In times of war, it is always the weak and vulnerable who suffer the most. And so the team at Joni and Friends is working hard in Ukraine to go out in the streets and find the disabled and bring them to safety. Learn more in Joni’s latest update!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with an update on our ministry in Ukraine.
There’s not a one of us who hasn’t wrung our hands in prayer over the desperate situation there. And all of us at Joni and Friends have been working on behalf of Ukrainians with disabilities whose situations are more than desperate. Because when it comes to the needy and afflicted – such as Ukrainian children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome; Ukrainians struggling with serious medical conditions, paraplegics, quadriplegics. When it comes to the needy and afflicted, the Bible constantly uses words like “defend,” “rescue,” “help,” “uphold the cause of.” And that’s what we do at Joni and Friends. Right now we’re not merely “remembering” the afflicted; we’re doing something about their desperate plight in Ukraine.
Now, you’ve heard me talk about Joni’s House, and last month, just as we were beginning construction on Joni’s House in Ukraine, the Russian military launched its invasion. Knowing that all-out war would crush those with serious disabilities, we quickly reallocated all the lumber, all the concrete, cinderblocks that were purchased to build Joni’s House; we directed all those supplies to barricade homes and care facilities. We went from building Joni’s House to building blockades, showing that Joni’s House is not about a building; it’s about blessing the most vulnerable with Christ-centered support. And then, when Russia stepped up its rocket strikes, we shifted into high gear with Galyna, our boots-on-the-ground partner in Ukraine. You see, we work with in-country partners like her in developing nations; Galyna and others like her, are in lockstep with our Joni and Friends mission. Galyna has her finger on the pulse of what’s happening, and she is working her network in Ukraine making calls, sending texts, knocking on doors, tracking down, and rescuing disabled people out of harm’s way. Because when air raid sirens go off, people who are, let’s say, paraplegics or stroke survivors – they cannot jump out of bed, grab a few things, rush out the door, and make a dash for the bomb shelter. They don’t even have the caregiving help they had two weeks ago. There’s no one to stand in food lines for them or get water; no one to even change their soiled bed pads! These people, even the elderly who are vulnerable and in fragile health – they have no heat, no electricity, no running water. In times of war, it is always, always the weak and vulnerable who suffer the most.
Truly, Ukrainians with disabilities are the people of Psalm 25. They are the ones who cry out to God, “Turn to me and be gracious to me…relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. Look on my affliction and my distress.” Galyna and the team here at Joni and Friends, we see the distress of Ukrainians with disabilities, and so, even now this week, Galyna keeps working on even more evacuations – as long as Joni and Friends and our partners have strength, we’re gonna keep answering the call of Christ in Luke 14 to “go out into the streets and alleys, find the disabled, the lame, and the blind” and bring them to safety. Now, if you’d like more info on our efforts to evacuate Ukrainians with disabilities, visit my Facebook page for the latest updates, or you can always go to joniradio.org. And bless you for praying, friend; thank you for asking God to give strength to Galyna and her team as they search the highways and to find the disabled and bring them into safety.
© Joni and Friends