Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
And welcome to a brand-new season – summertime is always a great time around our ministry, working with great people. Like Melissa Bundy. Melissa works in our resource department here at Joni and Friends and she and her husband are parents to two young boys; the oldest, Caleb, has a pretty serious form of autism along with some developmental delays. Caleb has grown a lot in the last year or so and that means he has become quite a handful – remember, this kid doesn’t speak, he has significant intellectual limitations, and his autism creates for a lot of commotion. Caleb has experienced seizures and often he has meltdowns, especially when Melissa takes him to the store – Caleb can only take so much sensory stimulation, as they say, and then he just loses it. And it hasn’t gotten easier with Caleb getting taller and bigger.
Dear Melissa; she has come to work many times feeling tired and pretty overwhelmed. So, you can imagine she was looking forward to her upcoming vacation time. When I asked her what she was planning to do, she explained that, after talking with her husband, she wanted to do something different; Melissa wanted to use her free time to help out at one of our Family Retreats… but not just any Family Retreat, she wanted to help out at our recent retreat for disabled people and their families down in Guatemala (that’s what we’re doing now; we are holding Family Retreats not only in the States, but doing it overseas in 10 countries this year). Well…
I couldn’t believe this! I mean, like, Melissa doesn’t have enough disabilities to contend with at home?! But she believed that God really wanted her to volunteer at our Family Retreat in Guatemala. When the day arrived for her to leave for Central America, she was a little nervous. But when Melissa got to the Family Retreat, she felt right at home – especially around so many mothers and fathers of disabled kids who (unlike her and her husband) never, absolutely never get a break. The families we minister to down in Guatemala come from great poverty and have so very little – these families don’t have support systems like here in the States; there are no social networks or regional centers, there’s no public school system that welcomes their disabled kids; there’s no health insurance. For these families in Central America, life is hard. And yet, the moms and dads have so much joy, so much faith in the Lord, so much confidence in his provision.
And it was in the middle of that Family Retreat that Melissa understood why God wanted her down there volunteering. Because it was there her gratitude for what her son Caleb had back in the States… well, that gratitude multiplied triple fold. Plus, Melissa could see firsthand that if God’s grace could help these families in Central America with their disabled kids, well… God’s grace would be more than sufficient for her needs. When I ran into Melissa by the elevator when she got back to work, she was glowing. Although she spent the week pushing wheelchairs and helping other kids with disabilities, she looked refreshed – and I think that’s because she was inspired.
Now, friend, you don’t have to be the parent of a boy like Caleb; you don’t even have to go to Guatemala because there is still a need for volunteers at this year’s Family Retreats scheduled this month and all next month, all across America. So, if you’re looking for a way to get blessed and serve wholeheartedly, like Ephesians 6:7 says, then get all the details on our Family Retreat page at joniandfriends.org. And Melissa will thank you!
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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