Ken in Peru with Wheels for the World
Hi, everyone, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I’m smiling because I am in studio with my husband Ken.
KEN: I’m smiling back because there’s my wife!
JONI: We love this, don’t we, getting together with the radio and a chance to share with our listeners what we do together.
KEN: Oh, absolutely. I consider it a real privilege, Joni. So thank you for inviting me.
JONI: Well, you know one of the things we do together that I love is that we travel with the ministry of Joni and Friends. You and I just got back from a Joni and Friends Family Retreat in New Mexico. It was so much fun being with special needs families. But frankly I love it when you go on a Wheels for the World trip. You always come back with the best stories.
KEN: So I get so charged up with going on these Wheels for the World trips. I am serious, Joni, it doesn’t matter where we go because the story always seems to be the same. I look at it as Biblical proportions when Jesus was able to heal the paralytic. I can’t imagine what that man after all those years getting the gift of mobility must have felt.
JONI: Absolutely! And you know we are cheering on our Wheels for the World teams who are heading out around the globe right now this week with wheelchairs and Bibles. And one “wheels” team just got home from serving in Peru. That’s where you went not long ago.
KEN: I know Peru well.
JONI: Well I know you really used your tools on a little wheelchair for what was her name, Melissa?
KEN: Melissa. Oh, that’s a great story. Villa, El Salvador there is a very poor section in the outskirts of Lima that go up the sides of the hills, and one of the pastors had a heart for going up and finding out if there were people up there who had needs. At first there wasn’t even people who had disabilities, but then he realized: Wow, there are a lot of people here that have disabilities that just can’t get around. And Melissa was one of these young girls; her mother was a single mother and it was hard for them to get around
JONI: Describe the house they lived in.
KEN: I wouldn’t say home, but it was more of a shack—dirt floors, corrugated tin roofs, it was a place to cook and sleep.
JONI: Some people would look at Melissa and where she lives up on the side of a mountain, down 7, 8, 9, 10 steps a little tiny shack perched on the side of a hill and they would think: ‘That kid’s not going to use that wheelchair.’ But that’s not true; the wheelchair was a life-changer for her, wasn’t it?
KEN: It’s not just a life-changer for little Melissa, it’s a life-changer for her mother, for her brother, for everyone that comes in contact with her because now she is mobile. She may not be able to go a lot of distances in her little home, but it does give her mobility. When you watch how she can come alongside her mother in the kitchen and help her with cooking the food or just being a part of all that. It changes the whole dynamics.
JONI: She’s a part of the family.
KEN: Absolutely!
JONI: All because of a wheelchair. You know, when I think of ‘Wheels for the World’ I think of this Bible verse from I Samuel Chapter 2, it says, “God lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap. He sets them among princes; placing them in seats of honor.” Wow! What a perfect description of what it looks like when you lift a child like Melissa with Spina Bifida out of the dirt and you place her in a beautiful little pediatric wheelchair, it’s a true seat of honor.
KEN: You know I look at Ephesians 4:28 where it talks about using your hands for good, hard work and giving generously to others in need.
JONI: That’s exactly what the inmates do.
KEN: That’s what the prisoners who are in the various prisons that are refurbishing these wheelchairs really do.
JONI: Well, friend listening I would love for you to see a video of my husband Ken hard at work serving on our ‘Wheels for the World’ team by going to joniradio.org. Pray about the possibility of joining a ‘Wheels for the World’ team next season serving as a wheelchair mechanic. It’s all there for you today at joniradio.org. Thanks Ken for being here!
KEN: Thank you.
© Joni and Friends
