Jill's House: The Gift of Rest

Rest, Renewal & Relationships: How Respite Care Can Be a Blessing to Your Church and Community

Children with special needs and their families are often isolated, weary, and overwhelmed. Your church can provide a lifeline of rest and support to these families, and this book will tell you how.

A study conducted by researcher Marsha Mailick Selzer found that mothers of children with autism experience a hormone associated with stress that’s on par with levels found in combat soldiers. There’s one difference: Soldiers come home from the war, while parents of special needs children are on the front lines of battle forever.

But what if your church offered them an overnight, an evening, or even a few hours respite from their job as caregivers? What impact would that have on the families you serve—and your entire community?

McLean Bible Church found out just how much of a blessing respite care could be—parents were refreshed and blessed, marriages and relationships saved, lives brought to Christ through the ministry of respite care, and the congregation enriched by being intentionally more welcoming and inclusive.

Take an insider’s tour of Jill’s House, the respite care ministry which grew out of McLean Bible Church, and discover how your church—no matter its size—can serve your community by providing respite care.
 
Jill’s House is a Christian non-profit that loves and serves families raising children with intellectual disabilities through short-term, overnight respite as well as holistic family support services.

"This book is an invaluable resource that will enlighten, encourage, and equip you to make God's love known to children and families that we, quite simply, must not ignore."–David Platt, Pastor, McLean Bible Church