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ShareGod’s Plans in Brazil
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever.
God is a master planner.
I bet you knew that already. After all, isn’t that what Psalm 33:11 says?
What he wants to do will last for all time.
Today is the start of our Wheels for the World outreach in Brazil. The fitting of wheelchairs is just getting started, but we are already seeing how good God’s plans are!
You see, about seven years ago, someone gave our team leader Jill a pediatric walker. (A pediatric walker is something that gives kids some extra balance and support when they need help walking.) Usually all of the donations of wheelchairs and walkers are sent to a prison where prisoners volunteer their time to make sure they are in the best possible working order. After they are cleaned and fixed, they are loaded in big trucks at the prison and shipped directly to the country we are going to.
But this pediatric walker didn’t need fixing so Jill hung on to it, waiting for a time when she could take it to someone who needed it. And you know what? Just before the Wheels for the World team ...
Continue to Full Post →Thirty Years of Radio
When someone first came to talk to Joni about having a radio program, she was in bed. A lot of times, people who use wheelchairs can get painful sores from sitting too long, and she had this type of sore. So here she was, stuck in bed, and two leaders of a radio agency visited her. They told her they thought she had something special to say, and would she consider a radio program?
Can you imagine what Joni thought? She couldn’t even get out of bed!
That was 30 years ago. Since then she has recorded 7,800 programs. If you had all of the programs in front of you, it would take you more than an hour just to count them all! And not only do people hear her radio program all around the United States, but people in other countries can listen to her broadcasts, too.
From a little conversation in Joni’s bedroom to talking to hundreds of thousands of people… only God could do that!
Take a moment to watch this video which celebrates this special anniversary.
Continue to Full Post →National Asthma Awareness Month
Did you know May is National Asthma Awareness month? Asthma is a disability that affects how people breathe. Sometimes when a kid exercises or is around something they are allergic to, they will have a ‘flare up’. When someone with asthma has a ‘flare up’, their airway tightens and it makes it more difficult for them to breathe. Many times kids will take medicine through inhalers to help their airway come back to normal. Do you know someone with asthma? Talk to them today about what it’s like to live with this condition and remember to pray for them! The Bible tells us in the book of James “to pray for one another”…And if you have asthma, tell us about it on the Kids’ Corner so we can cover you with prayer.
Mother's Day
.jpg "Joni and her mom, Lindy")
Have you ever stopped to list everything your mom does for you? It is a long list, isn’t it? (If it isn’t, ask your mom for ideas… I bet she could help you fill that page!)
Remembering all your mom does for you is a great way to be thankful, and thanking her for how she loves you is a wonderful way of honoring her!
Maybe you’ve memorized the Ten Commandments. Remember the one that says “Honor your father and mother”? It doesn’t stop there, does it. It says “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). God promises to bless you for obeying this command. That’s pretty cool, right?
So get started on that list, and let your mom know you are glad she is your mom!
Continue to Full Post →Jordani in the Dominican Republic
Jordani is a boy who lives in the Dominican Republic. When he was little, he had an accident that injured his brain. Because of this, part of his body doesn’t work. As you can imagine, his mom was very sad about this. When she came to get a wheelchair for him from one of our Wheels for the World teams, she wondered whether anyone could tell her if her son might be able to walk some day. Joni and Friends Wheels for the World teams include physical therapists, people who know how to help others get the best use of their body when it isn’t working right. So one of the physical therapists on the team worked with Jordani and gave him a walker to practice walking. With more practice and the right exercises, Jordani will be able to walk some and not need his wheelchair all of the time! This was...
Communication Challenge
If you couldn’t talk, how would you let your mom know you were hungry? Or how would you let your dad know you wanted to go outside? Your parents would probably be very discouraged trying to guess what you wanted!
Do you remember praying for our outreach in the Dominican Republic? Well, at that outreach, there were 58 kids who faced that exact problem! They couldn’t tell their parents they needed help getting to the bathroom. They couldn’t say if their shoes were too tight or if they just wanted a hug. Their disabilities kept them from letting their parents know what they needed! But when those 58 kids came to get a wheelchair from Joni and Friends, not only did they get a wheelchair, but they received the ability to communicate! ...
