Monday, February 9, 2009

Good People

Yesterday at church we had special needs mutual come and do the program in sacrament meeting. For those of you who don't know the mutual is what we call our youth group in the LDS church. Usually kids are part of this from the age of 12 to 18. This particular group includes special needs kids and adults. The age range is pretty large I believe I saw a woman up there singing that was probably in her 50's or 60's. This is a really good social group for people within the church who have special needs. 
I think I started crying when they started their first song and finished when they finished their last. It is an amazing thing that this group exists. When I was a kid, people with disabilities were not seen much. They didn't really have them around in school, and when they did they were always separate from everyone else. I don't ever remember hearing about or seeing any kind of church program that was centered around people with special needs. 
This group of people just had an amazing light about them. Someone in the program referred to them as "Celestial beings" and I have to agree. I have never seen such a large group of absolutely perfect people. They sang songs, completely out of tune, they stumbled, and mumbled their way through talks and testimonies, they yelled and walked around at inappropriate times and the whole program was absolutely wonderful. You could feel the spirit that they carried with them even through all the distractions. They had no hesitation about standing up and saying what they believe or singing as loudly as they could. They were very enthusiastic. It was amazing!
It especially touched  my heart because in a few years Lou will be joining this same group. She will be one of the ones being escorted up to the stand to bare her testimony. She already is a "Celestial being". She is already part of the special needs primary for kids up to age 12 and there are a lot of people that attend both groups, so we had a lot of friends visiting yesterday too. 
I went up and through tears of joy thanked the wonderful people who were there to help and teach these amazing people. You could tell they loved their callings and that they loved all the amazing people they worked with. 
My only complaint was that I wish I had known they were going to do the program because I would have worn waterproof mascara!

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