Hey, we’re at 20 years and counting!
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and we’ve been celebrating a pretty special anniversary at Joni and Friends this summer. As you well know, we hold retreats across the nation for special needs families, and we’ve been doing it for 20 years. Yep, our very first retreat started back in 1991, and we’ve been giving the Gospel of Christ to thousands of mothers and fathers and their disabled children ever since. Where did we get the idea to do these retreats? Well…
Back in 1990, I was serving on the National Council on Disability in Washington DC, and our government council had just sponsored a “family retreat” at a hotel, all underwritten by Uncle Sam – speakers from top universities and social security were all there to give advice to these families with lots of lectures, panel and roundtable discussions. I sat in the back on a couple of these sessions, and I could see that these moms and dads were overwhelmed. As I looked around, I thought, These parents don’t need more lectures; they need to experience something much more deep, and more personal, not to mention something more fun! When this government-sponsored family retreat was over, those people left more tired than when they arrived! When I got back to Joni and Friends, I said to our team, “Guys, we can do a real Family Retreat, and you know what, we can do it with less money, a better program, with God at the center, and have a whole lot more fun!” That’s all the push our team needed. The next thing I knew, it was a year later, 1991 and I was flying to Spruce Lake, Pennsylvania, for our very first Joni and Friends’ Family Retreat!
We only had 10 or 15 families and a few volunteers back then, but we knew we were onto something big. One of the things I remember about that first retreat was rain! We had so many fun activities planned for outside, and we really got nervous when it started raining. But that’s when we got the bright idea to bring all the special needs families into the big lodge and have a sing-along around the fireplace. I tell you never did hymns sound so beautiful as to hear parents singing with tears in their eyes.
After that, we grabbed some balloons, divided up into teams, and played “balloon volleyball.” You should have seen the kids in wheelchairs zooming and braking and turning to hit that balloon toward the other team before it touched the ground – everybody was laughing and cheering, it was such great fun! The next day the rain had stopped and we were able to do wheelchair hikes in the woods… enjoy a really great barbecue outside… wheelchair basketball on the court…and swim in the pool. Plus, Ken and I had the chance to share our testimony and explain to these families how the Word of God lifted us up and gave us so much hope. We may have been a small group back at that first Family Retreat, but, oh, the sweetness of that fellowship was unforgettable. What’s more, it showed us what was possible and encouraged us to dream big – I'll never forget one of our Joni and Friends’ staff saying to me at the end of that first Family Retreat, “And just think, boss, one day we’ll have retreats like this spread all across the country!”
That was two decades ago, and today marks the close of our last Family Retreat for the season up at the Castaway Club near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Thousands have experienced the life-transforming love of Jesus through our retreats – and I thank the Lord for the many more thousands who will hear His Good News in the years to come. All praise to God and thanksgiving for two decades of Family Retreats!
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends