Listen in and discover how God can really answer a desperate cry for help, even in the deepest mountains of Honduras. Ken’s annual fishing trip ended up turning into an answered prayer for a family in need.
Go to www.joniradio.org today to see pictures of Jareth's precious family
SHAUNA: I’m Shauna with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thank you for joining us.
JONI: Friend listening, you know all about Wheels for the World. Our premiere program at Joni and Friends. And I’ve got one of my favorite Wheels for the World team member is here in the studio. Welcome Ken!
KEN: Thank you, Joni and boy, I do love the Wheels for the World program.
JONI: Yup, you’ve been to Cuba, and Peru, and all kinds of countries but you were also in Honduras. Yet it wasn’t a Wheels for the World trip. You want to talk about that?
KEN: No, actually it was a fly fishing trip but we always look for opportunities and the last day I was leaving, a young father came up to me and had to have an interpreter, but was telling me about his son who needed a wheelchair.
JONI: That’s right. He was a father of an 8-year-old boy with specials needs.
KEN: His name was Jareth.
JONI: Yeah, a bright, happy boy, but he spent all day lying on the sofa.
KEN: Yeah, I mean, where he lived, they had very little resources to even think about getting a wheelchair; let alone anybody supplying a wheelchair.
JONI: Yeah, way up in the mountainous jungle Israel and his family lived. Israel labored day and night to support his family up in there jungle. And I think he told you they could barely afford food, and let alone a wheelchair that his son desperately needed.
KEN: Well, that was one of the reasons Israel was working at our fly-fishing camp because he needed money to get back to his family.
JONI: Right. When he learned that you were connected to global ministry that delivered wheelchairs.
KEN: Ah, yes. I think it sparked a definite interest and idea in his head and so he approached me along with an interpreter to ask whether or not we could supply him with a wheelchair.
JONI: Amazing. And I’m so proud of you Ken because you came home, you talked to our director of Wheels for the World and he said that perhaps we could ship a special child-sized wheelchair to El Salvador and maybe our team in El Salvador could travel the distance up in the mountainous jungle.
KEN: Yeah, I think one of the more beautiful responses we had with a couple of physical therapists in El Salvador was they would volunteer their time. Husband and wife to go into Honduras and fit this young man with a wheelchair.
JONI: After driving across the border, this couple, Freddy and Britny.
KEN: Yes.
JONI: They boarded a 15-passenger plane to reach the remote hills not far from where Jareth’s family lives and when they landed, Jareth’s mother, Laura, was waiting right there with a smile. But with no public transportation, they had to take an old taxi up twisting dirt roads to reach their home. And Mother Laura shared that Jareth was diagnosed with microcephaly and cerebral palsy at age two. And I think somewhere I saw written that she said, “When I received my son’s diagnosis, I felt like I was going to die. They told me that he would never walk and likely would not survive.” But this wonderful mother cried out to God.
That’s when Freddy and Britny pointed to a Bible passage where it says that God has made every child—no matter what the disability—in His image.
KEN: You know, it’s so exciting Joni. All the wheels trips that I’ve been on—it never fails to amaze me when you watch somebody given the gift of mobility for the first time. And we saw videos of Jareth and the smile on his face as he was being pushed around in his wheelchair by his brother.
JONI: You know, it reminds me of Psalm 9: “God does not forget the cries of the afflicted…” And through the heavy jungle high up in the mountains, God heard Jareth’s cry. And the moved that couple in El Salvador to drive the twisting country lanes to bring the good news of Jesus and a wheelchair.
KEN: Jesus was obviously the one who orchestrated this whole thing.
JONI: That’s right and friend listening, come to joniradio.org today because we’ve posted photos of this precious family. And praise God with us that He heard that little boy’s cry.
© Joni and Friends