Hear Joni’s friend Catherine share a fun and heartwarming story of a wheelchair sitting on the side of the road. Go to joniradio.org to donate a wheelchair today!
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SHAUNA: I’m Shauna, with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thanks for listening today.One of our premier programs at Joni and Friends is Wheels for the World. It all starts when friends like you donate a used but serviceable wheelchair. Then, volunteer inmates in prisons across the country restore those chairs and make them look showroom new. They’re sealed and shipped to a country where disabled people truly need a wheelchair. And our team of physical therapists fit the chairs perfectly to those children and adults. And then the gospel of Jesus is shared, a Bible is given, and disabled people are introduced to a local pastor who welcomes them into his church. Thousands have come to know Christ through Wheels for the World. Isn’t that right, Joni?
JONI: Absolutely, they have, all around the world – in small villages, and in cities. And as you said, Shauna, it begins when, oh, let’s say a disabled child outgrows his pediatric wheelchair, or someone in the family no longer needs it. So. they’ve got this good wheelchair and what do they do with it? Well, my coworker, Catherine, has a great story to tell, don’t you, Catherine, about what often happens with a wheelchair.
CATHERINE: That’s right. Thank you, Joni. I was having lunch, and it had been kind of a hectic day. So I decided to go to a park that is nearby our Joni and Friends International Disability Center. And I was hoping for just a few quiet moments outside to eat my lunch. And there were two giant riding lawn mowers that were mowing the grass. So, it was loud, there were leaves and clippings everywhere and it was not the peaceful lunch that I was looking forward to. So, I walk down into the neighborhood that’s next to the park – I had never been there before, but I was just walking past the houses.
And about the second or third house that I passed, I noticed a mattress and a wheelchair sitting in the driveway. And so, working at Joni and Friends, the wheelchair caught my eye. And I stopped to take a look, and that’s when I saw a sign on it that said, “Free wheelchair. Please take.” And I thought, “Okay! I’ll take it!” So, I went back to my car, and pulled it around in front of the house, and I folded up the chair and put it into my back seat. And I brought it back to our offices here at Joni and Friends and took it to our Wheels for the World department and I told them the sign said to take it, and so I did! And they let me know it was in great condition. And I was very thankful for that opportunity to pass that chair along to someone that will greatly need it.
JONI: And you had no idea about that wheelchair in that neighborhood! But friend listening, whatever journey that donated wheelchair had in the past, it now will have a new story. Restored by hand, shined and polished, that chair will eventually be fitted to – oh, perhaps a stroke survivor in Zambia, or an elderly woman in Thailand who cannot walk, or a teenager in Nicaragua who was shot in a gang fight, or a mother in Peru who will not need to crawl in the dirt anymore. And whichever disabled person receives that wheelchair, he or she will also be introduced to Jesus Christ. And will receive the Bible in their own language and be connected to a solid evangelical church. So, that wheelchair that you, Catherine, discovered on the curb; it now has a new lease on life, right?
CATHERINE: That’s right and so will the person receiving it.
JONI: Yeah!
CATHERINE: And if you, our listener would like to donate a wheelchair to our Wheels for the World outreach, you can go to joniradio.org and we’ll link you to our webpage with all the details. Again, that’s joniradio.org. And thank you for giving the Gospel and a wheelchair to those in need!
JONI: Amen to that!
SHAUNA: And friend, remember that you can listen to this program again at joniradio.org. and while you’re there, be sure to leave us your prayer requests.
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