An Unlikely Beginning
Every now and then, someone will ask, “Joni, I’ve been working on a manuscript of my testimony, and I’d like to know… how did you get a publisher to print your story?” I try to answer their question as best I can, but to be honest, I didn’t approach a publisher. Let me tell you how it happened…
My journey with book-writing began back in 1974 when my artwork – created using a mouth stick – caught the attention of a local TV station in Baltimore. They did a short feature about my paintings, and that local TV interview caught the attention of a producer at NBC’s “The Today Show” in New York. At his invitation, my sister and I loaded my artwork in the back of her station wagon and we drove to New York City to be interviewed by Barbara Walters (the Kelly Ripa of her day). When on national TV I was asked about my joyful spirit, I smiled and told America, “It’s all because lof Jesus Christ, my Savior. I’d be hopeless without him!”
After that, things just kind of exploded! A publisher asked me to write a book (when does that happen anymore?!?), and when Joni: An Unforgettable Story was released in 1976, I began getting lots and lots of letters.
One of those letters was from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Apparently, Ruth Graham had read the book Joni and suggested that I share my story on several Billy Graham Crusades (which I did). Then, the Billy Graham people asked me if I would be willing to play my own part in a film about my story. What an experience that was (and should you wonder, no, there will be no Joni II, no Son of Joni or Joni’s Revenge. My one film experience was enough)!
There’s so much more to say about that amazing journey and, for a limited time, you can still get a copy of the book where I talk more about reliving my accident before a camera (it was so eerie and, in many ways, hard on my emotions). As you’d guess, the movie brought even more mail to my door. Each letter contained so many questions, many of them from people with disabilities like me. At that point, I realized I needed more than just a few friends and family to help me respond to these pleas for help, so I took the advice of a few mentors and in 1979 began Joni and Friends.
Even though Joni and Friends encompasses so much more now than it did when we started (Joni and Friends Radio, Family Retreats, Wheels for the World, advocacy and education through the Christian Institute on Disability, the podcast, resourcing churches… whew!), it’s important to me that we still do what we did at the beginning. And that is to answer the questions of people who are hurting and suffering – questions about the extent of God’s sovereignty over disabilities, and so much more. Forty years later, we are still connecting people affected by disabilities to the resources they need. Plus, ever since those early days when we answered mail around my kitchen table, we’ve always taken time to pray for the individuals who contact us. It’s a special privilege we don’t take lightly!
It’s hard to believe how God started a worldwide ministry using a few mouth-art sketches drawn by a 20-something girl in a wheelchair. To this day, nobody is more surprised than I am! For four decades, it’s been all about equipping the church to evangelize and disciple people affected by disability. God did something huge from such small beginnings! But isn’t that just how God works? He took Gideon’s army and whittled it down to a mere 300 before they took on the massive military machine of the Midianites. He used a farm-kid tending sheep to bring down a mighty giant. He chose a man with no children to be the Father of Many Nations.
The Bible is chock-full of stories of how God uses the unlikely, the ill-equipped, the untrained, and the least expected to fulfill His mighty plan. And I’m so glad He took me, a reckless teen-aged kid foolish enough to dive into water without checking its depth, to be a part of His glorious, global plan to redeem individuals struggling with disability. So, to answer that initial question about publishing manuscripts? I say, leave it to God – you focus on deepening your message and let your faithful Lord focus on spreading that message! (One bit of advice, though: tell your story through Scriptures that changed your life. Because neither your story nor mine can transform the hearts of readers; only God’s Word can do that)!
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Joni and Friends, and learn more about the beginnings of this unlikely story – right now, download the first chapter of the book Joni for free. I think you’ll agree that it’s an unlikely start to a life-story that only God could redeem!
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