It’s World Cancer Day, and Joni is celebrating a special volunteer who is battling cancer. Is there someone in your life with cancer you can encourage today? Point them to Jesus for help and hope!
It’s World Cancer Day, and I’m Joni with a story you gotta hear.
Yes, it’s personal, because I just learned that my dear – and your – dear friend Kaye was diagnosed with lung cancer. Not a day later, the doctors came back and told her that it had spread to her brain. But before I say more, let me explain why this friend is personal to you. Because you have known her for a long time. How so?
Well, back in 1996 our ministry started an outreach on this radio station called “Heart for the Disabled.” In fact, it wasn’t all that long ago I shared the stories of five special needs families, and you really responded with notes, Scriptures, gift cards, assurances of prayer. Now, you can imagine that our mailroom was flooded with thousands of pieces of mail, gifts big and small, Xerox copies of poems and hymns. And just who has been carefully sorting your letters and cards and gifts for all these years? My dear friend Kaye. She is a retired, single schoolteacher, and ever since 1996 she volunteers to single-handedly manage the entire “Heart for the Disabled” program. And she does it with such great care and compassion, making certain that every letter, every gift and poem, every crayoned drawing, every gift card is carefully separated and designated to the proper family. Then this amazing volunteer boxes up all these packages and makes certain that they are sent out on time to all of the five families. And Kaye has been faithfully doing this – she’s been volunteering countless man-hours – for 27 years.
So here’s what I’ve got in mind to do on this World Cancer Day. If you have participated in our Heart for the Disabled Campaign; if you have sent a note in or a gift to one of our special needs families this year or in years past, please would you do the same for our precious volunteer, Kaye? You know how to give encouragement. I’ve seen you do it. But this time, tell Kaye – and she spells her name K-A-Y-E – tell this remarkable woman who is now struggling against lung and brain cancer – tell her how much you have appreciated her hard work on behalf of the families that you have encouraged. Thank her for her diligent labors; for the great care she invests in making certain all the letters and notes reach their proper family in time, and assure her that you will pray for her, and offer Scriptures that will bolster her spirits. Proverbs 17:22 says “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Hey, I believe that a cheerful heart is not only good medicine but good chemotherapy. So, together, let’s all strengthen the heart of our friend Kaye as she battles cancer. Just send your note, a poem, Scripture, whatever – whatever Christian encouragement you can – to Kaye (K-A-Y-E) in care of Joni and Friends, P.O. Box 3333, Agoura Hills California, 91376. Or you can always visit joniradio.org where I have posted a couple of photos of Kaye at work, as well as our ministry address. So God bless you, dear listening friend. I know most of you already sent letters to this year’s Heart for the Disabled families, but my request today is extraordinary. Kaye is in a fight for her life against this lung and brain cancer, so please, let us hear from you soon. If you are a big fan of Heart for the Disabled, together let’s show our appreciation for this wonderful volunteer who has handled all your cards and gifts for years. Write her today and get all the details at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends