– Sarah Mayer-Flatt

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”  proclaims the psalmist in the 139th chapter. That proclamation is the truth to which all participants of the tAble 2018 will come to know as their truth, too. Because God made us—putting us together piece by piece from within the bodies that held us before birth—we are ALL wonderfully made.

Sometimes other worldly voices try to tell us that those who live with a disability are an inconvenience, inspirational, or any number of things that do not speak to the truth that we are promised in the equalizing waters of our baptisms: we ALL belong to God.

Each day at the tAble, we’ll answer those questions that get stirred up by other voices in our lives and yet answered by God. Who do you belong to? Why do you belong? How do you belong? And finally: Who belongs with you?

At any table that is made holy by God, ALL are welcome.

You Belong: these two words are words that many never hear enough within their lives, and youth who will attend rhe tAble may struggle to believe them even more. Belonging means the community welcomes you as you are, and that accommodations are second nature and not uncomfortable. Belonging means the community of faith sees gifts within you just as they do in so many others, and upholds those gifts as valuable.

Belonging means the community of faith walks or rolls with you and goes into the hard places, where the truth of belonging still needs to be proclaimed—by and to the very ones who DO BELONG—to each other, and to God.

Sarah Mayer-Flatt is a person with a disability who serves as the Team Leader for the tAble 2018. Sarah is also Associate Pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE, where she lives with her husband Randy, their two cats, and their new puppy.

-Sarah Mayer-Flatt

There’s a renewed ministry of the ELCA Youth Gathering that I am excited to be a part of for the second time as Team Leader: the tAble. Formerly known as DAYLE, The Definitely-Abled Youth Leadership Event, the tAble is maintaining many of the best practices of this ministry, while also focusing on different opportunities to include and support youth who live with disabilities within the ELCA.

Without question, this ministry is where my sense of call first took root. I was a young person in a wheelchair at DAYLE ’00 learning about the ways God could use even me. But explaining what a “definitely-abled” person became cumbersome as I grew into my leadership over the next 15 years through the event. This past January, a passionate group of people came together and heard new ways God is calling this ministry into being.

The new name is simpler, with a focus on where we most concretely meet God in our lives: God’s table of grace. As we hear in worship, the bread is broken for all people, and the cup is the new covenant in our lives—signs of grace, of hope, of community—where all are welcome.

The community of young people with disabilities is growing within the church, and there isn’t always a place for us. As a pastor with a disability, the first questions I am always asked in any congregation are about accommodations. The tAble hopes to help reinforce that the kingdom of God has a need for abilities of all kinds, even if our buildings are less than accessible.

Accompanying one another through the kingdom of God with all of its stairs, written words, untranslated language, and tight schedules, is all of our responsibility as children of God. The tAble will be a safe space for youth and their companions to experience God’s power in their lives, while being empowered to go out into the kingdom—first at the Gathering and then back to their congregations, synods, and communities, knowing that they are a vital part of the church.

 

The tAble (formerly the Definitely-abled Youth Leadership Event or DAYLE) is a pre-event to the Gathering that blesses and empowers young people who live with a wide range of physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities so that they might grow as faithful, wise and courageous witnesses. The event also gives participants the opportunity to acclimate and orient themselves to Houston and the venues in which the Gathering are being held. The tAble will be held June 24–27, 2018.