What are the benefits of Friendship?

Benefits to Friends

Through your Friendship program, people with intellectual disabilities will be able to

• Experience the joy of knowing they are of value to God and to God’s people.
• Grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ, claiming him as their Savior and Lord.
• Grow in their relationship with Christ’s church, making a public profession of their faith and participating in the church’s life and work.
• Be truly accepted and loved by the Christian community

What does a Friendship group look like?

Groups and One-On-One Relationships

Friendship is all about building relationships between mentors and friends. It’s not always clear who is learning from whom! It is a process of bringing the family of God together to learn more about God’s love. Friendship groups typically meet on a weekday evening or as a Sunday morning class. Here’s how it works:

• Sessions often start in a large group with singing, sharing, praying together, and hearing a Bible lesson.
• The lesson is told by a storyteller and usually includes group participation, often in drama format.
• This is followed by one-on-one time, where mentors and friends meet to go over materials related to the Bible lesson; often this time includes crafts, activities, prayer, and memory work.
• Finally, the group gathers again for snack and social time and a closing prayer or song.

If you're thinking about starting a Friendship program, you should know that Friendship is not a ministry to people who have intellectual disabilities. Rather, it is a ministry with them. We refer to them as “friends,” not as “students.” While we teach them about the Bible and God’s love for them, they teach us about caring and compassion, and about what it means to be fellow members of God’s family.
Starting a Friendship group will enable you to reach out to people who have intellectual disabilities, their families, and their communities.

RS FRIENDSGROUP

Friendship

Friendship, as understood here, is a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other's sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. As such, friendship is undoubtedly central to our lives, in part because the special concern we have for our friends must have a place within a broader set of concerns, including moral concerns, and in part because our friends can help shape who we are as persons. Given this centrality, important questions arise concerning the justification of friendship and, in this context, whether it is permissible to “trade up” when someone new comes along, as well as concerning the possibility of reconciling the demands of friendship with the demands of morality in cases in which the two seem to conflict.

What I've Learned About Friendship

• I've learned that there are many good friends around, but true best friends are hard to come by.
• I've learned that sometimes you love a best friend more than a boyfriend.
• I've learned that a best friend is more important than a boyfriend.
• I've learned that you can do something or nothing with a best friend and still have the best time.
• I've learned that a true friendship has many memories, both good and bad, but all important.
• I've learned that sometimes the most used part of a best friend is the shoulder you cry on, and the shoulder you are willing to lend.
• I've learned that when a best friend is happy, you find yourself happy too, even when it has nothing to do with you.
• I've learned that a best friend's family soon feels like your own.
• I've learned that the only one who truly understands is a true friend.
• I've learned that nothing ever sounds stupid, funny, or unbelievable to a best friend, and you never feel stupid saying whatever it is.
• I've learned that sometimes it feels like a best friend is the only one who will ever care about you and think you are beautiful in your own way.
• I've learned that you always have that something extra to give to a best friend in need, and can count on that in return.
• I've learned that your heart is forever touched by a true friend, no matter how things end up.
• I've learned that when your heart has been broken, a best friend is the best band-aid for it.
• I've learned that a best friend will call you in the middle of the night to talk without thinking, and it's OK.
• I've learned that in many cases, a hug and a kind word from a best friend is the only thing that helps get you through the day.
• I've learned that a best friend would stick up for you no matter what the consequences are.
• I've learned that best friends can sing at the top of their lungs and not worry about singing the wrong words or being out of tune.
• I've learned that best friends stay up all night and on the phone for hours talking without even realizing it.
• I've learned that a best friend can tell the difference between a silly crush, and more than that.
• I've learned that sometimes a best friend is all you have.
• I've learned that sometimes you wonder how she knew, but then you realize that's just how close you are.
• I've learned that when you are true best friends, everyone else knows it.
• I've learned that, most importantly of all, best friends will always be best friends, no matter what is happening in their lives, where they are, or what they are doing. A best friend is irreplaceable. This is the most important thing I could have ever been taught by a best friend. 

Just Friends?

Doesn't it annoy you when a couple will go out for a period of time, have differences, break up, and both decide to JUST BE FRIENDS. I mean, do people really think that they can ever go back to the movies, have play fights and hang out on a buddy level? When deep down, all they can think about is whether the other has a new boyfriend/girlfriend, and wonder if they will get back together again. I don't really think that ex-couples will ever get over an inside awkwardness and think of each other as a mate. Or if a girl is asked out by a guy, and she just wants to be friends, as if he will think of her as a friend.

When it comes to just a guy and girl starting out and staying buddies, definitely, this works for everybody. But as far as guy and gals of roughly the same generation goes, no-one is totally free of romantic inclinations that come from deeeep down, whether people are aware of it or not. Anyway, that is one aspect of friendship that Bronwyn Polson can add to her home page if she wants it. Any one is free to argue with it if they want.

http://rsfriendsgroup.blogspot.com