The Dream Of A Wheelchair
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and who doesn’t love a child with a disability?
You know, when you think of a kid struggling to walk on crutches, or a little girl with spina bifida getting used to her new wheelchair; or when you consider a 6-year-old who’s suffered a brain injury, well, you would think that a child doesn’t have the emotional resources to persevere through those hard times.
But countless boys and girls with disabilities, they’re proving it every day. And it’s why I fall in love with, well, little boys and girls who struggle with a disabling condition. Like little Jose in El Salvador.
Now, Jose is 8 years old and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a baby. That came as quite a shock to his impoverished family.
His mother sews clothes and sells them at a street kiosk; Jose’s father sells food in the village market. They have big dreams for Jose and his little brother, but it’s hard to keep those dreams when the job of their youngest son is to help take care of his older brother. Plus, mom and dad simply cannot afford a wheelchair. And Jose really needs one if he is to ever going to be able to go to school, get a job, live on his own. But this family makes so little, they can barely feed each other. So, a really nice, classy pediatric wheelchair with all the bells and whistles? The kind that would cost anywhere from 8 to 10 thousand dollars in the States? It’s not a dream. No, it’s pie in the sky. It’ll never happen.
But remember, sometimes it’s the littlest ones who have the emotional resources to persevere. And Jose dreamed that one day he’d be able to realize that dream of having a wheelchair – a chair that he could manage by himself; a chair that would take him to school; that would mean his mom and dad would not have to carry him everywhere. And that dream came true when the family heard that our Wheels for the World team was coming to town. Dad and mom took off work to carry little Jose to our distribution site. When they arrived with this little boy in their arms, they all looked around wide-eyed and wonder. So many beautiful, shiny new wheelchairs. They also looked and noticed many other families like theirs, waiting and hoping for the same. But when it came time, our Wheels for the World team not only measured Jose, but found the exact perfect little wheelchair just for him.
Jose has already made new friends in town and everybody says how his life has been transformed. Yes, by the wheelchair; but mainly, by the Lord Jesus. Because Jose’s family knows that his chair is a gift from God.
It’s also a gift from you, especially if you are on the team that helps us collect used but serviceable wheelchairs. Chairs that we then shine up, fix up, and get them looking like showroom new! We need more volunteers to help collect wheelchairs, and given that March is wheelchair collection month, I’m challenging you to join our Wheelchair Volunteer team, a team of hundreds of brothers and sisters in Christ who are serving God by finding those used wheelchairs in their communities. Does that sound like something you’d like to do this spring?
© Joni and Friends
Become a Wheelchair Collection Volunteer
Volunteers collect used, but restorable, wheelchairs across the United States. If you have a heart to collect wheelchairs for people with disability around the world, we invite you to join our Wheelchair Collection Volunteer team!
