Joni Eareckson Tada>> And when I saw my arm slung
over my sister's shoulder—and yet I couldn't feel it—I knew something awful had happened. Well, the
doctors told me I'd broken my neck. I'll never use my hands or my legs again. And Nick, I remember
thinking in the hospital, paralyzed, lying there, knowing that I would have to sit down for the rest
of my life in a wheelchair, I remember thinking, “God, is this your idea of an answer
to prayer?—to be drawn closer to You?” I just couldn't understand it. “What are you
doing? How could You have taken me so seriously?” [Champions for the Brokenhearted] Nick Vujicic>> Hi, I'm Nick Vujicic, and I'm so
blessed and honored that you've decided to join me today for this month's interview with
“Champions for the Brokenhearted.” First, I want to say thank you from the bottom of
my heart to all of our donors and everyone who supports us and daily prays for us. With
your generosity we are able to accomplish all that God has called us to do here at Life Without
Limbs, and we want you to know that you are such an important part of the mission. Thank you and
may God continue to bless you and your families. I invite you also to check out the “Circle of
Champions” where you can actually be a part of what God is doing through the ministry. If
you are not in the Circle of Champions yet, check it out because you're going to be
receiving some really cool bonus content. This month, the month of March, Champions for
the Brokenhearted is highlighting the disabled, and I'll tell you right now that I'll never
forget when Joni Eareckson Tada came up in conversation with me and my mom when I was
a kid, and my mom said to me in Australia, “Son, you have no limbs, but look at this woman
of God. She is strong!" Joni Eareckson Tada, an incredible hero of the faith in our books here at
Life Without Limbs, a dear friend, generous sister in Christ, who allowed Life Without Limbs to have
our very first office space in the International Disability Center here in Agoura Hills. (This is
where we're filming.) And I'll tell you right now, if you have not heard of the story and the
incredible legacy of worldwide impact for families affected with disabilities, and the disabled
themselves, to spark incredible faith, courage tenacity, and just true, true incredible witness
for the Lord, I'll tell you right now, millions of people will never be the same because of Joni
Eareckson Tada and the Joni and Friends Ministry. It is my honor to be here in person with someone
who has been the most incredible inspiration to me, having a handicap herself, who truly
embraces the grace of God, Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni, I love you so much. Joni>> Oh, well Nick, with an introduction like
that I feel like should stand up and salute or something! That was quite an introduction. Good
to be with you, and of course, all of our friends watching. Nick>> Wonderful to be here with you, and you
and I, we have something in particular, that the world may not understand. It's every time that
we are in a better position to hug. Joni>> I know--it's kind of like put the head forward, get the "club fit." Nick>> Yeah, [laughing] Joni>> Absolutely, but anyway I, like you, Nick, I have looked at other people with disabilities, and I've seen their limitations, and especially people living in developing nations, and I'm thinking, like your mom told you like, "If that lady can do it with what she's struggling, with her circumstances, then certainly the grace of God is going to be powerful in your life." Right? All these years. Nick>> Amen! Amen! You are the epiphany, an illustration given by the Holy Spirit to the world that when you go by
faith and not by sight, and you go and sin no more, you put the GO the word "go" in front of the word
disabled, it spells "God is able" to do exceedingly abundantly more than you can ever ask, imagine, or
attain, and the joy of the Lord oozes out of you! My favorite thing about spending time with you, is
at any given moment, you just break out in song. Joni>> Oh, absolutely! [singing] "Your name is a strong and mighty power." I mean I was singing that on the way to work this morning. God is our power he is our strength.
Nick I often say this. I wake up in the morning and sometimes it just is so overwhelming, not having
hands at work, or feet that walk, but you know about that, but also pain. Do you deal with pain?
Nick>> Not as much. I'm maybe a fraction of a fraction of where you're at. I have some pain, but
you, my sister.... Joni>> Well, I wake up in the morning, and I'm thinking, "I can't do this, Jesus, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and I know that's the way you live. It's the way I live, and hey, I'm honored to be one of the Champions of the Brokenhearted that you mentioned.
