A Foundation for Ministry
I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and I sure miss Joni and Friends.
I should say, that is, I miss our headquarters at Joni and Friends. We are coming up and out of this season of coronavirus, right? Because I am still one of those vulnerable, at-risk people, and because I am in a wheelchair with bad lungs, I have to work from my house. And man, I really miss going to the office, wheeling through the front doors of our Joni and Friends headquarters; heading up the ramp; singing as I go; heading to my desk where I have all my work stuff.
To me, the headquarters of Joni and Friends has always been closely connected to our mission. And I remember the time when we had no headquarters. Back in 2002, we were expanding Family Retreats and Wheels for the World outreach, and we needed a permanent home for our growing programs. We needed a roof over our work. Now at the time, we were looking at some land near our rented facility. And somehow, it seemed perfect. It was a public drainage pond for water running off the mountains. And it was more of a big dirt pit than a piece of land. And every day on the way to work, Doug Mazza, our president at the time, would stop and he would stand on the edge of that pit. At the bottom of the big drainage hole was a lot of junk: an old rusty refrigerator, parts of an old Volkswagen, a rusted fender, wheel caps. And Doug would stand over that pit on its edge and he’d ask God, “Lord, may we have this pit, this least attractive land in the area, valued by so few – may we have it to build the platform for your plan to reach the world’s disabled for Christ?”
As the weeks went by, Doug asked some of our staff leaders to join him up there on the edge of the pit for prayer. And one morning, they all climbed down into the lowest part of the dirt pit where there was no view but the sky above; nowhere to look but up. Down there, they gathered some large stones and, next to the pile of rusting junk, they raised an Ebenezer – just as the prophet Samuel did when he raised a pile of stones in remembrance of a great military victory for God’s people. They prayed over that pile of stones, that Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” And they prayed that God would do a powerful work in the future, and raise up out of that dirt a place where Joni and Friends could call home. They continued to meet their day after day until we were able to purchase outright that old, dried drainage pit. And in due time, that ugly hole was filled with dirt; it was smoothed out. And on that dirt foundation, we were able to build a home, a destination for the world’s disabled. And I would love for you to go to joniradio.org today and see God’s answer to those prayers, a photo of the headquarters of Joni and Friends where we are all about reaching disabled people for Christ around the world.
So, I will tell you what I will be thinking of the next time I am free and able to go to our headquarters for work. I will know that as I wheel into that building, 40 feet beneath the foundation is an Ebenezer. And although it is buried in dirt, those pile of rocks are still there. And it is on that foundation of reaching for Christ the world’s disabled that we are moving forward into this “new normal.” And we ask you to join us in doing the same. So, visit us today at joniradio.org.
And one more thing – we here at Joni and Friends would love to pray for you in your troubles. So, share with us your prayer need today at joniradio.org. God bless you today, and thanks for listening to Joni and Friends!
