AL: Well, Joni, I know that this is the time of year that the ministry is sending out lots of Wheels for the World teams to lots of countries…
JONI: That’s right… distributing Bibles, giving the Gospel, and fitting thousands of people to wheelchairs…
AL: And restoring the lives of those disabled people one wheelchair at a time.
JONI: That’s what we like to say!
AL: And we are hearing fantastic reports from our team in Ghana, West Africa. They are distributing over 400 pediatric wheelchairs to disabled children, and adult wheelchairs to others… giving Bibles, of course, as well as the Gospel… and the reports are pouring in: so many are opening their hearts to Christ for the first time!
JONI: Al, that is so exciting – and it’s all happening in 10 cities and villages in Ghana where disabled people are so poor, they drag themselves through the dirt…
AL: But your team lifts them out of the dirt and gives them not only the dignity of sitting up in a chair, but also they give them the Good News of Jesus Christ.
JONI: And Al, the message of Jesus is such good news to those people. I’ve been to Ghana twice and – oh – the people are so poor, but once they embrace Jesus, it seems they become so rich in faith. I will never forget the first disabled man I ever met in Ghana. It was my first day there and I met him on the street outside the airport. This man crawled up to me on his hands, dragging his legs behind him. He gave me the biggest, brightest smile and when he was introduced to me he said, “Joni, welcome to our country where God is so much bigger.” At first, I didn’t know what he meant. Then he added, “God is always bigger to those who need Him most. We need Him – we really need Him here in Ghana.”
And I tell you what… I have never forgotten him and I often repeat those wise words of his because there are times when I start cruising in the Christian faith… there are times when I kick back and start living life on automatic… there are days when my need of God doesn’t seem that desperate. And I just bet you who are listening right now… I can imagine you identify. So it’s little wonder that God permits suffering to shake us out of our spiritual slumber…
AL: … and, Joni, none of us suffers the kind of want people in Ghana face every day…
JONI: That’s right and so we shouldn’t be surprised at the trials God sends us – especially us here in America. Because these are the things that drive us to Him out of (what do you know) desperate need. It’s often the pain, the heart ache, the disappointments that literally shove and push us into the arms of God out of the overwhelming conviction that we just have nowhere else to go. We all need God… but we are too apt to forget our need of Him until He allows that stinking trial to touch our life.
AL: Hebrews 10:22 gives good advice when we’re hurting. It says, “…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”
JONI: The heart of that disabled man in Africa was sincere, and he had full assurance of faith… assurance that God really is near to those who desperately need Him most.
AL: And that’s the message our Wheels for the World team will be sharing all across Ghana for the remaining time as we go out into the streets and alleys…
JONI: And highways and the byways and the country lanes to find the disabled… to give them those wheelchairs… to place the Bibles in their hands… and to remind them that God is near – always near – to those who need Him most.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends