Making an Eternal Difference… From Your Home
Are you still sheltering-in-place? …Or sheltering-in-place again? I sure am, and I’m not certain when it will end. My quadriplegia makes me high risk for any virus, so it’s hard to say when I’ll return to my desk at Joni and Friends, or when I’ll be able to wheel up to my favorite spot at church. All I know is, I look forward to ‘getting out and about!’ But so many families do not have that hope.
For thousands of children and adults with disabilities, isolation is a way of life.
The other night while I was lying in bed, Didina came to mind. This Romanian woman was isolated in her bed for decades (God always brings her to mind when I begin to feel trapped by my disability). At the age of 22, Didina was paralyzed by an illness. Her husband took their two children and abandoned her.
For thirty years, she remained in a back bedroom, depressed and isolated while her mother struggled to care for her. The day she received a wheelchair through Wheels for the World was the first day she had been outside in years. The very sight of the sky brought her to tears.
Closer to home, I remember Lanette and her son Juddy. Juddy is nonverbal and uses a wheelchair. All year long, they are bogged down by therapies and care needs. They eagerly look forward to their week at Family Retreat where they see their isolation completely stripped away.
These are just two examples of families who intimately knew the stresses of isolation long before shelter-in-place orders were enacted.
That’s why Joni and Friends is moving forward right now with ministry to people with disabilities and their families. Across the country, our Area Ministry teams have creatively planned ‘complementary’ Family Retreats — fun and surprises, worship, talent times, prayer, mixers, support groups, all done virtually — to confront head-on the isolation so many families are facing.
Our Wheels for the World team is able to still send Bibles and wheelchairs for distribution by our in-country partners, so we won’t lose a minute in reaching people like Didina.
The Christian Institute on Disability continues to train young people and ministry leaders, equipping them to follow Jesus’ command in Luke 14 to “go out quickly.” And our Response team is working overtime, responding to higher numbers of people requesting prayer and encouragement than ever before.
The needs are great, and Joni and Friends is going full-steam to meet them.
It’s why I’m grateful for each of the dear friends of our ministry who have committed to supporting the Christ-centered outreach of Joni and Friends on a monthly basis through our Luke 14 Project. Yes, the needs are great, but our God is greater, and every dollar donated allows us to reach more families with the hope of the gospel!
Will you consider donating to the work of Joni and Friends each month? It’s a way you can make an eternal difference around the world… even if, like me, you still aren’t leaving your front porch.
–Joni Eareckson Tada
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