This weekend our Wheels for the World team is heading to Cuba loaded down with wheelchairs and Bibles, as well as willing hands to help disabled people, all in that island nation just south of Florida. It’s a blessing to know that we’re able to take wheelchairs and Bibles – can you believe it? – to Cuba. It really does bless you, doesn’t it? Just to know that we can do that.
And I tell you, it also blesses some prisoners. I have in front of me a letter from an inmate named David. He does not say why he’s in prison. He is incarcerated in a correctional facility in Tennessee. Listen to what he writes.
He says, “Dear Joni and Friends... I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me and how much I appreciate all that you do for me and thousands of prisoners including shut-ins in nursing homes and people who cannot get out. I listen to Christian radio, and I found out about your extraordinary wheelchair ministry. You have never rejected any of my requests for free offers from the radio broadcasts nor have you asked for anything in return other than prayers to the Lord so that you can help people [like in Cuba]. God bless you from someone in prison.”
Well, I just had to read that today. I mean, not only does he listen to "Joni and Friends" – I think it’s interesting that a prisoner should mention the people who are shut-in and can’t get out of their homes so easily. And who knows, maybe that’s why he identifies with our ministry to disabled people. I don’t know. There are days, believe me, when I look at the bolts and bars of my own wheelchair and it can feel so confining! Whatever the reason, I am so glad David learned about Wheels for the World from tuning in. And so David, I don’t know why you have a special affinity for the disabled people in Cuba, but hey, thank you so much for praying for our team that’s heading off to that country right now this weekend. They are going to be traveling to villages in Cuba – outlying villages – fitting disabled children and adults with really high-tech specialized wheelchairs and giving them Bibles.
And friend listening, as I think of David and the people he also mentioned – people in nursing homes – as, I think of the disabled children in Cuba, I can’t help but remember the words of Jesus when he quoted Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Hey, that’s what we’re going to be doing this weekend in Cuba.
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