Lifting Families Out of Isolation
“As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!”
Psalm 40:17
When disability is in a family, you can hardly imagine the exhausting demands. I know parents of kids with autism who take shifts sleeping – and they’ve been doing it for years. I know mothers who are on-duty all day long tending to their child with a disability; when Dad comes home after work, he drops his things and immediately takes over. Day-in and day-out, year after year, it’s the same tiring routine.
These precious families are suffocating in isolation.
Who can they ask for help? Who on the ‘outside’ is skilled enough to come and suction lungs, change adult diapers, or infuse feedings through a G-tube? It’s a desperate cycle that wears out the most stalwart saints… and splinters the best marriages. When Mom is emotionally numb, how can she muster strength to respond to her husband? Dad withdraws. Siblings drift off into their rooms. Everyone ends up running on empty.
To many special needs families, the church seems like a faraway place for normal people with perfect children. Sadly, without friends, their closest relationships are often medical doctors or therapists.
Is there hope for these families in need?
Joni and Friends says, “Yesss” with a fist-pump! We know how disability impacts families, and we bend-over-backward to reach out, care and connect. Through Family Retreats – whether in person or virtual – we lift social isolation, ascribe positive meaning to pain, network families with the outside world, and give help and hope in Jesus Christ.
And not just at one Family Retreat, but through a whole array of personal touchpoints which offer respite and healing, relationship and community, hope and happy-hearted joy in the Lord Jesus. I am so proud of our Joni and Friends teams who work overtime to make certain no special needs family is left behind. All are prayed for, cared for, and connected to specially trained churches who resonate with disability.
Most likely, you will never physically lift a child with a disability into a wheelchair. But you can lift families out of isolation through your prayers and gifts. And no one is more grateful than I am for your partnership in the Gospel. Your support strengthens the ‘Family’ in every Family Retreat, and I love you for it! From my heart, thank you…
–Joni Eareckson Tada
Help Support Special Needs Families
You can bring help and hope to special needs families struggling with disability. Your gift of any amount will be used to put on programs like Family Retreat and help families all over the country!