Continue to Full Post →Easter Egg Hunt
Imagine it’s time for an Easter Egg Hunt. Do you have good ideas about how to find the most eggs? Where are you going to look first? How are you going to make sure no one missed any eggs?
Now think how your hunt for eggs might be changed if you were in a wheelchair. Do you think it would be harder to fill your basket with eggs? It was for Candace and Ciara, twin sisters in Pennsylvania. They both have cerebral palsy (CP) and can’t walk. When they went to find eggs, other kids ran them over to get to the eggs first! Can you imagine how sad they felt?
That’s when their mom and our Philadelphia Area Ministry put their heads together and asked the girls’ church to help out. Do you know what they came up with? An Easter Egg Hunt that kids with all sorts of disabilities could participate in! That was nine years ago, and now so many kids come to this special kind of Easter Egg Hunt that they had to move to a larger place!
But you know what the best news is? Every year when all of these kids ...
Continue to Full Post →Sparks for Jesus (and Cubbies, too!)
Can you say John 3:16? Here are some kids who recited that verse plus a whole bunch more. And if you’ve been in AWANA clubs, you know that when you finish memorizing a verse, you earn AWANA Bucks.
But do you know what is different about these kids? Once they earned their AWANA Bucks, they didn’t go shopping in the AWANA store for toys or candy, like most kids do. Instead, with the help of their leaders, they traded the Bucks they earned into money they could donate to Joni and Friends. They earned enough money reciting verses to help one kid like them get the wheelchair they need!
That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Not only are they hiding God’s Word in their hearts, but they are learning to share it with others, too!
Continue to Full Post →Seven Ways to Pray on the National Day of Prayer
The National Day of Prayer is coming up! This is a day when Christians all around the United States set aside time to pray in a special way for our country. Here are seven ways you can pray for our country, Kids’ Corner style.
- Government – Pray for leaders of the United States and also those in your city and state. Ask God to give them good ideas about how to protect kids with disabilities.
- Military – Pray for the moms and dads who care for a kid with special needs and also serve in the military. Ask God to give them extra strength for the times when their family is separated.
- Media – Pray actors, authors and news reporters will share views about people with disabilities in a way that will show that every person is valuable.
- Businesses – Pray for businesses to think of good ways to make life easier for kids who have a disability.
- Schools – Pray that kids with disabilities won’t be teased or bullied at school. Ask God to help kids not be afraid of making friends with someone who is different than they are.
- Churches – Pray churches will look for ways to make kids with disabilities feel ...
Where is Guatemala?
Grab a friend, a map of the world, and a stop watch. Why? Let’s see how much time it takes you to find the country of Guatemala. It’s pretty small, so you might just need a magnifying glass, too!
Did you find it? If not, you can download the information sheet below and learn where it is. But before you do that, pay attention for a sec…
When Joni and Friends takes wheelchairs to a country like Guatemala, what do we do with them? You already know that we give them to people along with a Bible and a book about Joni’s life or some other encouraging story, but what about the wheelchair itself?
Each person who receives a wheelchair has the wheelchair fitted to them. What does that mean? Think about going shopping for shoes. You sit down on the bench and try on a bunch of different shoes, right? You may walk up and down in them or adjust the laces or make sure that they are the right kind to wear to school or whatever your need is. If you got shoes that were too tight or you got dress shoes to wear while playing soccer, it would be a big mistake.
That’s just how it is with finding the right wheelchair for each person. If the wheelchair is too big or too little, it can cause the person to get painful sores. If the person needs help sitting up straight in the chair but the chair doesn’t have the right kind of straps, it can be a big problem. So when Joni and Friends takes wheelchairs to give out, we spend a lot of time to make sure each person gets the best fitting wheelchair we can find.
And that is just one reason why your prayers are so important to us! And now download that info sheet!
Continue to Full Post →