If Tamila’s story has touched your heart, you can visit joniradio.org today to bless some boys and girls with disabilities around the world. Children like Tamila need Jesus, a child-sized wheelchair, and their family to hear the Gospel.
If Tamila’s story has touched your heart, you can visit joniradio.org today to bless some boys and girls with disabilities around the world. Children like Tamila need Jesus, a child-sized wheelchair, and their family to hear the Gospel.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with an aching heart.
One of the reasons my heart aches right now is – well, it’s because of the people this summer that we’re reaching for Christ. They are the disabled of the world, and many of them [if not most] are children. Boys and girls who must struggle with hard disabilities in some of the most impoverished parts of the world. And so, my heart is aching. Because even though God has called me [has called all of us at Joni and Friends] to reach them with a Gospel-love and practical help, we simply cannot reach them all. And if you know me – and I think you do – I pour my whole heart into the ministry that God has called me to. I do absolutely everything I can to make life better for these disabled children, to give them and their families the saving message of Jesus Christ and hands-on help. I will tell you the story of one little girl though that I’ve been praying for as of late.
She is a ten-year-old child named Tamila. She has cerebral palsy [which has left her paralyzed], and she cannot talk. But Tamila has the most amazing smile. This little disabled girl lives in a hut with her family, but with no electricity. Her father is a migrant laborer and so he is often gone for long hours in the field. Tamila’s mother also brings home income by doing small jobs in the village. It’s a sad fact-of-life, but it means that both mother and father must leave Tamila behind. And so, this child [who cannot move or speak] spends virtually all of her days in a room with no light and no ventilation. The family has no mattresses to sleep on and so Tamila is left lying on the floor on a torn straw mat.
And this is why my heart so easily breaks. I mean, here I am, I’ve got a wheelchair [oh, sure, I’m paralyzed and cannot walk or use my hands], but I can talk, our house has electricity, Ken and I have a comfortable mattress. Compared to Tamila, I’ve got so much. Which is exactly why I am so driven and blessed to serve at Joni and Friends. I think about what the Apostle Paul told us to do in Galatians 2:10. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he said, “Remember the poor; that’s the very thing I am eager to do.” And if he’s asking us to remember the poor, surely, he’s thinking about the poorest of the poor, and that’s the poor who struggle with disabilities – especially children. Well, you will be relieved to know that our Joni and Friends staff takes to heart Paul’s words in Galatians 2. And right now, we are working to get Tamila a pediatric wheelchair, and to get her to a hospital some distance away. And so, there is Christ-centered, Bible-based hope for this child and her parents. But Tamila is one of so very many thousands of thousands.
And so, if this story has touched your heart, I’m asking you to please help me to give more Christ centered, Bible-based hope and child-sized wheelchairs to more boys and girls with disabilities around the world. You will do my heart good by visiting joniradio.org today to learn more about our ministry and our heart to reach the world’s disabled for Christ through giving the Gospel and wheelchairs. To be frank, when I share a need like this, you’ve got to know, it involves finances. And so, I would be so grateful if you would participate with us, support us in this incredible need because children like Tamila need Jesus Christ, they need a child-sized wheelchair, and their parents need the Gospel, too. So, get all the details on how you can help me at joniradio.org. And thank you, God bless you for “Sharing Hope!”
© Joni and Friends