Our Key Ministry team is pleased to help spread the word about the appearance of our friend and colleague Emily Colson at the Building God’s Kingdom through Disability Ministries conference, scheduled for Saturday, March 29th from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, at Hope Community Church, located at 3033 Middleton Road in Hudson.

The conference is sponsored by the Central District of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, Zanesville C&MA Church and the Alliance Development Fund. In addition to Emily, who will be serving as the Keynote speaker as well as participating in a question and answer forum to conclude the conference, featured speakers will include Deb Petermann from Joni and Friends Ohio, as well as Laura Davis and Annette Newcome of Zanesville C&MA’s Caring Hearts Disability Ministries and members of Hope Community Church’s Chosen Ministry.

Emily is a popular speaker, and author of the award winning book, Dancing with Max. She speaks in churches and organizations nationwide, and has appeared on numerous media outlets including Focus on the Family, the Huckabee Show, and Hallmark’s Home & Family. In her book, Emily and her father, Chuck Colson, shared the struggle and beauty of life with Max, Emily’s 23 year-old son with autism. The book has recently been awarded “Book of the Year” by the Autism Society. Through her powerful message of the sanctity of life, Emily has inspired many to persevere through their own challenges and see the gifts. Emily has been a single mother for most of Max’s 23 years, with hard fought lessons in faith, life, love and a whole lot of laughter. Emily and Max live on the coast of New England where they can often be found dancing.

For those of you outside Northeast Ohio, Emily will be serving as our guest blogger for Autism Awareness Month, and will be our featured speaker in April for our Inclusion Fusion Disability Ministry Web Symposium. More to come on that later this week…

Please join us in welcoming Emily, Deb, Laura and all the speakers scheduled for the disability ministry training event at Hope Community Church on Saturday, March 29th. You can download the conference brochure here, including a registration form. The registration charge is $10 (including lunch and materials). The conference organizers would appreciate RSVPs by March 21st so they may plan lunch, but I’ve been assured that anyone who registers on the day of the event will be welcome. For questions or additional registration info, please contact Denise Phelps at Zanesville C&MA Church at (740) 454-3210, or e-mail her at dkp.ycity@yahoo.com.

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Key Ministry has assembled a helpful resource on the topic of Asperger’s Disorder and Spiritual Development. This page includes the blog series Dr. Grcevich and Mike Woods developed for Key Ministry, links to lots of helpful resources from other like-minded organizations, and Dr. Grcevich’s presentation on the topic from the 2012 Children’s Ministry Web Summit. Click here to access the page!