5-Minute Presentation for Church Use

5-minute presentation for Church use

Greetings from the staff; the board and all those served by Bethesda Lutheran Communities. Thank you for allowing me a few minutes of your time today. My name is XXX (include brief bio here).

What is Bethesda? Bethesda has, for the past 114 years, helped to make a difference in the lives of people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, what we used to call mental retardation. Our official mission statement states that we exist:

To enhance the lives of people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities

Through services that share the goods news of Jesus Christ.

What started as a school for five people with disabilities in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1904 has since grown into a 13-state network of over 300 program locations serving almost 2000 people with disabilities each day.

But ultimately, it is not about buildings – it is about people. Bethesda helps to serve and support people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities in many ways.

• Residential Programs: Group Homes – these are homes where 4-8 people with a disability live and typically receive 24/7 service and supervision by Bethesda staff. This includes all aspects of their daily life. Bethesda also operates Host Homes in Minnesota and Colorado
• Host Homes – these are homes where an individual or family opens their home and heart to a person with developmental disabilities to care for him/her.
• Employment: People with disabilities also want to work, but often lack the skills needed or have difficulty finding employers willing to hire them because they have a disability. Bethesda helps people with disabilities acquire the skills they need to find community employment and we work with local businesses to encourage them to give people with disabilities a chance to show that they can be a positive asset to their businesses. Bethesda also operates sheltered workshops for those who are still gaining basic work skills or who haven’t yet found an opportunity to work in the community.

Faith Supports and our Spiritual Life services – Helping people with jobs and homes is great and in this way Bethesda is serving God by serving the needs of others. But at the end of the day, the most important service we can provide is to share the good news of Jesus and connect people with disabilities with their local congregation.

To accomplish this, we have a 17-member Religious Life Team at Bethesda. They work across the country to do a number of important tasks:

• Working with each person we serve, as well as their families and guardians, to ensure that they have a Faith-Life Plan, that identifies where and how they want to worship their Lord and Savior, what church they want to be connected to, if they have been baptized and confirmed and how they want to use their gifts and abilities as members of that congregation. We then work with local pastors and congregations to ensure that each person’s spiritual needs are being met and that they have opportunities to worship and to live their faith through service opportunities.
• Creating devotions, Bible-studies and catechism instruction materials specifically designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities. We use these in all of our program locations and offer to share these resources with families, pastors, teachers and volunteers at local congregations and in the community.
• Training our own staff – many of the people we hire are not Lutheran – some may not be Christian. Yet all of them are required to support the faith-life of the people whom we serve each day. We provide training to staff so that they understand their role and find ways to support the faith of the people they work with.
• Consulting with congregationsWe provide a free consulting service to any congregation that comes to us for assistance to start or enhance their outreach to people with disabilities in their congregation or community.

Ultimately, it is not about programs or facilities, but about people. Every day, Bethesda changes people’s lives. I think of Trenton, a man in St. Louis who grew up angry because he felt he had no friends and other kids picked on him. Through Bethesda’s work, we connected him to a local congregation where he was baptized and confirmed and today is a much happier and productive person. Nikki, who was served by Bethesda in Johnson Creek, WI, and expressed a desire to be confirmed. Bethesda worked with her and her pastor and, using Bethesda’s materials, helped to prepare her to take her confirmation vows. Or Rikki, a gentleman from Watertown, WI who developed autism by age 2. His mother struggled to help him receive the services he needed but now, at Bethesda, he has graduated from high school, volunteers in the community, has a part-time job and has almost endless opportunities for the future. INSERT VIDEO HERE IF USING ONE

Bethesda doesn’t do this work alone. We have always depended upon our friends, family members, volunteers and supporters to assist us and to work together with us to carry out this mission of service to God and to people with disabilities. There are many ways you can help us:

• Pray– I don’t mention this because I am in a church, but because we truly believe that it has only been by the Lord’s grace and blessing that we have been able to continue this work and impacted so many lives over the past century. It is only with the Lord’s guidance and protection that this ministry will continue and we ask that you pray that the Lord would continue to bless this work.
• Volunteer – we have many opportunities to volunteer – through our Thrift Stores, our Auxiliary, as a Home Hero, sending cards and letters in our Prayer and Postage program or by making things we can use or hosting some type of service project in support of Bethesda’s mission and ministry.
• Gift of Financial Support – each year, Bethesda is blessed with thousands of people across the country that provide financial support of our mission and ministry. Your gift of any amount will help us to continue to carry out this vital work. Some people will also set aside a gift to Bethesda as a part of their estate plans or will contact us for more information our “gift for income” plans, such as Charitable Gift Annuities or Trusts.

Christian service is what defines us – it is a part of who we are as God’s people. So the question I present today is how will you do that better today than you did yesterday? How will you make a difference in someone’s life? Specifically, how will you make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities? Will it be showing kindness to someone with a disability in your congregation, family or neighborhood – spending time talking to them or finding ways to brighten their day? Or perhaps it will be by being a part of Bethesda’s ministry and working together with us, through your volunteer time or financial support, to help us make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities across the country.

The work Bethesda does to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is not easy. It is not work that others are often willing or able to do. Bethesda helps people with disabilities because the need is great and we know that we can make a difference in the physical and spiritual lives of people with disabilities across the country. Pray for us and join with us in this important work. Serve the Lord with us as we serve the needs of people with disabilities. Thank you for all that you have done – and will do – to work with Bethesda to help those in need.