The other day God must've known I needed a boost...Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and it was just one of those days I was fighting off the blues, fighting off discouragement. I was in our office and I was heading downstairs with a couple of coworkers, and as I passed by the lobby area, I noticed a mother and her young daughter by the front door. Well, I'm not going to pass by visitors to our International Disability Center, so I wheeled right over...
And I learned the little girl's name was Fiona -- nine years old, wearing a poodle skirt and black tennis shoes -- what impressed me was that she smiled and put her hand on my shoulder and she said to me, "Joni, you taught us that last week when our homeschool group came by here for a visit." Well I was just taken aback. I had to admit, I did not recognize her from that homeschool group the week before... there were about 15 or 20 kids. But Fiona went on to tell me how much she appreciated my little disability awareness talk I had given that day... she also loved learning about how we take wheelchairs and Bibles to disabled children overseas. "In fact," Fiona said as she began unwrapping a beautiful woolly scarf from her neck, "I knit these things and I made this scarf for you." Fiona placed it around my neck and, I tell you, it was as though I was being wrapped up in the Holy Spirit Himself. What a gift!
And that's when her mother stepped forward. She told me that her daughter had something else to present to me. It was a check for $200. My eyes got so wide. I asked Fiona, I said, "What's this for?" She said, "Well, that day you talked about your wheelchair ministry and I could tell God was speaking to me to give to you all my earnings from all these scarves that I make and I sell. I hope this will buy a wheelchair for a kid like me in some far-off place."
Right then I got a lump in my throat. And it wasn't the check. And it wasn't even the scarf. It was the immediate spiritual realignment. Because just an hour earlier I was in the dumps, feeling so blue and downright discouraged. But God knew I needed a boost, and so he sent me downstairs just at that instant, that I might meet dear little Fiona and her mother. It was the smile of that child... it was the hug of a nine-year-old kid... it was the privilege of hearing her call me "her hero." It was all of that, plus the power of Titus 2 where it says, "In everything set them an example by doing what is good."
By the way, Fiona's gift is having an impact this very week as we are in the Dominican Republic with 200 wheelchairs and Bibles. And I know that child is praying for a kid like her -- maybe a nine-year-old -- a child with a disability for whom she has set an example.... an example of doing good. So friend, I pray that you, too, will be able to set a good example of meeting needs of people with disabilities around the world. And a good place to begin is by visiting joniandfriendsradio.org and watching that same little powerful video about Wheels for the World that gripped Fiona’s heart that day. Believe me, I know it is going to touch your life, as it did hers. And don’t forget, just visit me at joniandfriendsradio.org or you can call 888-522-5664 and I'll send you a brochure that describes how we are using wheelchairs to give the Gospel of Jesus to disabled children around the world. Oh my, you cannot imagine how needed wheelchairs are for 9-year-old kids with disabilities… 12, 13-year-old children in far-off nations where a wheelchair could cost an entire year’s salary. So call or click on joniandfriendsradio.org today, because I have a feeling it is something little Fiona would really want you to do!
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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