This story was sent to the Friendship staff by Pastor Peter Slofstra of Hope Fellowship Church in Courtice, Ontario:
Last year, Friendship Ministries, a ministry designed to make people with intellectual disabilities feel included in church, became an associate member of the Canadian Council of Churches. I attended the May meeting in Ottawa where this decision was made and had the opportunity to meet and chat with Nella Uitvlugt from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was the Executive Director of this wonderful organization.
When I mentioned that Hope Fellowship, my church in Courtice, Ontario, had at least three families with an intellectually challenged child, she asked if I had ever considered leading them in a New Members Class so that they could take their place with other professing members in the church. I confessed that I had not thought about this but that I was certainly willing to pursue the idea.
A subsequent conversation with one of the parents gave some more impetus to the idea. Eventually I ordered specially designed materials for “friends with intellectual disabilities” and Saturday mornings now find me singing and talking about Jesus with Hailey Hampson, Sarah Hoekstra, Carly Troup and their parents. These three young ladies hope to profess their faith in Jesus publicly along with all the others who have attended this year’s New Members Classes. On May 26, you will see and hear for yourself how talented Hailey, Sarah and Carly are and how much they love the Lord!
It was very shocking, therefore, to hear that the person who inspired this initiative died suddenly on Wednesday, March 20, at the young age of 60.
According to a story about her in the Grand Rapids Press, Nella grew up poor as a preacher’s kid in Ontario before moving to Michigan with her family at age fourteen where she didn’t fit in with her new classmates at East Christian.
“Nobody knew what to do with us,” she recalls. “We wore hand-me-downs and homemade clothes. I had two outfits. I didn’t know I was supposed to carry a purse. We talked funny. Our parents were old. It wasn’t cool to be Canadian in the U.S. in the ’60s.”
So who befriended her? A neighbor girl named Emily, who had an intellectual disability. “She was the most welcoming person,” Nella recalls. “She would always say, ‘Hi, Nella!’ She taught me that the gift of hospitality can come from anybody.” From this important formative experience and the additional personal experience of a son who had severe communication problems in his early years, she went on to oversee a thousand plus Friendship Groups in seventy-five denominations in twenty-eight countries!
She will be dearly missed by her family, colleagues and many “friends”. I’m just thankful to God for the opportunity to be inspired by her in time to get more involved with our “friends” at Hope Fellowship Church.
Pastor Peter
