Thanks to God!

When I reflect on 40 years of Joni and Friends’ outreach, I’m breathless with wonder at God’s faithfulness. I started this ministry because I was stirred by the command of Jesus in Luke 14 to “Go out, find the disabled, the lame and the blind… and bring them in.”

God had brought me into His fold, and I couldn’t wait to help bring others with disabilities before the Throne of Jesus. And so, in 1979, with a big vision, lots of prayer, and help from friends like you, Joni and Friends was on its way.

I started this ministry because I was stirred by the command of Jesus in Luke 14 to “Go out, find the disabled, the lame and the blind… and bring them in.”

At first, we literally went from church to church, giving disability-ministry training to congregations like yours. As we grew from those humble beginnings, we kept asking the Lord to show us more creative ways to reach the disabled with His hope and help.

That’s how Wheels for the World was started 25 years ago – we realized that giving a desperately-needed wheelchair would soften people’s hearts to the Gospel of Christ.

I remember long ago serving with Wheels in West Africa. I met Abujah, a grandmother who crawled in the dirt because her legs were paralyzed. She cried when she was fitted to her new wheelchair. But then, when she heard the Good News and embraced Jesus as her Savior, she pressed my hand between hers and kept repeating, “Thanks to God… thanks to God… thanks to God!”

That grandmother’s story represents thousands of disabled people like her who, over the decades, have received Christ into their hearts, as well as practical help.

When she heard the Good News and embraced Jesus as her Savior, she pressed my hand between hers and kept repeating, “Thanks to God… thanks to God… thanks to God!”

But there are countless more who need to be reached, people who are crying out in desperation, “Help me, please… I am without hope!” They are isolated in remote corners of the world, not knowing if they have strength to face tomorrow — all they see are lonely days ahead. Would you please join me in helping to change that?

Let’s partner with the Spirit of Jesus to fill the ranks of heaven with these dear ones who need Christ! Life doesn’t have to be hopeless.

You can be used by God to give disabled people the perfect gift – a wheelchair (mobility made just for them) and the Good News (salvation purchased for us all). You can be used by the Lord to connect them to caring Christians who have learned how to embrace them into the church family.

On our 40th anniversary, I’m so grateful to God for you. You, too, have been stirred by the command of Jesus in Luke 14… through your prayers and gifts, you are touching the lives of people like Abujah!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I pray you and I can keep serving the Lord Jesus together for decades to come!

Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 

Isaiah 35:3-4

–Joni Eareckson Tada