What would you guess is the largest unreached people group in the world? Muslims? The Chinese? Would you be surprised to learn that it is the disabled? According to the Joni and Friends website, the largest unreached people group, estimated to exceed 650 million worldwide, is people with disabilities. Two years ago, Second (Indianapolis, Ind.) RPC started a Friendship Bible Study to minister to and with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

On a typical Tuesday night, 15 volunteers and 15 “friends” gather in the church basement. There is a sense of anticipation and warm welcome as our friends come in and are greeted by smiles and hugs. We start off with enthusiastic singing, then move on to a Bible lesson. This spring, we have been learning about the miracles of Jesus. One of our volunteers leads the lesson, but often invites our friends to join in acting out parts of the story. We have amassed quite a collection of creative costumes.

After the lesson, we make crafts or play games that reinforce the lesson. During craft time, the volunteers assist the friends in completing prayer cards. Each friend is encouraged to write one “please” and one “thank you” for prayer time. The cards are then copied to a large dry-erase board, and we share a time of praising God, thanking Him for His blessings and asking for His help. We finish with a time of refreshments and fellowship.

The Bible study is not the only way we minister to our friends. Every visitor is sent a welcome card, every birthday is celebrated, and we have a get-together during the summer when our Bible study does not meet. Volunteers often reach out to the friends during the week with cards and phone calls and shopping trips.

Our ministry is not one-sided. Pastor Johnston explains, “When three people in one week told me I ought to check something out, I got the message. I talked with Ben Stuckey, the local Sonrise director, and he told me their mission is to minister with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a Bible study group setting. I asked Ben, ‘Don’t you mean to them?” He said, “No, I mean with them.” I was shaken. As a pastor of disabled adults, I knew that what Ben was saying changed everything! Ben kindly went on to explain to me that, according to 1 Corinthians 12, these adults with intellectual disabilities have a necessary and vital role in the life of our local church.”

Another volunteer commented, “What makes a person valuable and important is not how well they think, communicate, or are pleasant to be with, but is being made in God’s image and belonging to Him.”

At a recent disabilities conference, Stephanie Hubach, special needs ministries director for the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), spoke about how the Modern idea that we are on a straight path to utopia has infiltrated the thinking of even the church. She explained how the idea that disabled people were abnormal in a normal world gave rise to the attitude of “I’m fine, but you’re broken.” Many even now minister to the disabled with this approach. Stephanie went on to explain that God’s view is, due to the Fall, the world is abnormal, and disabled people are a normal part of an abnormal world. None of us lives completely up to our full potential socially, mentally, intellectually, emotionally or socially. God has put His gifts in our friends as well, and they minister with us.

One of our volunteers commented, “At times when around certain individuals for extended times, I’ve had to confess and repent of my own impatience, frustration, irritation at annoying behavior…humbled by remembering how Jesus responds to me and my own annoying behavior with His patience, grace, and the cross. I stand with these friends at the foot of the cross, all of us needing His mercy, love, grace, peace, forgiveness.”

In our Tuesday night study, here is how some of our friends demonstrate God’s gifts. Stephen has Down syndrome. He is our greeter and makes sure that everyone who enters gets a smile and a nametag. His heart honestly grieves when he hears of anyone suffering or in pain, and he helps keep us focused on loving others from our hearts.

During singing, Katy eagerly jumps up to help lead the songs. However, Katy can’t sing. She was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and had a tracheal tube until she was 13. The best she can give is a raspy whisper. But she gives this to God with a heart full of joy. She also gives great bear hugs!

During our Bible lesson, Andrew, Phil, and Alec love to demonstrate the various Bible characters we study. A particularly touching lesson had Jerry, a man with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair, playing the part of the crippled outcast, Mephbosheth, receiving mercy from King David.

Our friends minister to us with their prayers, too. Andrew has a heart to see the lost, especially those who also have Down syndrome, won to Christ. Lorena prays for hurting coworkers and continually thanks God for her blessings, even though she cannot see, has autism, and only walks with the aid of leg braces and a walker. And all our friends regularly pray for their caregivers and the Bible study volunteers.

Several of our friends also spur us on with their love of the Word. Austin spends several hours a day studying it, and Hannah loves to memorize and recite it with others. They remind us of how vital God’s Word is to our spiritual lives.

Friendship Bible Study ministers to an often overlooked part of God’s kingdom. But our friends give back to us in so many ways. Pastor Johnston says, “Volunteers come with a heart to give and leave with a heart that’s full.”

Perhaps God is calling you to consider a Friendship Bible Study in your church.

–Rich Johnston, Ellie Cutter, and Joy Charboneau

The authors are members of Second (Indianapolis, Ind., RPC). Further information about the program may be obtained by contacting Pastor Rich Johnston at johnston@secondrpc.org.