Nick>> You are one of the greatest anointed and appointed for our time, especially for Gen Z, to get to know
you Joni. You know we we're so thankful for many, many millions of people out there who have been
affected and changed and even nations affected with bringing in dignity for the disabled and
and opportunity and wheelchairs through "Wheels for the World" in so many incredible ministries,
we'll get into, like the family retreats, but Joni, for the people who don't know your story, tell
us about how God got your attention, and how He rescued your soul, and how the joy has become in
the Lord, center point, from teenager onward. Joni>> Okay, well I'll be quite honest, quite
frank, quite blunt. When I was a teenager, oh sure, I had accepted Jesus as my Savior,
but I kind of tucked Him in the back of my Levi jeans pocket and really did not
follow Him day by day as I should have. I thought that coming to Christ would give
me a new boyfriend. I would lose weight. I would get good grades at school. I'd be put on an
academic recommendation to my favorite college. I just thought every, all the chips, were going
to line up for me, and so it was all about me, and even when I finally did get that boyfriend,
that was not the best thing because I would do one thing with my boyfriend on a Friday night,
but then I get up on Sunday morning, go to church and feel full of guilt, confessing my sins,
promising God, “Oh, I won't do that again, Lord!” But then the following week it
would just be a cycle of sin, and I enslaved myself. I entrapped myself
in a world of sin out of which I could not break free, and so finally somewhere before
high school graduation, I remember praying, "Jesus, I'm not living as I
should. I'm being a hypocrite. I'm doing one thing with a boyfriend and yet
confessing another thing around my Christian friends. I can't stand to live like this.
I don't want to shame You further when I go off to college. Do something in my life
that's going to really jerk it right side up because I can't do it. I'm just
powerless! Do anything, God.” I prayed that prayer and about two weeks
after high school graduation back in 1967, I went for a swim on the Chesapeake Bay with my
sister, dove into some shallow water, hit my head on a sandy bottom. It cracked my neck back, and
I could feel a crunch. My spinal cord severed, and I was floating face down in the water. My
sister thankfully saw that I had not uprighted myself. She quick came, rescued me. I'm spitting,
sputtering, gasping for breath, almost drowning, and when I saw my arm slung
over my sister's shoulder, and yet I couldn't feel it, I
knew something awful had happened. Well, the doctors told me I'd broken my neck.
I'll never use my hands or my legs again, and Nick, I remember thinking in the
hospital, paralyzed, lying there, knowing that I would have to sit down for the rest
of my life in a wheelchair, I remember thinking, “God, is this your idea of an answer
to prayer?—to be drawn closer to You?" I just couldn't understand it. "What are you
doing? How could you have taken me so seriously?” And I think that's when the depression began
to grip me and doubts about God's goodness and how He could be trusted with prayer. So many
questions in my heart –but thankfully, Nick, there were Christian friends who came around me,
supported me, came to the hospital with their guitars, and CDs and singing songs and flipping
through magazines with me and keeping me connected with reality and loving me, bringing in sugar
cookies, peanut butter cookies. I don't know. They just loved me, and because they loved
me, they kind of won the right to be heard, you know, so when they finally opened up
their Bibles this time, I really listened. I listened to what God might have to say to
me, and the first thing I heard Him say was, Joni, Psalm 62:8, “Trust
in the Lord at all times.” “God, You mean this? This includes those ALL times?” “Yes, Joni, trust Me!” and Nick, I had nowhere
else to go. I was backed up against a corner. I didn't want to feel sorry for myself for
the rest of my life, and so I said, “God, I have nowhere else to go. You're the One
who's got the words of life. Show me what... How am I supposed to live if I
can't die. Show me how to live." And I don't know--for the past 55-56 years in this
wheelchair, He's been showing me how to live, and I'm finding new things about Him
every day that are worth trusting. Nick>> Amazing. Amazing. Me and my whole family and our ministry we have known firsthand the impact of such a ministry, but before you started the
ministry, how did God bridge you and your heart and your mind to, “Okay God, I'm
getting to know You. I know You're there. I know You can heal me, and if You don't choose
to heal me, I still want to live for You.” Tell us a little bit about how that healing
process in your broken heart healed because there are many people who are watching today, who have
families that are affected with disabilities or they might be handicapped themselves, and they're
kind of in that place right now. "God, I know that You're there. I don't understand. I know that
you can heal me." I mean you've had many people when they say, "I want to pray for you," go for it. You
know, I mean, I have a pair of shoes in my closet. We believe in God's miraculous power, but the miracle
of healing that broken heart of young Joni. Tell us a little bit about that.
