“My Jesus Club (JC) friend’s been telling me she wants to get married. What do I say?”

“I believe that dating is for marriage. But what do I tell my JC friends who are in a dating relationship? Do I encourage them to think about marriage?”

“Someone who used to attend JC as a man has recently come back dressed as a woman. He’s very open to the gospel, but he can’t accept that our gender is tied to the bodies God gave us. How do I disciple him?”

“My son was let go from work cos he was following a woman who was working in the same building. What do I do?”

“A parent is distraught cos her son masturbates even in public. She thinks he’s ‘naughty’ and doesn’t trust him to be out in public on his own. What do I say to her?”

On 28 March, about 60 volunteers and caregivers from across our 3 clubs gathered for a candid conversation on the topic of Sexuality and Relationships for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). 

Our speaker, Hsiao Yun, first gave us a biblical framework for understanding sexuality. Then drawing on her wealth of experience as a psychologist and senior teacher for special educational needs, and her lived experience as a mother of 2 adult children with special needs, she applied what the Bible says on sexuality to what it means for persons with ID. 

After her presentation, Tina and Carol joined Hsiao Yun on a Q&A panel to field questions from the floor. Questions were raw and deeply personal as we grappled with the fact that our friends and children with ID, like all of us, have a God-given desire for sex and relationships. Yet we live in a society that pretends they don’t have such desires, or sees their desires as somehow deviant.

There are no easy answers to such complex questions, but we’re thankful to have kickstarted the conversation. And we left that day, encouraged by our panellists to speak openly with our friends and children so that their view of sex and relationships is formed, not by the media, but by the life-giving Word of God.