Hi my name is George Ayer, the founder of the Mother Teresa Center for the Study of Disability and Mental Health Giftedness.  From a young age, my mom as my primary advocate fought for me to succeed academically and socially with my learning disability.  I jumped from one special education environment to another and had a hard time fitting in with my peers struggling with bullying and self-esteem issues.  As a teenager and young adult I also struggled with depression and anxiety.  During this time I went back and forth between faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior to a struggle with agnosticism/atheism and ultimately a conversion to the fullness of the Catholic Faith. Many years later, after a fresh new conversion experience as a young adult, and several years after being diagnosed as an adult with a Non-Verbal Learning Disability during my university degree, my mom had a tragic heart attack that lead to her death which would lead me on a journey to discover my call for to help others with disabilities.  This is where my adventure really takes off!

After mom’s untimely death in the midst of her teaching career, I connected and grieved with her school and tried to follow her into the teaching profession.  It was a tremendous consolation in my grief to have such support from her school community where she taught. Unfortunately, when I reached the teachers college level I experienced prejudices that lead to me going on a fight not only for self-advocacy for my own disability, but also for those of others.  Through that process I began to sincerely seek God’s Will more thoroughly for my life and I got a new spiritual director.  Shortly after this I got on a government contract where I was asked to be in a position where I would be required to be an agent of prejudice towards a child who had the same kind of disability as me: Non-Verbal Learning Disability. What could be more demoralizing than after a fight for your own disability, being asked to make life harder for someone of the same type of disability as me.  This was the last straw and in taking a stand I got a call from God to fight for people with disabilities through a program called the Developmental Services Worker program, which has lead me to become currently a supply educational assistant working with kids in schools all over my area.

In the final semester of my DSW program, which was all placement in an elementary school working with kids, a miracle happened that really turned things around.  I got to work and make a positive impact with a kid once again has a non-verbal learning disability, again the same exceptionality as me.  It hit me that I had I not taken a stand during the government contract this never would have happened and that God was restoring me and confirming my mission by giving me the opportunity to make a positive impact in this child’s life.  Indeed, he made tremendous academic strides that semester and his teacher gave me 100 percent average for the whole semester.  She was also a Christian.  God was at work.  Also, that semester at a Holy Thursday Mass, God revealed to me during the washing of the feet that He was calling me to start something new for people with disabilities.  It is now the case, one year later that I begin the project which I feel may include laity both single and married, religious and priests.  I believe it must start however as a lay apostolate

A few defining characteristics:  It will have a special focus on social disabilities such as non-verbal learning disability, ADHD, and autism/Asperger’s Syndrome.  Visible disabilities such as cerebral palsy, blindness or near sightedness, will certainly be included.  It is now the case, one year later that I begin this project.  Disabilities will also include Mental Health Challenges.  As Blessed Mother Teresa would say we will see Jesus Present in the Blessed Sacrament, as well as people with all the above and many other kinds of challenges.  We will also see and cultivate the giftedness of each person.  May the Holy Spirit, who formed Jesus in His Mother Mary, lead and guide our apostolate so that all of us with disabilities may be formed into an army of apostles that know that we are loved as Our Father’s beloved sons and daughters.