Welcome to Joni and Friends, where I’ve got more to share about my friend, Billy.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and earlier this week you met my friend and co-worker, Billy Burnett – one of 11 children who grew up in a little cabin on the corner of a cotton farm in Texarkana, Texas. As a child, Billy couldn’t wait till he was old enough to work the cotton fields alongside his mother and relatives. That day came soon enough and the novelty of helping in those cotton fields wore off quickly. But his parents were solid believers in Jesus and Billy grew up in a loving home, helping his mother with so many chores around the house. His parents taught Billy from the time he was young to trust the Lord and keep on loving those who treat you badly. Mama Teal – that’s what Billy called his mother – Mama Teal was a real force for the Lord and although they grew up poor, the principles she taught him from God’s Word stuck with him all his life.
Billy tells about the time when he was 12 years old chopping cotton. One day, he looked up and out over the hazy humidity of the field and he saw the distant images of his friends and relatives, working the cotton field, shimmering in the heat, chopping cotton. Billy was only a young boy, but he recalls thinking as he looked out: “Is this going to be my life? Is this what I’m destined to do, God?” It was a turning point in his young life and Billy knew then that God must have a bigger plan, a bigger purpose. And Billy would never be the same because of it. Years later this same young boy grew and he eventually studied engineering, moved to California, married, had children, and eventually earned his MBA from Pepperdine University. And I thank the Lord that we at Joni and Friends are blessed to have Billy serve as our vice president of finance and administration. He’s been with our ministry for over 13 years and participates in all our programs.
In fact, Billy loves to tell about the time he traveled to Africa with Wheels for the World and he came face-to-face with the life from which his people had come. One day after the wheelchair distribution, he was inspecting a facility that Joni and Friends partners with, and Billy looked out the window to see something that startled him – there on the edge of the field was an African woman with her hair covered in a brown and orange turban. She was leaning over a wash bucket and scrubbing clothes in rhythm to a song she was humming. Billy’s eyes filled with tears and as he told me later, “Joni, I saw my mother. So many years ago when I was a little boy in Texarkana, my mother would do the same thing. And there in Africa, I was transported back to my sweet Texas, to a time when I helped my mother carry laundry, dig sweet potatoes, a time when I felt her embrace that first morning I was so excited to go to the fields to help her pick cotton.”
When Billy told me about that experience during his time with Wheels for the World in Africa, it made my eyes damp. It was a beautiful picture of love all the way from America to Africa and back again; the love of Mama Teal and Billy’s dad, but most of all, the love of Jesus Christ that my friend is committed to give wherever in the world God takes him. If this story has touched you and you’d like to meet Billy Burnett, then I invite you to see a video clip of his story on my radio page at joniandfriends.org. Tell your friends, because it’s really inspirational. While you’re there, you can also ask for your copy of Billy’s testimony which we’ve printed up just for you – you’ll be inspired by it, by the way God has led him from living in a little cabin with his 11 brothers and sisters down in Texarkana all the way to serving the Lord Jesus at Joni and Friends. See and hear the whole story about Bill Burnett at joniandfriends.org.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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