.S. in providing high quality, church-based respite care for children with disabilities and their “typical” siblings? Harmony and Rebecca would like to help you take the next steps.

We had a little snafu with the live chat technology on the website yesterday afternoon that lasted from the end of Dr. Cara Daily’s chat through much of John Knight’s chat. We have a new chat window today. You’ll see a bar on the top of the page saying “Click Here for Live Chat.” Click on those words, enter any user name you’d like, then click on the “Connect” button…you’re in.

Today’s Live Chat schedule…

10:00 AM-11:00 AM: Cindi Ferrini

12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Jolene Philo

1:00 PM-2:00 PM: Aaron Scheffler

3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Ann Holmes

Beth Guckenberger has been added to the Live Chat schedule for Thursday at 12:00 PM.

The Inclusion Fusion 2012 Special Needs Ministry Web Summit Magazine is now available for download. The free magazine is 51 pages long, and contains schedules for live chat sessions and Tweetchats, instructions for participating in interactive sessions, biographies of all of our faculty, and in-depth interviews with a number of our speakers.

Finally, the folks from Pajama Conference are making available for sale a boxed set of DVDs containing all of the video presentations and downloads from the conference. Boxed sets will be available through the Inclusion Fusion website as well as the Pajama Conference website. The complete set of conference videos is available for the reduced  price of $39.99 during the Web Summit, increasing to $49.99 upon completion of Inclusion Fusion.  The boxed set is a great gift for churches desirous of a resource for training staff and volunteers, as well as for families caring for a child or adult with special needs. Pajama Conference uses the money to fund free ministry training, including the Children’s Ministry Web Summit and Inclusion Fusion. Click here to order…

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INCLUSION FUSION IS HERE! Join over 30 leaders from children’s, family, youth and disability ministry serving as faculty for Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry’s second annual Special Needs Ministry Web Summit. Inclusion Fusion is made available FREE OF CHARGE to pastors, church staff, volunteers and families everywhere from November 12th-16th, 2012. For an up to date list of speakers, topics, links to speaker blogs and a link for free registration, click here.