Happy New Year’s Eve from all of us at Joni and Friends!
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and I just bet you’re planning to ring the New Year in with a couple of friends tonight. And to help Ken and me bring in the New Year, we’ve got my friend Sib Charles from the Joni and Friends Eastern Pennsylvania office over there in Lancaster, PA. Welcome, Sib…
SIB: Oh, it’s so much fun to be here on New Year’s Eve.
JONI: Good, and what you going to do with your friends tonight?
SIB: I’m getting old, Joni. Probably nothing. Just stay at home and have a quiet evening with my husband.
JONI: I’m with you, Sib. Actually I am. And you know what, Sib. I’ve got to tell my friends listening that you and your team run some of the best Joni and Friends’ Family Retreats every summer in the Pocono Mountains and the reason I wanted you here in front of the microphone on New Year’s Eve, is that I want you to help me convince my friends listening how neat a Family Retreat is. Because there may be some listeners who have a disabled child and we want them to sign up, right?
SIB: You know what, as I think about it here on New Year’s Eve, Family Retreat is like a five-day New Year’s Eve party.
JONI: There you go!
SIB: And we’re preparing the families for the greatest New Year’s celebration of all. And it’s a place where they are loved and embraced and honored and we just have a New Year’s Eve celebration all week long, loving them as they are.
JONI: Absolutely! And come the first couple of weeks of January, friends listening can sign up to either attend if let’s say they are family with a disabled child, or maybe one of the spouses has a disability in a wheelchair – who knows. Or if you are wanting to volunteer you could also sign up. We’ll have the posting for our season of 2010 Family Retreats up the first couple of weeks of January. But, Sib, tell me a quick story from Family Retreat.
SIB: One that I think of that encapsulates what Family Retreat is, is we have a talent show. And those are the highlights of the week. And we had this young man who has cerebral palsy, not able to vocalize much, and he was going to sing “Ba Ba Black Sheep.” And he came up onstage and it wouldn’t come out. His sister came up on stage to convince it to come out and it wouldn’t come out. And the audience was silent, waiting for it to happen. And he could not sing that. And slowly in the back of the audience you heard the audience start singing “Ba Ba Black Sheep, have you any wool?” And slowly it rippled and quietly and worshipfully we sang “Ba Ba Black Sheep,” all 300 people, and we became his voice at that moment. And as soon as we were done singing it, everybody stood and clapped and “Ba Ba Black Sheep” became a sacred hymn at Joni and Friends’ Family Retreat, and that could only happen there where we became his voice, and that became a holy moment because we were his voice.
JONI: You know, I’ve spent so many times at Family Retreats at those talent nights. I remember being at one of the Joni and Friends Family Retreats up in Minnesota and just sitting there in the back watching the talent and this little boy with cerebral palsy, buck teeth, thick glasses, non-verbal. They put on a worship song and all he did was just bang his tambourine in time with the worship tune. Tears were rushing down my face.
SIB: Absolutely.
JONI: But it happens at Family Retreats because I think God delights in us bringing our brokenness. And when He sees so many broken people coming together to look to Him for help, His power shows up big time. So Sib, would you encourage folks to attend either as a family or as a short-term missionary?
SIB: Oh absolutely. I can guarantee they will go away changed. If you come as a short-term missionary you will come to serve, but you will find out that you were served in so many ways that you never could dream or imagine
JONI: Thanks, Sib. And friends, I know it’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve got lots of other things on your mind, but as you plan for the New Year, ask God if He wants you to attend one of our Joni and Friends’ Family Retreats (or if He wants you to serve at our Family Retreat). And then come January, we’ll have our entire 2010 schedule of retreats posted on our website – that’s joniandfriendsradio.org. Pick a retreat near you and make plans to join us. See you later, friend. Until next time on "Joni and Friends."
Used by permission of
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Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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