David Deuel - Disability in Mission: The Churchs Hidden Treasure

Chapters 1 and 2: These look at passages from Scripture that help us appreciate how weakness, vulnerability and disability embody the gospel, and have power to bring transformation. They describe how weakness is central to the redemptive plan of our all-powerful God, and how disability often, although not always, results in an experience of weakness. Drawing on Pauls story and then on Moses story, David Deuel describes how weakness is the means of success, not failure, for when Christians are weak, then they are strong. God, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, often confounds earthly powers through the weakness of his chosen vessels. It is through weakness that the mission of God is advanced.

Chapter 3: Bonnie Armistead describes how the birth of Anna, with Down syndrome, caused them to doubt Gods calling. Their story shows that Annas disability is actually an inseparable part of their calling. They witness Gods sovereign purposes in the way he shapes them, redirects their ministry and impacts the community in which they work.

Chapter 4: J M Paul describes a deep joy from sharing in the life and mission of their sons few years on earth. Through Adams profound disability and their own struggles, they experienced a King who was able to work through broken people to restore broken things. Adams disability profoundly shaped their family and their approach to mission. Adam taught them that this is Gods mission, and we play a humble, often broken, role in that mission. In a moving tribute, J M describes how Adams legacy will live on in their mission journey and in the journey of many others whom God challenged and changed through Adam. She concludes In the days God ordained, he has worked beyond our imagination in Adams life and, in painful but beautiful ways, he continues to work through his death. We know that this is not the end of the story.

Chapter 5: Barry Funnell relates how an accident and resultant paraplegia transformed his selfish independence and pride into complete dependence on God. Barrys life-threatening accident also gave him a sense of urgency as he realised all human beings are only one last breath away from eternity. Rather than being a stumbling block to missions, his disability has served as a springboard. God used him to make great strides in Bible translation through ten years in Malawi, five years in Tanzania and various consultancies throughout South East Asia.

Chapter 6: This outlines a beautiful story from the early twentieth century where God works powerfully in weakness through the ministry of Paul Kasonga, who is disabled with leprosy, and Olive Doke. For Paul and Olive, weakness was the very basis of their service to each other, to Christ and to the nation of Zambia. David Deuel outlines how Kasonga and Dokes work was formative in a movement that saw upwards of 80 percent of the Zambian national population turn to Christ, and continues even today through its spiritual descendants.