You have relationships with people we will never meet. God has put you in a unique position to reach certain individuals. Please take time to pray over this opportunity. It may be someone with a disability, or it could be someone who is your neighbor. When my son heard about this process of getting to know an individual and then making an environment where you can set up the best introduction between Jesus and this person, he noted that this really “works for everyone.” How true.

Scott And The Summer Camp: A Reminder To Start By Getting To Know The Individual

Before we launch into additional ideas, I want to tell Scott’s story. Like Jessica, Scott lives with autism spectrum disorder. I met Scott after a disastrous introduction to Jesus where he decided he wanted nothing to do with that church or anyone in it. One important thing to know about Scott and many others with ASD is that they often process language very literally. If you would happen to mention that it’s “raining cats and dogs,” that person would rush to the window to watch that happening if it’s the first time that phrase was used.

If you think about it, many Christians use figurative language to describe a religious truth. Even Scripture uses some interesting analogies. Psalm 91:4 states, He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. To persons with ASD, this could be confusing. Does this make God a hen?

Imagine what happened one day when Scott was at summer camp retreat with the youth group from his church. While it was excellent that they included Scott with the other youth from church, the people in charge had not spent time really getting to know him. They skipped that part. One of the presenters made the call to the group. He mentioned that they could be “covered with the blood of Jesus” and then asked if anyone wanted to “give their heart to Jesus.” Scott was absolutely in horror. This was like an R-rated horror movie in his head. He made a hasty exit and promised to never return. He was picturing people surgically removing their hearts and thick, red blood covering the place.

Thankfully, Scott is a willing learner. I wrote Scott a story about what those phrases really mean. After we gave him a new definition of those words, people can use those phrases with Scott now because he has the interpretation. Scott did, indeed, “give his heart to Jesus” and he is “covered with His blood.” He is my brother in Christ and I am so thankful for him. He stands as an example today that we must begin by getting to know the individual. It would have saved Scott some trauma!

 Capture The Flag: Revised

Greg, a young adult in my life, offers another story. Greg loves sports and camping. He enjoys moving and laughing. Spoken words are a struggle for Greg even though he understands many words. Greg has Down syndrome.

One summer, Greg was especially taken with a game at his summer camp called Capture the Flag. For the sake of this illustration, and for those who have not been camp counselors or youth group leaders, Capture the Flag is a game with two teams and a field or section of land that is divided into two halves by some sort of middle line or boundary. Each team gets 1 or more flags (sometimes a sock tied to a stick) to hide or place on their side of the playing field. Many teams appoint a few people to guard these flags for the duration of the game. On each side is also some sort of base that represents a “jail.” The object of the game is to sneak across the field and try to capture the other team’s flag or flags without getting tagged before you get back to your side. If you get tagged, then you must go to the jail. The only way to get free is to have a teammate sneak back across the field and tag you. Once you are tagged in the jail, you get a free walk back to your home team.

Since Greg was delighted with Capture the Flag, it seemed like a great tool when setting up an environment to make the introduction between Jesus and Greg. In a smaller space, I set up the middle line, a couple of flags, and a jail. Together, using movement and his love of this game, we talked about the flag on the other side trying to get us to do bad things – things that made God sad. Then, sin captured us and put us in jail. We stood together there and yelled out “Help! We are stuck! Get me out of this sin jail!” Even though my words were articulated more clearly than Greg’s words, he understood what we were doing. Then I asked a friend to play the role of Jesus. I told Greg that if we ask Jesus to help, He will stay in jail for us and we can have a free walk back. Jesus came to earth to be in sin jail for us so we can have a free walk back. We gave Jesus a hug and then got to walk across the middle line. We cheered as Jesus later walked back over the line – knowing that Jesus is much stronger than sin and we get to be with Him on the Jesus side.

This environment made a big difference for Greg. He understood. In fact, he reenacted this Capture the Flag game several times for others. We knew what he was doing, and this game became a witness to many others who got to watch it. It was Greg’s testimony.

Would this work with someone else? Possibly. But it was really important to notice Greg’s love for this particular game and then turn it into a way to tell the gospel story. The Holy Spirit was at work drawing Greg and God used this environment to allow Greg to see His amazing love for him – and Greg responded!

Nicole’s Story: We Are Responsible For Creating The Environment

As I was speaking at a conference in San Diego, I was on a panel of speakers to address this issue of spiritual formation and persons with disabilities. A mother raised her hand. “You are telling stories about people who can respond with actions and words. What about my daughter? Given the seizures she has, the psychologists say she will never be able to think or act past what a 6-month-old can do. What can I do to introduce my daughter to Jesus?” One of the speakers beat me to an answer. She told this mom that she does not need to do anything – that her daughter would be considered by God like an infant who dies. I struggled with this answer. This mom was not asking about what God would do. This mom wanted to know what SHE could do.

They entrusted me with the microphone and I asked that mom some questions. “What makes your daughter smile?” “What things does she like to do?” “What is her favorite toy?” It was clear that music was one of her favorite things. Since it’s God’s part to provide salvation, can we still create an environment for an introduction? The music team at this mom’s church certainly thought that was true. After the conference, they made a recording of some songs that spoke Nicole’s name as well as told about Jesus and His story. Playing this gave her a big smile on her face. In fact, they played these songs at Nicole’s funeral. This mom and her congregation were faithful in creating an environment. How much more faithful is God in keeping His promises! 

Hands-on tools

Marta’s grandma sees her love for instant hand sanitizer. She is planning on using that to talk about how Jesus is like that hand sanitizer. He comes to clean us up from our sins. She is even making up a special bottle so they can act it out together.

Jayger’s Church school teacher sees his love for playing with cars. She is planning to make up the Jesus track. It will have a Jesus car wash and she wants to put Jayger’s picture on one of the cars, get it dirty with sin, and then let Jayger run it through the Jesus wash. She is even thinking up a special song to use as they switch out that “sin car” with one that is clean and new.

Hayliegh has a love for butterflies. Her aunt and uncle want to set up a special butterfly collection that features the life cycle of a Christian. Their idea even involved a special poster at the end where Hayliegh could insert her picture into the cycle. As the brainstorming continued, they also were thinking of taking her favorite book – The Very Hungry Caterpillar[1] – and turning it into a story about the transformation that takes place in a person who loves and serves Jesus.

Jaylin loves Barbie dolls. Her creative dad is deciding they will use the Barbie dolls to act out the story of Jesus and how He loves us so very much. They can put on this show for several family members as Jaylin gets to hear and act out the story several times.