{"id":18046,"date":"2025-03-31T16:16:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T21:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/?p=18046"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:58:30","slug":"writing-on-the-theology-and-practice-of-including-people-with-disability-brenda-darke-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/ar\/writing-on-the-theology-and-practice-of-including-people-with-disability-brenda-darke-costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing on the Theology and Practice of Including People with Disability: Brenda Darke, Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From studying special education and working with children to teaching disability theology at a Bible college, Brenda Darke has been helping Christians live out Jesus\u2019 love for people with disability\u2014including writing a book in Spanish on the topic. \u201cIt\u2019s been encouraging to hear when someone who lives with a disability tells me that my book validates their experience,\u201d Brenda says. <\/em>This story is part of the Journeys in Christian Publishing: Stories from \u0644\u064a\u062a \u0648\u0648\u0631\u0644\u062f<\/a> series.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a very young Christian, I was given the option of studying special education, and recognized that this could be something God wanted me to do. Today, I am a practitioner working to encourage Christians to better include and understand people who live with a disability.<\/p>\n

I taught young children with severe cognitive and complex disabilities before stopping to have my own children. Years later, after working in Latin America for 15 years, I used a sabbatical to take a look at the theology of disability.<\/p>\n

This immediately drew me into my current ministry, and I have been teaching Bible college students about how to include people with disability for over twenty years. I love teaching this subject and seeing students\u2014some of whom are obliged to take my course\u2014change in their attitude from indifference to enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"\"From teaching to writing<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When I started teaching, I soon found I had nothing in Spanish to offer my students that dealt with the theology and practice of including people with disability. I began writing my own materials, including voices from around Latin America, as well as experience I gained from working with families in a local pastoral support ministry.<\/p>\n

Eventually this material was published as a book, Un Camino Compartido: Hacia la plena inclusi\u00f3n de la persona con discapacidad en las iglesias<\/em><\/a> (\u201cA shared path\u201d), by Ediciones Puma. It is now in its second edition. It\u2019s been encouraging to hear when someone who lives with a disability tells me that my book validates their experience. My book has been a really useful tool, and can go to places I cannot reach.<\/p>\n

Publishing lessons so far<\/strong><\/h4>\n