Welcome to Joni and Friends where we’re going international!
That’s right! This summer we have Wheels for the World teams heading out to Ukraine, Ghana, and China and Romania and I have in studio with me my good friend and co-worker, Dr. Chip Kingery. Chip is Director of our International Outreach. Thanks for being here, Chip.
CHIP: Thank you. Buenos dias!
JONI: Buenos dias to you, too. Oh, this tells me you have been somewhere where they speak Spanish. Now you just got back with a Wheels for the World team from…
CHIP: Mexico.
JONI: How did it go?
CHIP: It was awesome! We were in Monterrey and Guadalajara and this is the fifth year and we saw 600 wheelchairs change lives. We saw four therapists change lives. We just experienced wonderful things, Joni.
JONI: Wow! That’s always good to hear. Now I’m assuming that in Guadalajara and in Monterrey and in some of these places you visited, wheelchairs – good ones – are kind of hard to come by, right?
CHIP: Absolutely! You don’t see them, and the ones that you see need quite a bit of repair and our teams were able to do that and change those wheelchairs so that they could be useful.
JONI: What a wonderful demonstration of the love of Jesus in a practical way. Do you have a story for us?
CHIP: Absolutely! A wonderful young lady came with her son who was 13 years old… very much a challenge for this young man in the wheelchair who could do very little movement. He had cerebral palsy and was really for hours worked on by the team to make that wheelchair just right… and they did, and the most wonderful thing is that the mother was able to – at that time – to say that she had already received Christ…. that she knew Christ, but now she really knew him more.
JONI: Wow!
CHIP: And as she left, Joni, she invited the church into her home to start one of the cell groups among people with disabilities that these churches in Mexico are doing.
JONI: Now, do most churches in Mexico have an outreach to people with disabilities?
CHIP: They really don’t and that’s why we took training for the first time this year and actually trained two groups of pastors and the leadership in the churches in the basics of disability ministry, but right now these churches are reaching out, they are following every person who had been touched by our therapists and changed by our wheelchair mechanics. They are following them into their homes.
JONI: You know, Chip, that’s what I love about you in leading our International Outreach. You’ve been back to Mexico how many times now?
CHIP: Well, actually this is the fifth year that the Wheels outreach has been in Mexico.
JONI: Wonderful! And how many folks came to Christ?
CHIP: We had over 500 people who professed faith in Jesus Christ for the first time.
JONI: Well, you know we’ve got some Wheels for the World trips coming up and I think there is some need for some seating mechanics and physical therapists, right?
CHIP: Absolutely!
JONI: Put the call out, Chip!
CHIP: I had the call in today to Jordan and to Cairo, Egypt and we really need seating specialists; we need mechanics; we need people who can train and we need physical therapists to help in the therapy outreaches.
JONI: Absolutely, Chip, and I’m glad you said that and I know there must be some friends listening right now who are physical therapists, seating specialists – we need you! So all you need to do is go to joniandfriends.org and click on our Wheels for the World page and you will get all the information you need right there to answer all your questions about what it means to sign up and join us on our Wheels for the World outreach. Where are you heading next, Chip?
CHIP: Well, India, China, and Maule, West Africa.
JONI: Okay friends, there you have your prayer marching orders. Be praying as we give the good news of Jesus in these many countries and beyond. Thanks, Chip, for coming!
CHIP: Muchas gracias!
JONI: De nada.
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