JONI: I love it when I’m around people that I sit in awe of and one of them is sitting next to me now… my good friend, Dana Croxton. Dana, you are “Mr. Wheels for the World”! How many wheelchair distributions have you been on?
DANA: 24.
JONI: And to how many countries?
DANA: Only 8, including Peru, Cuba, Honduras, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Thailand, and Kenya.
JONI: Well, I want all you men listening to know that the reason this guy right here goes on so many Wheels for the World outreach trips is that he is so handy with the screwdriver and the hacksaw and the hammers and the nails and putting together the headrests and the side support struts and sawing off foot pedals and stuff! Right? Not only with wheelchairs, but with something called “Access Teams.” You want to talk a little about that, Dana, and where you served on an Access Team most recently?
DANA: I actually got to serve alongside an Access Team in Bangalor, India in October of 2006, when they came to build ramps and to build a wheelchair merry-go-round in a city park.
JONI: Now this is in a Hindu neighborhood.
DANA: Yes
JONI: And what is amazing about that is that the Hindu people, (and I saw the photographs), came to help you.
DANA: Yes, Christians came from four different churches, they participated in it, varying amounts of people, and what’s more amazing than that, Joni, is that even though the caste system has been outlawed in India by constitution, it still exists in the culture. So for a person who is not of the lower caste, who is the construction trades and the ditch diggers – those are the lower caste people who work in dirt and cement – for people who are not of that caste, whether Christian or not, to come and get their hands dirty is phenomenal, it’s much bigger than anything an American can realize.
JONI: And I imagine that people with disabilities are pretty low on the cast scale as well. Correct?
DANA: Absolutely! In India there are things considered as severe disability that we wouldn’t even notice in this country.
JONI: What impresses me most about “Access Teams,” and this is something new that we’re doing with Joni and Friends, when sending construction crews with our Wheels for the World distribution teams to build the ramps and widen the doorways, is that it’s such a testimony to the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists who stand watching. We’re leaving for India real soon and what do you hope will happen as a result of this upcoming trip to India?
DANA: Well, my personal hope is that the church, the body of Christ everywhere, would skip out on their culture, would ignore their culture and realize that they represent Christ no matter what nation they are from or what they were taught as children. That God’s people are God’s people everywhere, and we all get our hands dirty – Jesus did!
JONI: That’s right! What a testimony that’s going to be to all the folks in the neighborhoods who do not know Jesus Christ, who are Hindu or who are Muslim looking on and watching you guys build the ramps, widen the doorways, throw down the cement, dig the ditches, all to make Jesus Christ more accessible to people with disabilities around the world. We love you, Dana!
DANA: I love you, too. Thanks.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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