How the Church Can Celebrate People with Disabilities
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Do you believe that God can bring beauty from the ashes of your hardships?
Hannah Snoots, director of Special Abilities Ministry at Calvary Community Church in California, joins the podcast to share her story of finding joy, peace, and purpose in the midst of navigating disability.
As a single mother raising two daughters with special needs, Hannah leans on the Lord for strength and hope. And having found belonging and love through her local church, Hannah encourages all churches—and believers—to embrace and celebrate people living with disabilities.
Hannah’s daughters, Angelina and Emma, live with underlying genetic issues that cause multiple disabilities. The first sign of disability came when Angelina was six months old, as some of her behaviors worried Hannah; still Hannah convinced herself that nothing was wrong. Then when Emma was born, right away doctors knew there was a problem.
As Hannah said: “Her limbs were very floppy. She had severe hypotonia, which is very low muscle tone. She couldn’t cry. She was making a very sad little sound. All of a sudden, all the doctors and nurses start coming in and you know something’s really wrong. In my heart of hearts, I knew right away and I knew it was bad, and I was devastated.”
After extensive testing doctors discovered that Emma had an abnormality on her 22nd chromosome, as did Angelina. Shocked, Hannah felt abandoned by God and fell into deep depression. Having grown up a believer and giving her life to God in ministry as a worship leader, she felt as if her trust had been betrayed. Isolation set in as Hannah and her then-husband chose not to discuss their daughters’ disabilities with their church, still not ready to accept the reality they faced.
“I didn’t talk to anybody at church or in the ministry that I was in. It was a very lonely, difficult time. Yes, I thought I was doing it for the right reason. But I think that’s where the breakdown of our marriage happened… because he couldn’t accept it.”
Do you lean on God when life gets hard?
When Hannah and her husband divorced, she found herself a single mom to her two daughters, both with significant special needs. Amid the daily challenges she faced, Hannah turned toward God and embraced the purpose he gave her in caring for her girls.
As Hannah put it: “There’s a reason. There’s a purpose. And you gotta find that because that will give you the strength to walk the journey that you’re gonna walk, or that you are walking. You have to find the purpose and you have to stay close to him. I don’t know how people who are raising children with disabilities do it without God. I don’t understand that. I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Having grown up leading worship, Hannah began to lean into the Lord, spending time in prayer and devotions—and singing and playing piano.
She shared: “It’s at my piano and it’s when I sing, and I know that he’s with me and he’s breathing into my spirit…and he’s giving me the strength that I need. And sometimes I have to do it all day. Like I have to do it to make it to the next day. It’s like raising a child with a disability is like climbing a mountain every day.”
As Hannah rebuilt her trust in God and her love for him, she experienced healing and joy in her parenting, celebrating her daughters in a new way—from the fact that Emma swallows okay and doesn’t need a G-tube to the blessing that her girls don’t have to endure long hospital stays because of their disabilities. Hannah found things in daily life to praise God for; through her gratitude, God has shifted her whole outlook.
Leaning on the church
When Hannah found Calvary Community Church, she found a place of belonging for both of her girls. Through the Special Abilities Ministry, the church demonstrated the importance of celebrating and integrating people with disabilities into Christ’s body. She began bringing her daughters to Buddy Break, which offers a fun and loving environment for people with disabilities and respite for their parents or caregivers. During worship Hannah could drop her girls off and know they were loved and well cared for while she attended the service. As they integrated into the church, Hannah and each of her girls brought talents, beauty, and joy to share.
Hannah describes her experience of belonging at Calvary: “They celebrated my children and it was the most life-changing thing that’s happened to me. And so I pray that anybody listening out there, pastors or anybody, just take that first step. Do it for these families. They need it.
These families are so vital to your congregations. We have made a difference in our church body… maybe these kids, some people think they can’t give anything back, and I completely disagree. They will change your heart in an instant… and that’s the beauty that I’m talking about.”
Hardships: Pointers toward purpose
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 1:3–5
As her daughters experience full belonging at Calvary, Hannah has stepped into multiple roles, each of which comes with powerful purpose. She uses her musical gifts to lead worship, leads a support group for parents navigating disability, and now leads the Special Abilities ministry.
She shared: “I know that God has put me in this position at Calvary to help these families walk the difficult journey that they are on. They know that I get it, and that I understand the difficulties of raising a child with a disability. I have been running the parent support group since I started, and it has been such a gift. It has grown so much and we are all helping each other navigate the journey.
I still struggle with my situation and being able to share that with the parents has been so incredible. Being a strength to them actually gives me strength and purpose. My goal is to constantly remind them all that although our situations are challenging and painful, God can bring so much beauty out of it.”
What next step can you/your church take to celebrate people living with disabilities?
Joni and Friends can help you and your church take the next steps to welcome and integrate people with disabilities:
Together we can carry out the call of Christ in Luke 14:21, 23 (NIV): “Go out quickly in the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame…. Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.”
Connect with a Ministry Mentor
You can contact a Joni and Friends church training mentor directly at [email protected] or by calling (818) 707-5664. We’d love to walk with you as you seek God’s heart for people with disabilities in your church.
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