One Thing Everyone Knows

For the last nine years, I have been working with people with developmental disabilities. Some of these disabilities are severe and profound. Many of them cannot speak.

Supporting people with exceptional needs has been a tremendous blessing to me, because they are teaching me invaluable lessons about life. Because of them, I feel my life as a Christian is becoming more balanced. Before encountering these people, my relationships were limited and not quite healthy. When I interacted only with university students, I developed a kind of elitism that is uncharacteristic of Jesus Christ. Jesus reached out to people of all kinds. Even though he raised disciples, he did not limit the scope of his social interaction only to those we might consider to be good discipleship material. Jesus also mingled with the less fortunate and disadvantaged and regarded them as having immense value.

Through supporting people with developmental disabilities, God has taught me one precious lesson: People know who truly loves them. At our facility, we try to keep them engaged in many kinds of meaningful and fun activities. But do you know what makes them happiest? Seeing mom or dad.

One individual whom I support is in his twenties. His profile says that he has the mental capabilities of a two year-old toddler. But that is not quite correct. He is not like a little child in every way. He is a genius in remembering things. He can sing all kinds of songs even though he does not know how to read. After hearing a song a couple of times, the next time he can sing it.

The most striking experience I had with this man was how he reacted to his mother’s death. One day we sat down in the living room holding each other’s hands. When one staff member told him that his mother passed away and went to heaven, his eyes welled up with tears and he cried loudly. I had never seen him crying like this. This made my eyes wet. He knew that his loving mother was gone. Losing his mom who loved him so dearly was a saddest and most traumatic experience of his life.

A mother is a very special person. She is especially so for people with extraordinary needs, because their circle of friendships is unusually small. Even people who seem to know nothing understand who loves them.

One thing I know is that our Lord Jesus Christ loved me so much that he gave up his life for me on the cross. It is my heart’s desire to learn how to love someone genuinely with the love of Christ, whether that person is a university student or a person with developmental disabilities or even my own child.

9 comments

  1. Thank you for sharing your experiences in working with people with special needs. I agree that we must strive to be Jesus-like and love all people of all colors, cultures and abilities. God bless!

  2. Hannah Love

    My dad actually introduced me to also working with adults with disabilities. It, too, was a blessing to me while I worked at different group homes. It’s easily talked about loving different kinds of people but practically it’s so hard. We tend to measure people according to our own standards and what we are used to. Sometimes I would have a difficult time when an individual wouldn’t follow simple instructions because I expected them to do it the way I would.

    Thanks for this article. It is a blessing to be able to just spend time with people with developmental disabilities. So much to learn about people and about yourself as well.

  3. Maria Peace

    Joshua, what an encouraging article. Thank you for sharing this with us. I also experienced the love of Jesus by helping one older woman in her late fifties who suffered from depression. When she was released from the mental institution, she needed a shepherd and since I just arrived in the mission field, I was free and I was looking to study the Bible with someone in Russian. Though she didn’t speak English and I didn’t know Russian yet we studied the Bible by faith. I rewrote my John’s gospel study material with one point each and had it translated in Russian. Amazingly we understood each other. I found out she was such a lovely person. We began to love each other and later God healed her depression. Though our mission is for University students, I learned so much from her. She has become my dear friend and I share all my struggles with her as she shares her struggles with me. We have really grown to love one another.

    • M. Maria, I very appriciate your relations with p. Nina and this is the kind of Christian relations which I want to learn and follow. Thank you! I pray for the first SWS in Podil center.

  4. THis is very touching. Thank you for sharing this with us Joshua.

  5. Latonda Marley

    nice post! I learned a lot

  6. Just looking back at some of the articles I hadn’t read or responded to.

    Thank you for sharing, Joshua Yoon. These are excellent quotes and remind me of Henri Nouwen:

    “Supporting people with exceptional needs has been a tremendous blessing to me, because they are teaching me invaluable lessons about life. Because of them, I feel my life as a Christian is becoming more balanced. Before encountering these people, my relationships were limited and not quite healthy. When I interacted only with university students, I developed a kind of elitism that is uncharacteristic of Jesus Christ. Jesus reached out to people of all kinds. Even though he raised disciples, he did not limit the scope of his social interaction only to those we might consider to be good discipleship material. Jesus also mingled with the less fortunate and disadvantaged and regarded them as having immense value.”

    “One thing I know is that our Lord Jesus Christ loved me so much that he gave up his life for me on the cross. It is my heart’s desire to learn how to love someone genuinely with the love of Christ, whether that person is a university student or a person with developmental disabilities or even my own child.”

  7. James Kim

    Thank you Brian posting three year old article once more. Joshua’s article reminds me of the truth that “our vocation is God’s calling”. I spend more than one third of my life time in my secular job, taking care of patients, listening to them etc. Because God is the Lord of every aspects of our lives, our vocation is also God’s calling and it is as important as campus mission. There is no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular.

    I regard I am extremely blessed and privileged as a physician to meet so many people with all kinds of racial, cultural, religious background and all kinds of social status for more than 30 years. Many of them really appreciate my care that lasted more than 20 years, but I also learned many things from them for which I am really grateful to them.

    • Hi James, and welcome back! I sincerely do miss your quotes.

      I agree with this wholeheartedly: “There is no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular.”