Please pray for the Joni and Friends Wheels for the World teams to not only take wheelchairs, but Bibles and the good news of Jesus Christ to even more people around the world.
Join us in praying for our Wheels for the World teams around the world! See our upcoming outreaches here.
SHAUNA: Hi this is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. You’re going to love Joni’s story about how Mr. Chow met Jesus. It all started when our friend Judy went on a Wheels for the World trip to China. But let’s let Joni tell it.
JONI: She was able to do follow-up on the disabled people who had received wheelchairs. Our partners at a local church took Judy to meet Mr. Chow. Mr. Chow had been a well-known and very skilled tailor in his city, but then he broke his neck in a motorcycle accident, and he became a quadriplegic. His wife, pregnant at the time, just felt she could not take care of a totally paralyzed man, even if it were her husband, and so she left him and their son a few years later.
Mr. Chow was left with nothing, and no one to take care of him except his elderly parents. They all worshipped idols, and they had absolutely no interest in Christianity. Yet they knew they needed help. Mr. Chow’s parents were in their early 70s and could only do so much for their disabled son. He was forced into selling his beautiful home and moved himself, his son and his elderly parents, to a small fruit farm on the edge of the city. Now, it just so happened that a local church learned about this little family out on the fruit farm. And so, they came, and introduced themselves, and offered to come and help with Mr. Chow’s routines. The parents were hesitant at first, but then said yes, they would like the church people to please come and help, but they made it very clear they were not interested in hearing anything about Christ.
Well, that did not deter these Chinese Christians. They came and they helped with Mr. Chow’s routines for several months and never mentioned their faith in the Lord. The little family began to warm to their volunteer friends from church; they showed Mr. Chow and his parents what true compassion was all about, and these people from church also backed up their words of love with sacrificial deeds. And that is what began to soften the hearts of Mr. Chow and his mother and father. They began to see that Jesus, oh my goodness really was the Son of God who truly cared for them, and it wasn’t long before Mr. Chow’s parents asked their new Christian friends to please help them remove the idols from their house. So, out in a cardboard box they went!
And shortly thereafter, our Wheels for the World team came to their city to distribute wheelchairs and Bibles. Mr. Chow’s Christian friends from the local church – well, they brought him to the provision where he was perfectly fitted to a brand-new wheelchair and given his own Bible. His parents were thrilled and the whole family warmly embraced Christ as their Lord and Savior. When my friend Judy visited Mr. Chow, he thanked her [get this] for Mark 16 where Jesus said, “Go out into all the world and preach the good news to everyone.” Mr. Chow said he was so glad that our Wheels for the World teams “go out into all the world,” even to a place as far away as a little village in a northern province in China. Thank the Lord for those dear church volunteers who came and helped a quadriplegic man and his elderly parents; a special-needs family who no longer worship idols, but they worship the God of the Bible.
SHAUNA: And friend, would you please pray as our Wheels for the World teams not only take wheelchairs, but Bibles and the good news of Jesus to even more people like Mr. Chow? We have teams traveling all over the world all summer long, so please pray that more disabled people like Mr. Chow will turn away from idols and come to know the one true God and redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ!
© Joni and Friends