Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a special guest in the studio today.
And to introduce this guest I should say we are just winding up our “Cause 4 Life” internship program and I have a friend in the studio, Ethan Holstein, who is serving as an intern with us at Joni and Friends.
Joni: Ethan, welcome to the program.
Ethan: Thanks, it’s great to be here.
Joni: Ethan, you signed up to be an intern with us and that means you get pumped about disability. What is it about working with people with disabilities that really turns you on?
Ethan: What I love about disability is seeing how much Jesus cares in Scripture about disability and we get to have the privilege to work with this community and see Gospel change within the disabled community, just like we do in other churches and all across the world.
Joni: That’s very cool. Now I know that you got interested in this through your sister who had a job at a camp for kids with disabilities and then you connected with a couple of families who went to our Family Retreats and they are the ones who got you excited about serving as an intern with us.
Ethan: Well, actually it was through a friend at church who connected me with the internship programs here so all that combined I would say all made the internship really attractive to me.
Joni: I’m so glad God got you here. First describe your internship experience here. What sort of things do we have you do?
Ethan: We have been able to serve locally at friendship clubs doing programs with adults with disability. We’ve had the privilege to learn from people here on staff taking classes doing your Beyond Suffering curriculum and then some other things – Lead Like Jesus. We have gotten to go to Family Retreats and even got to go to Haiti to serve those affected by disability there.
Joni: Wow! I heard some pretty cool things, Ethan, about your experience at our Family Retreat. You were paired up with a young man with autism. His name was Josiah. Tell us about that.
Ethan: Josiah is 24 years old and has profound autism and profound hearing impairment. Throughout the week the staff did a really great job of encouraging each volunteer to be giving the Gospel to those they are around and I was trying to think how can we give the Gospel to Josiah in working through the autism and all that stuff. In talking through different interns and those working at the family retreat, we were able to as a group create a little sheet talking about the Gospel through color, because Josiah loves color.
Joni: How do you put the Gospel together with color?
Ethan: We used the Gospel bracelet. The first three colors (black, white and red) to give Josiah the Gospel so we would talk about how black is the same as sin and we would also pair the color with a sign and it would be interactive so we would ask Josiah “What’s this color?” Obviously it would be a sign, and he would respond “black” and then we would say “black is the same as sin” and would go deeper in using simple signs to communicate sin, Jesus and redemption in Jesus through His blood.
Joni: I love it! Were his parents amazed at this?
Ethan: They were so amazed. It was so encouraging to give it to them because it was the first time that anyone at ever reached him with the Gospel.
Joni: Through color?
Ethan: Yes.
Joni: Ethan, I am so excited that this week on our radio page we are posting a link to our “Cause 4 Life” internship program. Would you encourage friends listening to consider being an intern?
Ethan: Oh, of course. I’ve loved being here and learning so much. Not just from the staff but from all the experiences and all the other interns I have been able to interact with.
Joni: I love it! Okay, friend, you’ve got the word from Ethan. Go to our radio page today at joniandfriends.org and find all the details about our “Cause 4 Life” internship opportunities for 2015.
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www.joniandfriends.org