AL: I love hearing the stories of people receiving wheelchairs… and since our Wheels for the World team is leaving in a few days for Cuba, I just bet you have a memory to share from your own visit to Cuba… right, Joni?
JONI: Well, a couple of years ago when Ken and I landed at the Havana airport, government officials escorted me to an airport doctor’s office. They said I was “sick” and needed supervision before boarding our connecting flight to Santiago de Cuba. When I entered the sick room – that’s what they called it – there I saw two female doctors and a disabled woman who was also waiting (and absolutely no one spoke English). After sitting there awhile, I thought, “This is a unique opportunity, Lord… a chance to think outside the box. I have a feeling you want me to do an ‘outreach’ right here in this office.”
AL: So what did you do?
JONI: Well, Ken and I were sitting there and I began to sing out loud—the only Christian song I knew in Spanish. I then asked in halting Spanish, “Do you know songs about Christ?” (Conoce canciones sobre Jesu Cristo?) The two doctors were stunned; they stared at one another at this American in her wheelchair. One asked in Spanish, “We see you are an American. Why are you in our country?” I explained in my high-school Spanish that we were bringing wheelchairs and Bibles as gifts to the disabled people of Cuba. I went on to describe the mandate of our Savior to go into all the world and share the Good News. Well, then this one doctor asked in a softer voice, “What is this Good News?” At that, her fellow doctor turned to her, and brightened, and ran back to her cubicle, and she returned holding a battered, bent-paged Bible. Before I knew it, this doctor began explaining the Gospel in sixty-mile-an-hour Spanish to her coworker.
AL: So you’re saying that the one doctor was a Christian and she never shared her faith with her coworker?
JONI: Well, you have to remember, it’s Cuba. She was probably afraid to. But after I had broken the ice, the Christian doctor felt that it was acceptable, she had suddenly found the courage to share her faith! And I tell you Al, Ken and I just sat there and watched her jabber on in Spanish about her church and inviting her friend to come and visit. I mean, I could barely understand her words, but it was clear this was one sister in Christ who was on a roll!
AL: Joni, your story reminds me of what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, “Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.” I think you were the common ground between those two Cuban doctors there in the Havana airport.
JONI: Yep, I think I was. And I was in there for two hours before they finally let me board the flight for Santiago de Cuba where our Wheels for the World distribution was scheduled to start the next morning.
AL: And, friend, who knows what you might get started once you take that first step of faith and share a word about your Savior! The challenge is to think outside the box when those unexpected appointments happen… reach the people God places in your path each day… right, Joni?
JONI: And I have a feeling there’s a doctor who works in the sick room of the Havana airport who has come to know the Savior of her friend.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends