well done! little angel!

[Passing Love]

Photo courtesy/Jiang Wanyu

The starting point of the road of grace
The birth of Anya

Thirteen years ago, an obstetrician and gynecologist told me that the fetus in my belly had a high chance of suffering from Down Syndrome. After praying, my husband and I came to a consensus: If God gives us a special child, maybe God will use us to do something for special children in the world.

After our daughter Anya was born, she was diagnosed with Down syndrome. As a couple, we embarked on a very special journey, hard work but full of God’s grace.

Children with Down syndrome generally have intellectual disabilities, weak muscles, and heart defects. Taking care of such children requires a lot of time and energy. For example, most children can roll over at four months. Anya must practice dozens of times a day to learn to roll over at five months. Since she was four months old, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists have taken turns coming to our home every day to help Anya, and taught me that it is actually the primary caregiver who needs to be guided in the rehabilitation work. Only if the primary caregiver is equipped can the child be trained at all times.

The days passed peacefully with challenges accepted and overcome. One day ten years ago, when my husband and I were praying, we thanked the Lord for His grace in our lives and for giving us a team of professionals to help us. We are blessed. What about other families with special needs children? Do they also receive the same abundant resources as us?

We ask God to show us our need.

1. Mothers participating in the Good Job Angels seminar.

Second stop on the road to grace
Go into the community and share Anya’s story

In a short period of time, we held several lectures in the Chinese community in New York, inviting agency workers to talk about the application for early intervention and welfare resources for people with disabilities. Through the lectures, I saw that many Chinese parents need support, heard the parents’ bitterness and powerlessness, and also learned about the bottlenecks of organizations in promoting welfare for special groups. With enthusiasm and silly energy, we invited three physical therapist friends to form a support group for Chinese parents in New York, which regularly arranges activities and serves children with autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, epilepsy, learning delays, etc. and families, so that they can have a big family to study and relax, with more than fifteen professionals and volunteers joining our service ranks.

Immediately afterwards, I published the book "Anya" in Taiwan, describing the grace God has given us and the early childhood therapy education in New York. It was a special experience that gave me the opportunity to travel around the island and share my understanding of Taiwan’s non-profit institutions, hospitals, schools, and social work mechanisms that serve special groups. To be honest, the needs of people with disabilities are great, and it may be difficult to meet their needs by oneself. What is encouraging is that more and more community groups are lending a helping hand to support the needs of children with special needs.

Taking vocational training as an example, a bakery employs more than a dozen adults with Down syndrome. Except for the baker and cashier, who are ordinary people, all other employees in the store are children with Down syndrome. They are best at saying "Welcome" to customers with a smile. Come". The bakery often operates at a loss. However, with many celebrities endorsing their wedding cakes and website marketing, their profits can make up for the losses of the brick-and-mortar bakery. As far as I know, several large non-profit organizations have established laundries, car washes, bakeries, and restaurants with the purpose of creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Although they will encounter difficulties in operation, by opening up employment opportunities, they can build a A bridge connecting special children and the community is of far-reaching significance.

2. Children with special needs take pottery classes.

The third stop on the road of grace
Good Job Angels Ministry Takes Off

Our daughter was very cute at the time, and we were full of hope for her future. However, this was not the case for the special family group I saw. The gap in knowledge is due to faith and because our journey has not been long enough. We pray to God and we are willing to be instruments in God’s hands to bless special children and families. After accumulating several years of service experience, a few of us Christians established the non-profit organization Good Job Angels in 2014. The name comes from the fact that we often say to our children, "Good Job! Well done!"

We love these special children, whether adults or children, they are as innocent and lovely as angels. We have a ministry at Bethel Church in New York called "Little Angel Sunday School", which teaches special children to pray, worship and praise, learn Bible stories, art and games every Sunday morning. When these children close their eyes and pray seriously, or sing and dance without emotion in worship, we can see the glory of God resting on them. They rise up and shine, and their parents and brothers and sisters also begin to come to the church and know God.

Many pastors have asked me how to run such a Sunday school for special children in their church. My answer is simple, "Pray" and ask God to prepare brothers and sisters with love and vision to start such work.

"Little Angel Sunday School" did not start when everything was in order. At that time, purely from the perspective of a children's Sunday school teacher, I saw that my daughter and two special children were in a daze and unruly in Sunday school. , feel uncomfortable not being able to integrate, I pray that I can use special education to help them learn God’s words.

God answers prayers, and He inspired many brothers and sisters from across the church to help us, including special education teachers, social workers, physical therapists, speech therapists, art therapists, etc., to discuss together and establish a curriculum model; There is a group of brothers and sisters who are willing to serve and learn.

"Little Angel Sunday School" started with three special children and then expanded to fifteen children. Children have come and gone, and the teachers and helpers have also changed several times, but the backbone is still quite stable. God raised up couples to serve together and also led parents to join the service. We don’t rely on chariots and horses, we rely on knowledge and ability, we rely on God’s leadership.

3. Children with special needs learn oil painting.

Grace Way Gas Station
Teamwork, positive guidance

Today, "Little Angel Sunday School" is led by a couple and two teaching assistants every week. Four to five couples a month plus teaching assistants form a service team of 20 people. We will tell the children the timetable for each class, including worship, Bible stories and art, so that the children know what they are going to do. When a child develops behavioral problems, we insist that he cooperate with the curriculum.

For example, what should you do if your child runs around in class? We would ask him to sit back down, and when he ran away again, the assistant would take him back down. Tell him to "sit down" in a calm tone without being angry. Don't tell your child not to run. All he hears is the word "run" and he keeps running. Similarly, if you encounter a student hitting a wall or rolling on the floor, you will take him back to his seat, ask him to sit down, and accompany him. When your child hits someone, grab the child's hand and tell him no.

Some parents don’t know what to do when their children hit their parents or siblings. Once we discover that their children have aggressive behavior, we will immediately discuss solutions with the parents. Other situations such as biting nails, hitting oneself, making noises, taking off socks, littering, and peeing in the classroom are all reminded and handled by teachers and teaching assistants with love and patience.

It is important to lead these children to understand "who they are." As children of God and treasured by God, they will not look at themselves through the eyes of others.

There was once a young boy in the class who cursed others and himself. I immediately stopped him and told him that God the Father would be sad because He knows you are sad. Let us pray for you and ask God the Father to help you tell the reason why you are sad. The child's expression softened and he apologized to his classmates after class.

"Little Angel Sunday School" is very lively, and parents and brothers and sisters also like to stay there and help. Unknowingly, it has become an "integrated class", with a special education environment and the company of siblings. We encourage our siblings to help out once a month and participate in other Sunday schools at other times to study God’s words and make friends.

Good Job Angels has a "Little Angel Moms Group" on Tuesday mornings, which focuses on sharing, praying, and having God's love touch them. Non-Christian mothers will pray with their children after they go home.

▲Little angels celebrate Thanksgiving. ▲Potted plant works by special children.

Next stop on the road to grace
Build a living farm, train and cultivate children, and embrace more families

The future goal of Good Job Angels is a "life farm" that not only creates job opportunities, but also provides a place and group home for training in self-care. We don’t have our own place for the time being, but God gave me the idea that His home is big enough. So we rented several churches to do education and training work. We included worship and praise, planting, gardening, painting, mechanical principles, clay, mathematics, art design, baking, etc. in our courses.

We hope to use education and training opportunities to cultivate special children, prepare for the "Life Farm", and bring special families into the church. The children of Good Job Angels love to worship and praise God. They have been invited twice to sing in a large auditorium with 2,000 to 3,000 people, which touched people's hearts. May the Lord continue to use them to be an outlet for the gospel and to bear beautiful witnesses for the Lord.

Paul said that no matter what, we must save some people, and pray that the Lord will move the church to open its doors to welcome special families, embrace more sad people, and accompany them to find the hope in heaven. "When the disciples saw a man who was born blind, they asked Jesus, "Did this man sin? Or his parents?" Jesus answered that it was not the man who sinned, nor his parents. He wanted to show the work of God in him. Come." (John 9:2-3)

We believe that children with special needs are a blessing to the family, allowing them and their families to find a way home, and to go to the throne of grace of God the Father to receive mercy, receive grace, and receive help at any time.

Related information:
1. Good Job Angels Website: www.goodjobangels.org
2. New York State Welfare for Persons with Disabilities from Birth to Age 21 OPWDD www.opwdd.ny.gov
3. Early Intervention www.nyc.gov/health/earlyintervention

Jiang Wanyu once worked as an editor, a columnist for "World Weekly", winner of the Wynn Literary Award, and the author of the book "Anya". He once served as the director of the family department of the Christian Horn Evangelistic Association. He is currently the director of the Horn of Christ Kindergarten and serves as the voluntary director of Good Job Angels.