Welcome to The JOY Ministry @ Graceview Baptist Church!
It is our pleasure to welcome you to our website and hope that you will find all the information you are looking for to help you on the "journey of special needs".
Please feel free to visit us any time you are in the Tomball, Texas area, we'd love to meet your family or help you and your church begin or strengthen your special needs ministry.
Our Story:
Back in 1983 our family was blessed with a very special little boy named Clayton. We didn't realize at the time that he would change our lives for the better!
We attended church in Vinton, Louisiana for the first 12 years of Clayton's life where I basically let him stay in our church nursery while I helped out in Children's Ministry with my other two little ones. Never once did I think that was weird or wrong. I was a mom of 3 under the age of 10 and I really was just thankful that someone cared!
Those nursery ladies loved Clayton and cared for him very well. Many a baby learned to walk by holding onto Clayton's small wheelchair. He loved being around the children.
Then one day, my husband's job changed and we moved to a huge place called Houston... well really Tomball but it seemed just the same. We'd lived in a little country town.
I had never thought about having to look for a church to welcome us but that is where the JOY story takes shape.
For weeks, I sat at home really not knowing where to start. Then slowly ( at my mom's request) I began to attend area churches for the search. My husband Thad worked on Sunday's so that meant me and the 3 kids were on our own. Often my mom would come down and stay with Clayton allowing me and Lauren and Dillon to attend a church to "check it out". Then the following Sunday, we'd load up Clayton and be on our way.. or so we'd hoped.
The church that had been welcoming the Sunday before.. just didn't seem to have much interest in us when we had Clayton on board. Now.... I do understand that they really just didn't have a clue what to do.
God used all those disappointments to his glory... in the days to come he sent us to a church sitting on State Highway 249, right in the middle of a pasture, in the midst of a worship center surrounded by purple trailers... but I am so thankful that we showed up!
The people at that church... literally met us in the parking lot. NO they did not have a special needs class or even any families attending with a child with a special need... they were just "Jesus With Skin" to us. A lady met us in the parking lot by my van and said "Hi, you're coming with me.. .that lady, Ms. Maurine Hulsey turned out to be my Sunday School teacher that very day and welcomed Clayton into her room... which by the way was located in a purple trailer.. .with no handicapped ramp or way to 'GET IN' ....
Later that week, the children's minister Ms. Lori Jones called me.. and asked "how can we help you?".. no one had ever said that to me before... so we chatted and figured out that Clayton may enjoy attending a nursery class or a kindergarten class.. that next Sunday he did and it was a delight.
However, as time passed... something (no I know it was the Holy Spirit) began to speak to me and prompt me that there was "something more for Clayton". As he had been faithfully attending the sweet Kindergarten class and being VERY welcomed... one night in my sleep, I literally had a dream where I saw Clayton in that same classroom beside the library yet, this day he was sitting in his wheelchair at a table with children just like him. ... little kids in wheelchairs!
I woke up totally motivated to do something... to tell someone. So I called my friend Karen and told her the dream. She said "Denise you need to tell our Children's Minister Ms. Lori what has happened."
I had never gone to a church office and asked to "talk" to the Children's Minister. What would I say? She would think I was some crazy lady.. having dreams, visions... well, I did meet with Ms. Lori Jones that day, told her the story of the dream and she prayed with me then grabbed my hand and walked me to the next office and introduced me to the new pastor at Graceview, Bryan Donahoo.
We told him the story, he did look at me like I was crazy... then he asked "so you want to do this?" I thought, do what? Teach? I can't or DON'T TEACH... I am a mom folding laundry, raising 3 kids one of whom is severely disabled... I don't even order at a drive through, much less talk to people!
Ha! Did God have other plans for us!
So what began as a dream for my JOY Boy, a little class for one has now become a Ministry for hundreds... if everyone came to JOY on the same Sunday... we'd have to meet in the parking lot... and hey... that is just where we began so it may not be such a bad thing..
If you'd like to hear the rest of the story, we have it on DVD...
While the JOY Ministry provides care to those with disabilities and their families.. the advise we share is from stories and things we have learned along the way on the disability journey ourselves. We would ask that before you make any medical decisions that you consult your personal physician.
