For the Long Haul
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to another addition of Joni and Friends!
And today is the busiest of days this week here at Joni and Friends as sign-ups for our Family Retreats are pouring in – yes, I know, we’ve got a long way to go before starting our summer retreats for families who include disabled children and adults, but these camps are so popular, and they fill up so quickly, that families and volunteers sign up early. Like now. Like in April!
I remember last summer when I met Lucy, a young single mother who had come to our Family Retreat with Emily, her severely disabled daughter. Emily is 13 years old, developmentally delayed, hard of hearing, visually impaired, and she has autism. On Monday evening, after all the families had arrived and settled in, Lucy drove up the driveway at 9:30 at night. Emily was in the backseat asleep. Lucy told us she had gotten a late start, and then got lost, and then she pulled over to the side of the road, to seriously think about whether or not she should just turn around and go home. In the dark she sat there in her car for a few minutes, wrestling with whether or not to take a second look at the map, turn the engine back on, and keep driving to our Family Retreat. She had never taken Emily to anything like one of our Joni and Friends Family Retreats and she wasn’t sure what to expect. Finally, Lucy put it in drive and decided to plow on. She arrived very late, but that was okay. We were up waiting for her with a hot cup of coffee and a warm bed for her and her daughter.
The next morning Emily jumped right in and headed to the swimming pool with her volunteer. After that, it was over to the archery range with all the new kids she had met at the pool. Lucy was watching all this from a distance. And you know what? Lucy was blown away; she had never seen a volunteer care for Emily like this. Or anyone caring for her, for that matter, because by the time her daughter was hitting the archery range, Lucy was getting a pedicure, manicure, and a haircut from a couple of hair stylists who had come to our retreat to volunteer their time ministering to the moms of disabled kids.
I tell you, by the end of retreat Lucy was a new woman, literally! She was so taken by the camp pastor and his wife and soaked in all the Bible teaching about accepting tough circumstances. This single mom was ready to head back home for the long haul, inspired and refreshed. Before she left Family Retreat, with a very happy daughter I might add, I was able to share with Lucy a special paraphrase of Colossians Chapter 1, verse 11 from The Message. It says, “We pray that you will have the strength to stick it out over the long haul; not the grim strength of gritting your teeth, but the glory-strength that God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us.” Wow!
Friend, you may not be a single mother with a disabled daughter, but that verse from Colossians is for you today. And I’ll tell you something else that’s for you, our Joni and Friends Family Retreats. We’re looking for Christians to serve as short-term missionaries (we call them our volunteers); people who will help people like Lucy and Emily. Just visit my radio page today at joniandfriends.org for all the details. We’ve got a great video posted for you to see, and a Family Retreat brochure, all for you, right there at joniandfriends.org. Again, that’s joniandfriends.org.
Previously aired as Program #8071 on 4/10/13.
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