"Just knowing there is another family dealing with what all I'm dealing with and holding fast to Jesus - well, I'm good to go for another year!" That statment sums up very well what we see our mission to be.
Prayer Support: The best we can do for you is pray for you. Each of our familes coventants to pray for the other of another family, they pray specifically for that family. God honors these prayers. See our Infomation page for our phone number and email address to leave your prayer request. We'll notify prayer warriors across the world on your behalf. Please note these don't have to be "emergency situations."
Spiritual Affirmation: Unlike so many "programs" that only help with academics, our group is designed to support you and your child with your spiritual groeth. We share scripture, testimonies, and real life applications of Truth.
Infomation Pool: We seem to all hold Ph.D.s on our own child. Collectively we have read thousands of pages of research material on autism. Among our members, almost every "method" has been tried. Our families are faithful to tell us what has worked for them and what has failed, what was a watse of time and money, and what was vital to thier child's health, what lifted their souls and what bogged them down. We review books, tapes, programs, DVDs, CDs, and experts. We give addresses and referrals for those we liked.
Counseling: Do you need a shoulder to cry on? Do you have a prise? Do you just want to talk to another family who knows what it is like to dress a child 18 times before Sunday School? Have others second guessed you and told you "that if you only disciplined you child more" your child would behave? Does your family not understand? Has the school system failed your child? We understand. We offer telephone counseling, in addition to the newsletter. We have limited hours, so please bear with us, we do try to return all calls (remember we all are parents with autistic children).
Lending Library: "My public library has one book about autism and it's thirty years old. Am I really a refrigerator mom?" Our PREACCH library is growing and we would like to add more volumes and to loan them to you to read. If you have finished a book and would like to share it with others, you can share it two different ways: 1) send it to PREACCH for its lending library, or 2) allow us to add it to our available list so others could borrow it directly from you. If you want to borrow a particular book, we'll try to track it down for you. We ask that you pay the postage of mailing it back and forth and return it within the allotted time frame.
Public Awareness: Not only has Jill, our founder, spoken out about the blessings of autisim and the Hope in Christ for our children, but several other members have been spreading the word by volunteering to speak at workshops, bookfairs, support groups, and community meetings. If you would like to host a speaker or to volunteer to speak yourself, please let our ministry know. We also encourage our members to write articles for local and national publications. Also, our walking testimony is an encouragement to others. Many people in public places are curious about autism, the Lord gives us these opportunites to plant, water, or harvest His Joy.
PREACCH Letters: The backbone or most visible part of our ministy is our quarterly newsletter. Each family writes a "letter" at least once a year. These letters are sources of hope, infomation, praises, and prayer requests. Some of the families are "experts" on nutrition, physical therapy, AIT/AET, non-traditional medicine, dealing with the State, behavioral adjustments, spiritual training, or speech development. We print every letter sent to us, unless the writer asks us not to. We feel this is important, because our prayer warriors then know your needs and can pray specially for you. Most of our writers attach "for your eyes only" notes to their letter which we don't publish, but handle confidentialy.
Confidentiality: Though we have been asked many times to give out our mailing list, we don't. We only send the letter to potential PREACCH members (friends and family). If someone wants us to include their infomation, we mail it with the newsletter (they pay the added postage) so our members are "safe" from solicitation.
