Heather and Home - Hiking England's Coast to Coast Way: Landscape, Laughter and Love - page 42

to take our time and not race to the finish. Chris took many photos and picked a little sprig
of heather. It was to give to my friend Heather, who had become a light in my life.
The moors were carpeted in heather .
I had met Heather at Sunday Fellowship. This is the name given by my local church for
its ministry with people who have developmental disabilities. It has been flourishing for
over a quarter of a century, and began when a local agency opened a group home close to
the church. An insightful pastor wanted to offer an intentional welcome to residents of the
group home. After much discussion, the congregation agreed to give it a try. Sunday Fel-
lowship has gone through several iterations, but during the time I have been involved, it
has met bi-weekly on Sunday afternoons and several of the group have attended morning
worship services and participated in the ordinary life of the church. The first time I went to
Sunday Fellowship I was tentative. There were about twenty-five people who had special
needs in the room. I didn't really know what to expect and suddenly felt that my academ-
ic degrees and life experience had been no real preparation for sharing in this community.
Over the years I got to know these folk, their friends and families much better and grew to
have great affection and respect for them. People who have developmental disabilities are
first and foremost people, with all the individuality and idiosyncrasy of any other group.
They leave their hearts a little more on their sleeves than do more restrained adults, but
they have their fears and their joys, their losses and their successes, their hopes and their
disappointments much like other people. Although sometimes they can appear childlike,