{"id":180279,"date":"2018-03-14T08:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T12:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=180279"},"modified":"2018-03-12T22:50:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T02:50:17","slug":"man-down-syndrome-need-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/man-down-syndrome-need-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Young man with Down syndrome: ‘We’re all the same. We need God.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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According to Ryan Pittman, we’re all different — and he says he is different because he has Down syndrome. But we’re also all the same, because “we need God.”<\/p>\n

In a 2011 testimony video<\/a> from Fellowship Bible Church in Nashville, Tennessee, Ryan’s parents, Ron and Cheryl, described their third son Ryan’s persistent desire to get involved in missions work in Peru. At first, his parents hesitated, not knowing how Ryan would handle the travel involved. But they eventually relented and agreed to go on the trip together as a family. After connecting with the mission church in Peru, the pastor there learned of Ryan’s Down syndrome and was very interested in having he and his family work with other families of special needs children in Peru.<\/p>\n

READ: First woman with Down syndrome to compete in Miss USA pageant makes history<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“It was an eye-opener for me that God had a bigger plan for what we were doing,” said Ryan’s father. “Cheryl had prepared a lesson… for moms, all about raising a child with special needs… and how to impact the world around you,” Ron said. But before Cheryl gave the lesson, she asked if Ryan could read his testimony. And he did.<\/p>\n

The people they were meeting with were stunned because Ryan could read, and one woman said it inspired her to work even harder with the special needs children there.<\/p>\n

“It was amazing to watch the look into the eyes of these mothers, the hope that was just burning in them,” Ron said. “I had no idea that God was going to use him that way, that he was going to make such an impact with so many people, just by simply telling his story.”<\/p>\n