A 24-year-old Utah man born without limbs is thanking God for his talent and gifts and especially for his fiancée – a woman who has had a crush on him since childhood.

“[N]one of this is possible without God’s hand in it. By His grace am I able to do any of these things,” Gideon DiMeglio told KSL-TV.

DiMeglio was born in 1994 without hands or arms and with feet attached to short legs. An ultrasound had prepared his parents – born-again Christians – for his disability. He was their fourth child.

Soon, though, they discovered his many gifts. He had a big smile. He had an outgoing personality and was a leader among classmates at school. Most of all, he loved to draw – which he does today with his feet. His favorite drawing is of his fiancée, Brittani Salazar, who is able-bodied and has arms and legs.

“I had a little crush on Gideon when I was little, like ongoing, off and on. I was just always the annoying little sister,” she told KSL.

As a young girl, she didn’t see Gideon as disabled, even though he is in a motorized chair.

“In 9th grade, I think it was … we had to write a paper about someone who we know who had a disability, and I was like, ‘I can’t think of anyone,’” Salazar said. “And my brother said, ‘What about Gideon?’ And I said, ‘He doesn’t have a disability.’ It just came out because it was just normal to me.”

Said…

The Uniting Church in Australia’s Assembly voted Saturday to change the denomination’s definition of marriage and allow ministers to officiate weddings for same-sex couples. 

In a statement posted on the Church’s website, Uniting Church in Australia President Deidre Palmer announced the changes that were made by the 265-member assembly that gathered in Melbourne, saying: “To honor the diversity of Christian belief among our members, we will hold two equal and distinct statements of belief on marriage.”

The first statement of belief regarding marriage is one that the Uniting Church has been following for a long time.

“The existing statement of belief that ‘marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of a man and a woman to live together for life’ has been retained,” Palmer said before added that “a new additional statement of belief has also been adopted.”

“That statement reads ‘marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of two people to live together for life,’ Palmer said. 

Uniting Church in Australia is the third-largest Christian denomination in the…

Chinese authorities bulldozed a registered church building July 17 without warning to make way for construction of a new neighborhood and train station.

International Christian Concern (ICC) reported that more than 70 police officers and workers showed up to take down the Liangwang Catholic Church building in China’s Shandong province. They lacked the proper documentation, but it didn’t matter.

Church officials Gao Rongli, Zhang Siling and Li Xiangmei – who were inside the building — had their phones confiscated and destroyed. It took only 15 minutes to demolish the building using bulldozers and pickaxes, according to ICC. Officials spared nothing, destroying the altars, benches and furnishings.

“The disproportionate manpower used to demolish this church goes to show that China is fearful of Christians,” said Gina Goh, ICC’s regional manager. “The government knew that the demolition in the name of urban zoning would be met with resistance, so it ensured success by taking extreme measures. Despite their best efforts to intimidate the Church with actions like this, the government cannot destroy the faith and resilience of Chinese Christians.”

It isn’t uncommon for China to destroy churches for commercial purposes, ICC reported. Last year, a Catholic church near a highway exit in Shaanxi province was demolished, likely for commercial purposes.