Beauty from the ashes
Beauty from the ashes
19 July 2018
Project CSC playdates called ‘Tribe Kids’ provide inclusive, sensory activities with volunteers interacting with children, so that parents can chat and enjoy a cuppa.
It’s been 10 years since Allison and Liam Holland lost their son Elijah to a rare genetic disorder: MECP2 Duplication Syndrome.
Still reeling from his sudden death, the young parents also discovered that their second child, Asher, then 10 months old, was diagnosed with the same rare condition, which results in physical and intellectual disabilities.
“It was a traumatic time,”Allison told then-Salvation Army Pipeline reporter Anne Halliday in an interview in 2010. Reflecting on that time and everything that has happened in between, Allison and Liam say God has created beauty from the ashes.
“You look at what’s in your hands. Use what you have, where you are,” says Allison. “What we had, what we literally had in our hands was lots of hospital visits, lots of experience with doctors and navigating a new diagnosis and that’s what this ministry grew out of.”
For the past four years, the Holland family have been living in Sydney. They worship at Rouse Hill Region Salvation Army where Liam works. Asher attends The Ponds School for children with intellectual and physical disabilities and is in Year Five. As school parents who are also passionate followers of Jesus, Allison and Liam developed friendships and saw God opening opportunities for ministry.
They began to run into parents that they knew on their frequent trips to hospital with Asher, who suffers from seizures and is susceptible to infection.
“It’s hilarious actually – quite often when we’re there we will bump into people that we know –it’s like a place to ‘catch up’,” Allison quips.
Those “catch-ups”often involved deep conversations. Despite not knowing each other for long, their mutual journey of raising children with special needs broke down societal barriers. 
“I don’t think that there’s been a time in the last four or five years (or ever) when we haven’t walked out of hospital without a new person’s phone number,” says Liam (pictured right).
God planted Liam and Allison in a community and opened their eyes to see what he was doing within their sphere of influence. And they acted on it.
“We thought, ‘Ok, God has planted a seed, how can we break this up into bite-sized pieces and make it a practical application of ministry?’”says Allison.
Both knew they couldn’t embark on anything without the support of their corps. “They’re our mother church, they’re our support base,” says Liam. “They’re the hands and feet for us to be able to stretch further. The vision is absolutely massive, but we can see an increasing amount of hands and feet around us, wanting to stretch out and also asking ‘how can we do this well so that it’s effective?’”
Project CSC is a new plant iniative born out of the Rouse Hill Region Corps. CSC stands for Connect, Suport and build Community –created to cater for families, carers and those involved in special needs care for children with disability and/or medical complex needs.
The project offers meals, family and carer support, financial assistance to help cover the cost of non-PBS medications, support groups, accessible events and outings for special needs children and their families, home and hospital visits.
Something as simple as providing meals can make a huge difference, as many families, like the Hollands, need to rush to hospital with their child at short notice.
Inclusive Christmas Carols have been running at The Ponds School for two years now and have been a huge success, allowing families of special needs children the ability to take part in a community tradition that most families take for granted. Playdates called “Tribe Kids”and a parent group called “Tribe Parents”provide inclusive, sensory activities with volunteers interacting with children, so that parents can chat and enjoy a cuppa. 
“The sense of belonging is huge,”says Liam, with Allison adding, “Yes, because for so long you’re the rarity. In society, at a shopping centre, you know, you’re the one that people look at. Whereas in the ‘Tribe’environment, you’re around people who just ‘get it’.”
The opportunities are endless, and the vision of Project CSC is a big one. “We dream of a community filled with hope where nobody has to do the journey alone,” says Liam.
The problem is, for families with special needs, being included is often a rarity. Social isolation occurs bit by bit. The birthday party invitations their child rarely receives. The sideways glances and whispers at sporting events, shopping centres, and after-school activities can make the effort to integrate seem “all too hard.”Families withdraw (or does society force them out?). Even church is not as welcoming as it is supposed to be.
“[One woman we know], she’s got a faith, but she can’t go out to church ... they can’t go out because the boys are so active, they seek out hyper-stimulation all the time, meaning no one (up until now) catered for the whole family’s needs,” says Allison.
At Easter this year Rouse Hill Region Corps set up an inclusive service at The Ponds School that better catered to the needs of families they knew. But it didn’t go far enough. The Hollands have a dream of a fully inclusive church service: “Picture church turned on its head,”says Allison excitedly. “It will have coffee, sensory stimulation, beanbags ...”. Liam says, “We’re starting to get a team to help us put it together. We don’t really know what it’s going to look like but it’s going to be exciting!”
Prayer is central to everything going on through Allison and Liam, Rouse Hill Region Corps and Project CSC. A strong prayer network through the corps is uplifting the project and the Hollands. Allison and Liam are often asked to pray for other families, particularly when in hospital. These aren’t necessarily people of faith, but people who know that Allison and Liam have faith and see in them an unconditional love that they want to tap into.
“For me,”says Allison, “I don’t think God plans for things to happen from the start –like losing Elijah, like MCEP2 Duplication Syndrome, but I do think God gave us specific gifts and passions and our life circumstances combined with our passions and talents have just made for a perfect ministry.”
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