A Personal Journey of Disability, Church Life, and Remarkable Kindness
As a person who has lived with a physical disability and reduced mobility since age 11, it is with joy that I share with you my experience regarding the welcoming and integration of people with disabilities within the church.
When disability became part of my life, I was already attending a local church as a member of the children’s choir. My transition to a state of reduced mobility introduced me to a new world: a world in which I must actively observe the behaviour of social actors, including the church, toward people with disabilities.
Over the last 32 years, I have rarely encountered churches that have intentionally implemented a system for welcoming and integrating people with disabilities.
I acknowledge that some churches have initiated projects to support people with disabilities in their centers for people with disabilities, (sometimes with sign language interpretation during worship services), but it is still rare to find churches that have intentionally and permanently implemented a policy for welcoming and integrating people with disabilities into worship services and various church activities, as a category of people with specific needs.
In most of the churches I have attended, I have never seen anyone approach me to ask what the church should do to allow me to participate regularly and fully in church activities or worship services, given my limitations due to reduced mobility.
My participation in church activities and worship services depends on my love for the Lord, not on any policy.
Very often, I find myself to be the only visible person with a disability in the congregation. Most of my peers with disabilities stay at home or in centers for people with disabilities and do not attend church. They are very rarely seen at church activities or services.
I remember once leaving the African continent to go to a European country in 2019. I thought that things might be better in Europe than in Africa. But in my three years there, I experienced almost the same situation as in the churches in Africa.
Since I didn’t have a private vehicle, getting around wasn’t easy in the cold winter. Every trip cost me money to hail a taxi, because public buses were infrequent on Sundays, and the buses that did run on Sundays were completely packed.
The replies never came…
As a student at the time, my money was enough for food, lodging, and a few trips to university. So, I took the initiative to contact the local churches near my accommodation to ask if they had a service to help people with reduced mobility get to church. I waited a long time, and the replies never came.
I decided to contact a pastor friend who lived in another European country to ask him to recommend a church I could possibly contact. My pastor friend recommended another pastor he knew. That pastor did send one of the church members, who lived near me to pick me up every Sunday to go to church. This member came for two Sundays, and then he was transferred to work in another city, far from where I lived. My physical participation in church diminished after my brother left.
This led me to find a solution: to participate only in online services, not in person, throughout my stay in Europe.
A few years later (in 2023), thanks to my connection with my mentor, Dave Deuel, and the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelization, I had the opportunity to attend a conference at Biola University in California. The conference organizers had set up a support system for participants with disabilities. Almost all the participants without disabilities were willing and eager to offer me their assistance. Many rallied around to push my wheelchair and help me get around.
A couple had even made themselves available to pick me up from my room every morning so that we could go to the conference together. I remember that on the closing day of the conference, a brother from Ghana asked me to go to the chapel together for worship, and he made sure to bring me back to my room afterward.
The second significant experience was again with the Lausanne Movement in Seoul.
A team of volunteers from the church in South Korea had mobilized to assist people with disabilities at the Lausanne 4 Conference in September 2024. I remember the time spent with a member of the local church in Korea who made himself available to assist me. To this day, I remain struck by this man’s love. He assisted me throughout the conference, accompanying me everywhere I suggested he go to attend meetings. He even offered me a tour of Incheon at his own expense. On the last day, he gave me a letter that I still keep today. Here is part of what he wrote:
“Dear Dr. Daniel Kyungu Tchikala, I was so delighted to serve you during this Lausanne Movement Gathering. It was a great time and grace for me to join this wonderful time…I pray that the grace of God always come along with your family and your all ministry activities.”
When we were on the way back to the airport, I remember him asking me if we could sing together. I suggested this hymn and we sang it with enthusiasm before parting ways:
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
Even today I remember those wonderful moments spent with my brother from Incheon.
-Daniel Kyungu Tchikala
Daniel Kyungu Tchikala holds a Ph. D in Human Resources Management from the University of Liège, Belgium, and a master’s in Pastoral Theology.
He is the Bishop of the 1st Community of the Church of Christ in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Africa Inland Church Congo & an Associate Professor of management at Lubumbashi University.
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