Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a dear and treasured friend.
All this week we’ve been talking about this being our 35th anniversary here at Joni and Friends, and going back that many years, I’ve worked with lots of different volunteers and staff. But perhaps the one person I’ve worked with the longest is my good friend John Wern. John, thank you for joining me today.
John: It’s good to be here. It’s been a long time.
Joni: Well it’s good to have you back. And you know what? When I think of disability ministry, you are my biggest example. You do it right and you did it from the very beginning. How did you get interested in ministering to people with disabilities?
John: Well, I was going to Grace Community Church (John McArthur’s church) and I read in the bulletin (I was looking for something to do and I prayed a prayer—which I recommend your listeners don’t do unless they are serious—and I said, “Lord, what have you got for me to do?”).Just sitting in church didn’t seem like enough anymore. The next Sunday there was a little blurb in the bulletin that said, “Starting special ministries: a ministry to those with disabilities.” And I have to be honest it was about appealing as getting hit by a truck.
Joni: Well you had no connection with people with disabilities, right?
John: No pleasant connections! I mean I was a very selfish, self-centered person, so working with people with disabilities just wasn’t on my radar.
Joni: So what, did God just put it on your heart this is what you need to do?
John: Well, it was funny because people actually came up to me and said, “We know you are looking for something to do, have you thought about this?”, which completely blew me away, because why would you even think I would want to do something like that. So a long story short, yes. So I went and signed up. But the deal was that I said to God “I’ll do it only if my sons do it.” And so I went to them and said, “Here is an opportunity” and they said, “Yeah, which sounds great; let’s do it!”
Joni: Push wheelchairs and get people on and off the bus for worship—all that kind of stuff?
John: Yep! My job was ‘cookie and punch guy.’ That’s all they trusted me to do after 16 weeks of training.
Joni: I’m sure you did a good job!
John: Well, the first day somebody got sick and threw up from the cookies and punch. Well, I was the ‘cookie and punch guy,’ so guess who gets to clean it up?!
Joni: Well, John, I remember the first time I met you in 1978. You are right, you had just started helping out with the Special Needs Department at Grace Community Church. You were also in charge of helping to load and unload people in wheelchairs off the big accessible bus. And I remember watching you in 1978 adjust the foot pedals of some guy with cerebral palsy, and I looked at you and I remember you looked right into my eyes and I knew one day, somehow, some way we were going to be working together—which you did. You came on board with us first as a volunteer and then came on staff. What year did you come on staff?
John: Staff in 1989.
Joni: 1989, and shortly after that you were there at the very beginning of our Joni and Friends Family Retreats. In fact, you helped pull it all together. Tell us what that first Family Retreat was like way back, what, 22-23 years ago.
John: Well, it was one of those “what are we doing” kinds of things ‘cause we didn’t have a manual to go look at. Joni and Friends wasn’t around to have a manual on what we did at a Family Retreat.
Joni: Or a model.
John: So you’re kind of creating ideas, so what I did was I made phone calls to Ted Wersputh, Mike Manning, Sib Charles, all people that were disabled themselves or had family members with a disability and asked them: If you were to have a week away, what would it look like to you? What would be special to you? And basically, what happens today at Family Retreats was what they came up with, what God laid on their hearts.
Joni: Well I remember that first Family Retreat. It ended up pouring down rain and we were in a big open-air lodge with a fireplace and it was your idea to get me quick up front and lead a hymn sing and I think the rest of that night we sang hymns with all those special needs families. That was a sweet and wonderful memory. How about we get together again to talk more?
John: Sure, I’d love to.
Joni: Thanks, John, and thanks for having a heart for the disabled.
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