Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and you are listening to Joni and Friends.
Earlier this week I was looking at the lineup of Wheels for the World trips for next year, and I was so amazed—we will be delivering more Bibles and wheelchairs than ever before to many brand new countries. Nothing could thrill my heart more and let me tell you why. I remember the time when I was in Bangalore, India helping our team distribute wheelchairs. I met a young disabled girl who had been told by her family that she would have to go through eight reincarnations before she could become a whole person. On that same trip, I talked to a doctor from New Delhi, India who said that most people do not consider children with autism to be human. From India, I flew to Africa where I met mothers who had been beaten because they gave birth to a child who was blind or disabled. And as if that didn't break my heart enough, one man told me that his sister who had cerebral palsy had been left out in the jungle for the animals to take. He said, "My parents thought it would appease the animist spirits."
We left Africa and traveled to Southeast Asia. There, I met people who thought disabilities were "curses from the shamans in the village." In that same group, I talked to several shy and quiet disabled women who told me with some shame that they had been "easy targets for abuse"—sexual abuse—all this in India, Africa and Asia. No wonder Isaiah lamented in his 59th chapter, "Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene."
Friend, there are many places in the world where there is absolutely no justice, none, for people with disabilities, especially living in developing nations. They are trapped in social structures that offer no safeguards and only danger every day. And God says in Isaiah, "Is there no one who will intervene?" Oh, my goodness friend, this should tell you why I'm pretty excited about our lineup of Wheels for the World outreach trips next year—because this is the commission God has given us. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, the 14th chapter, "I am the way, the truth and the life". So we take not only wheelchairs, we're taking the torch of truth into the darkest corners of the world where we are able to shed light and give hope and offer deliverance through Jesus Christ because it is Jesus who tells the truth about everything—everything from the atonement to autism, from the resurrection to rickets, from sanctification to spina bifida.
The overwhelming needs of people in less-developing nations can either make you shake your head and walk away in dismay, or fill your heart with Christ's compassion. So please, support not only the work of your church's missionaries who labor among the world's neediest, but please pray for Joni and Friends as we take wheelchairs, the Bible, the Gospel, and disability ministry training around the world. Pray for the success of the Gospel. Ask God to use us to promote the right to life of all people, especially those with disabilities. It's what we want to see happen on every Wheels for the World trip. And if you are a Christian physical therapist or a seating specialist or a mechanic or a prayer warrior, I invite you to go with us. Check out our schedule for 2013. Just go to my radio page today at joniandfriends.org and ask for our brochure on Wheels for the World. Come and help us change the world of disability for the cause of Jesus Christ!
© Joni and Friends, 2012
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PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376