Preaching Jesus
I always enjoy keeping close tabs on our teams traveling internationally, so when our Wheels for the World volunteers travel this month to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and El Salvador, I’ll be reading every update that comes my way.
Although these Central American nations have a stronger Christian presence than many other countries, sadly, disabled people are still overlooked and neglected.
I remember the last time I served on a Wheels for the World team in El Salvador – Ken and I did a ‘home visit’ to Katerina, a young woman with CP who lived in a back bedroom behind a store.
Her parents (who ran the little store) were not able to bring her to our wheelchair distribution, and so, we brought a wheelchair to her! We gave her a Bible and connected her family with a local evangelical church. I shared my testimony with Katerina, using my high school Spanish and the help of a translator.
Katerina was thrilled that she could now get out of bed, go out, and sit by the counter as her parents worked the store (I was humbled that she could find such joy in such a simple act).
It reminded me all over again that our ministry cannot only be about providing wheelchairs.
The wheelchairs bring so much, yes, but we must also be preaching Jesus who came “to bring Good News to the poor… to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free…” (Luke 4:18-19).
So that’s what I’ll be praying for as our Wheels for the World teams take flight to Central America this month. Join me in that, won’t you? And if you’re interested in hearing more about the plight of people like Katerina, go on over to our YouTube channel, where we tell the stories of even more disabled people like her in El Salvador – such as in the episode, Finding Franklin.
I hope you can see just how much our ministry relies on the prayers and donations of people like you. So, thank you for making a difference in the lives of some of the neediest, most oft-forgotten and neglected people in the world!
–Joni Eareckson Tada
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