Go Make Disciples
Hi! I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, here in the studio with my friend, Shauna Amick. Shauna, how are you on this beautiful day?
SHAUNA: Oh, I’m fantastic, Joni. Thank you.
JONI: And thinking of things beautiful, how’s your daughter, Sarah? I love it when you tell stories about how she’s dealing with her Down syndrome.
SHAUNA: I appreciate you asking. You know what? Sarah is almost 13, Joni. Can you believe it? And one thing I want to remind you of is that she is a prayer warrior.
JONI: That’s right!
SHAUNA: She love to pray; she loves to talk to Jesus. In fact, just thinking about this reminds me of a story of when I was teaching a class, facilitating a Bible study in church one Sunday morning, and Sarah was in her own little Sunday school class. But hers got out before the adult class did so her teacher brought her in. And Sarah was great; she just sat in the back of the room, nice and respectful and quiet, waiting for mommy to finish the lesson. And at the very close I had said to all the adults “Who would like to close us in prayer?” Well, it was silent for, it felt like a long time, Joni, and I wanted to let it be quiet because I wanted to give people time to get up the courage to pray out loud. But you know what Joni, I just figured out all of a sudden she could not handle it any more. Sarah jumped out of her seat, marched up to the front of the class, and she just started praying. So we had this big, passionate “Dear God…” and she kept praying and you know at that point nobody could understand her except for Jesus himself, Joni, because with her Down syndrome she’s pretty much unintelligible most of the time.
JONI: I remember one time you telling me that she would say “I love you, mama” and then “la, la, la, la, la…”
SHAUNA: That’s how she said “I love you.”
JONI: That’s how she prayed as well.
SHAUNA: Oh, it sounded just like that; you’ve got it, Joni.
JONI: How sweet; how precious.
SHAUNA: I was so proud. She just went on and on, talking to Jesus and finally she gave a big, hearty “Amen”. And she sat down. You know, you can imagine there are a lot of smiles; there were some people just laughing with joy. But there was one man, I looked over and he was crying. He was transparent enough to share with the class that although he knew in scripture that God tells us every one of us has a spiritual gift (just like we read from 1 Corinthians 12: 7), he never believed it himself for people with intellectual disabilities until he heard Sarah pray. It was a humbling and powerful moment of Sarah bringing scripture alive. I’ll never forget it.
JONI: And I imagine in your Sunday school class that morning there were more than a few people who were somewhat put to shame that they didn’t step forward and close that time in prayer. And through the simple, even unintelligible prayer of a child, God showed Himself strong.
SHAUNA: He sure did.
JONI: What a great story. I wish there were a ‘Sarah’ in every church prayer meeting across the country.
SHAUNA: Well, I agree with that, Joni. And you know what? Not only do I think that is possible by including all people with disabilities, I think it’s advisable.
JONI: Thumbs up to that!
SHAUNA: In fact, you know right now we have this great, new church resource called “Go Make Disciples” and that talks exactly about how disability ministry is not just supposed to be something given to people with disabilities or for people affected by disabilities, but it’s not disability ministry until people with disabilities are ministering.
JONI: Are ministering. Exactly! Well, like you said, we do have a great resource here at Joni and Friends which speaks to this point. Our newest book in the Irresistible Church series called ‘Go Make Disciples’. It talks about how ministry doesn’t just happen to people affected by disability or for them, it takes place when people with disabilities minister. Well remember to visit us at joniradio.org where you can download your copy of ‘Go Make Disciples’ for your family and for your church. Thanks, Shauna.
SHAUNA: Thank you, Joni.
© Joni and Friends
