When you get a call out of the blue, strange things can happen!
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and that's exactly what happened when a Captain Michael Loconsolo called us. Captain Mike said he belonged to Charley Company, 7th Battalion, 7th Special Forces scheduled to rotate into Afghanistan within the month. And Captain Mike's request? He asked if we could provide his Battalion 500 of our wheelchairs. He said at the other end of the line, "You know, I've contacted all kinds of other agencies, but they wouldn’t help us, they couldn't."
Well, obviously, our next question was why did his Battalion need 500 wheelchairs? That's when he told us that his Battalion -- along with many other units in the Armed Forces -- are always looking for ways to build bridges of goodwill to reach the people in the towns and neighborhoods they occupy. Plus, it's just a fact that many, many citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan become seriously disabled in the crossfire during raids and firefights, and all the bombing. Captain Mike went on to say that Afghanistan had very poor healthcare for its citizens in most neighborhoods simply because there were no clinics, at least not in that part of Afghanistan where the Captain's special forces unit was set up. He said, "These people need help... and we can really advance our cause by providing those wheelchairs." When we asked him how soon he needed the chairs, he replied, "Well, right now. Our battalion is leaving within the month. We can transport your wheelchairs on Army flights from Ft. Bragg, NC."
Well, we just couldn't turn them down like the other agencies did. Yet... in order to stick with our Wheels for the World program, we have to honor some pretty important principles we always follow: like having physical therapists properly fit these wheelchairs and also giving the Gospel along with the Word of God. So we pressed Captain Mike a little further on these two principles. When we learned that he planned for Army medics to fit the wheelchairs, we asked if they were trained to do such a task. "Well, not exactly," he replied. That's when we offered to provide a trained seating specialist to instruct the medics -- the Captain thought that was a great idea.
Next we asked him, "Captain Mike, you need to understand that with Wheels for the World, we think it's important that we give the Gospel and Bibles. How will you be able to do this? Will you be able to hand out Bibles?" After much discussion back and forth, we settled on a simple solution: our ministry would provide hundreds of MP3 pods pre-programmed with the Bible being dramatically read aloud in the various languages spoken in Afghanistan. Plus, the Gospel was also pre-recorded on the MP3s. That solved the issue.
Within days we were able to take much-needed wheelchairs to Ft. Bragg. Plus, we took that time to train the Army medics and the physical and occupational therapists. Captain Mike was overjoyed. Then curiously enough, while all this was going on, another call out of the blue came in from a Captain Rob Larkins looking for 100-150 wheelchairs for the same reason. Friend, sometimes Wheels for the World does take on a different shape, and an unusual look -- I'm imagining an Afghan teenager wheeling himself down a dusty road, holding his MP3 device to his ear as he listens to the Gospel being preached. May that young man come to know the Lord Jesus, and may God honor the prayers of both Captain Mike and Captain Rob who brought Wheels for the World to Afghanistan. Oh, one more thing -- please be praying as we have a, well, a more typical Wheels for the World team heading out to Brazil tomorrow. And once again, let me remind you of our website. Come by and visit us at any time. It’s joniandfriendsradio.org. Of course, you can always call and talk to one of our team members by dialing 1-888-522-5664. God’s blessings on you-- until next time when we get together for Joni and Friends.
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