Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
Well, as you know on this program I always, always love sharing stories of people who have overcome huge obstacles, especially injuries where there results a lot of pain and I have on the line today Danny Yamashiro, my friend in Hawaii. Danny, welcome to the program.
Danny: Joni, it’s a blessing to be with you.
Joni: You have to tell us what happened so many years ago, what was that accident all about?
Danny: Joni, I was 18 years old and I took my 16-year-old girl friend up to a historic lookout in Hawaii, it’s called the Palo Ridge. We were attempting to climb from the top of the ridge … it was a free climb with no ropes, no safety mechanisms … no nothing and she apparently grabbed onto one of the roots or rocks right below me and she slipped and fell 20 feet. And it was in my attempt to go down and rescue her that I suddenly slipped and fell—head first—300 feet.
Joni: Oh, my goodness! It’s amazing that you didn’t break your neck.
Danny: On my way down I hit my head on a rock at least once, my skull was fractured in several places, my organs were smashed, my left ankle was shattered and that was just the beginning.
Joni: How were you rescued?
Danny: Well, in the attempt to rescue me it was an amazing way of how they actually found me, but when they did find me—they caught this all on television cameras—I suddenly moved and fell another 100 feet.
Joni: And eventually you were brought to safety; taken to a hospital. Do you deal with pain?
Danny: My head injury was so severe that the doctors and nurses didn’t give my parents much hope. That was the thing, the traumatic brain injury that triggered a series of events over an extended period of several years of deep, dark depression. It affected me socially. I was socially awkward for a long time, but the Lord used that as a means to number one draw me closer to him, and number two to prepare me for the work that He was calling me to do.
Joni: You know, Danny, your story is so much like many I hear in that when there is great brokenness, great tragedy in a life that God uses it to draw us, to push us closer to Him. You found that to be true haven’t you?
Danny: Absolutely. In fact, it was in my complete brokenness that I experienced a spiritual awakening and that depth of despair, that desperation of calling out to God and really seeing and experiencing his love in the midst of brokenness. Not anything I could offer Him, but Him being able to take a broken person who says, “Lord, if you can make something out of a person like me, have your way,” and actually see Him do it has been an amazing thing.
Joni: Well, what portion of Scripture do you often hold on to as an anchor?
Danny: Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19, “Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things in the past, for behold I shall do something new. Now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? I will even make the roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Joni: Talk about a great perspective on the future. You get a chance to share this message through your book. Tell us the title.
Danny: The title is “Paradise Calls.”
Joni: And you know what, you also have a radio program over there in Hawaii called “Good Life Hawaii.” I’m going to encourage all of our listening friends if you are ever in Hawaii on vacation go to the Salem radio station there in Honolulu and listen to Danny’s program. Danny, you are amazing!
Danny: Joni, thank you.
Joni: Any closing words for our listeners?
Danny: The amazing love of God who loves us in our brokenness, it is through that where the hope of Christ can be known and experienced.
Joni: Amen to that! Danny, thank you. Mahalo, friend!
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