Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Guest (Male): Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Right now, family retreats are in full swing and Joni's here to tell us a very special family retreat story.

Joni Eareckson Tada: I love telling people how they can volunteer with us at family retreat. Here at the ministry, we really encourage our employees to sign up and serve. For example, Jace, who works in our human resources department, absolutely loved working with Joni and Friends when he started. After a while, though, he started to feel a little restless.

He would spend lunchtime with fellow employees and he’d hear how much they enjoyed volunteering at our retreats for special needs families. Sitting there listening, it sounded good, but he just didn't think he was cut out to help a kid with a disability and his family. He’d sit around the lunch table, listen to his coworkers, and think, "Well, that sounds nice, but it’s just not for me."

Over the months, his coworkers would keep asking, "Hey Jace, you want to sign up?" But he kept saying no until finally, God intervened. The Mira at Hot Springs family retreat, not far from our headquarters, had an urgent need. We were caught short when a couple of male volunteers had suddenly withdrawn. At that retreat, we really needed young men to serve.

Preteen boys in wheelchairs don't want to hang out with older girl volunteers. So back at the headquarters of Joni and Friends, all eyes were on Jace. Feeling the pressure of the Holy Spirit on his heart, Jace reluctantly said, "Okay, I’ll do it." Terrified, he packed his bag, climbed in his car, and right away, he was paired with a disabled kid named Alex and his family.

Instantly, Alex made Jace his best buddy. That week, those two did everything together: played ball, did crafts, swam in the pool, ate together in the dining hall, worshipped side-by-side, sang, laughed, and had a great time. Jace was absolutely overwhelmed by the love this disabled kid Alex showed him. He began to understand 1 Corinthians 12:22, that those who seem to be weaker are indispensable in the body of Christ.

Maybe Jace did not know much about kids with disabilities before family retreat, but when he got back to our headquarters, he told us, "You know, this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. I went to family retreat with zero special needs experience and now I’m hooked. I realize you don't need a PhD in special education to love someone. I may have gone to family retreat thinking I would bless somebody, but knowing Alex, I received an even bigger blessing."

Then Jace said something to his fellow employees that really made me cry. He said, "Friends, I want you to know every report you submit around here, every desk job you do, all the computers, every meeting you participate in, it's going to make sense when you go to family retreat. You guys have got to understand the real mission behind Joni and Friends. All you new employees, sign up!"

Guest (Male): I know Joni shares Jace's story because our mission is to see people like Alex and his family come to Christ. We want to see their burdens lifted and their hope restored through gospel love. This week, pray for special needs families at our family retreats going on right now in Tennessee, Ohio, New Mexico, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.

Hundreds of disabled children and their families are going to be attending. Ask God to melt their hearts and rescue families like Alex's. Why not sign up and serve at a family retreat near you? Go to joniradio.org for all the details.