Joni>> Well, real quickly, there were these Christian friends, like I said, committed, faithful, constant, and one of
them came up beside my hospital bedside and said “Joni, I'm going to say something—ten
short words that I think might change your life.” “God permits what he hates to accomplish what He
loves.” and I kind of looked at him askew, and I didn't quite get what he was trying to say. He
said, “Joni, look at Jesus. Think of all the awful things that happened to Him: tortured, murdered,
treason, injustice—all of it leading to His crucifixion. How can any of that be God's will? I
mean it's awful. It's terrible suffering, and yet God permitted what he hated--all those horrific
things--to accomplish something that He loved that being crucified on that cross meant salvation
for a world of sinners." So the world's worst murder becomes the world's only salvation and he
said, "Joni, the same is true for your life. God permitted what He hated. He took no delight
when you broke your neck. He takes no delight in multiple sclerosis or osteogenesis imperfecta or
muscular dystrophy or or autism or Aalzheimer's or any number of different disabling conditions. He
takes no delight in those things." He permits what He hates, though, to accomplish that which He loves."
And he said, "Joni, maybe God really was answering that prayer--turning a headstrong, stubborn,
rebellious teenager who was just insistent on getting things her way--He turned that
rebellious teenager into a young woman. JonI, I believe you're going to be a young woman who will
exude something of grace, peace, perseverance, joy, bravery, courage, endurance, happiness. I mean real
joy, Joni! I think that's God's purpose for you." And so, slowly, Nick, instead of looking for the
outside healing, although I really want to get out of this wheelchair, I started to focus
on, maybe there's a deeper healing--an inside healing--something down deep that's supposed to
happen to me, and so I began partnering with God's Spirit to do just that. "God, help me embrace the
inner healing that You want to do in my heart, and then you'll take care of the outward
stuff as I grow in You." And real quickly, Nick, this question about healing, when I
look at Jesus's priorities, I think they are pretty much clear in Scripture, that even
though He healed withered hands and blind eyes, He said, "If that hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
If that eye that I just healed leads you astray, gouge it out." And right there I saw His priorities--
that although God is concerned about our exterior our physicalness--He's much more interested in
the healing of what happens on the inside and of course, you know all about that, I'm sure." Nick>> Joni, this is an amazing conversation! Everyone, I'm here with Joni Eareckson Tada, founder of Joni and Friends, a ministry. If you haven't heard of it, go to Joniandfriends.org right now and check
out the newsletters. It's a global ministry that's committed to bringing the Gospel and practical
resources to people impacted by disabilities around the world, and I want you to know that for
me in my life, when I first heard about Joni, really what I want everyone to to understand is, first
of all, if you're a teenager and you're a little hard-headed right now [Joni laughs], I hope that you, I mean
I hope that God's got your attention! Joni>> Well, you know what?
People don't have to break their neck to get close to God. Nick>> Oh, come on! What a sentence!
"People don't need to break their neck to get close to God! Joni>> God, You can use whatever circumstances He put you in to the push you into the arms of Jesus. It doesn't have to be a broken neck. Nick>> I love it. "Lord Jesus, we pray for mercy upon
everyone right now, that you would bring us closer to You. Amen." This is what it's all about.
Joni>> Absolutely, sir. Nick>> Joni, how did the heart for other people who are affected with disabilities come to a point of focus for you as an individual and wanting to say, "God, if if you healed me and your
priority was to rescue my soul and heal my broken heart, help me to be an instrument in Your hands."
How did that happen? Joni>> Well, real quickly, Nick, like you, I mean, you've been catapulted to global fame and phenomena, but back in the 70s, a very, a similar thing happened to me when I appeared on a
national television program and it it kick-started the book, and the book was published, and Billy
Graham read it, and then I started speaking on crusades, and before you know it, I'm traveling the
world myself, speaking way back when, and I'll never forget, I went to the Philippines in 1980. Well, I
can't remember when it was--the early early 1980s-- and I was speaking at a pastor's conference,
and it was during the monsoon season, and as we were wheeling to the entrance to the stadium.
There was an umbrella being held over me, and I looked across the muddy street, and I saw
a woman paralyzed, dragging herself through the muddy street, trying to dodge traffic.
She gets up on a landing, and she sidles up to the back door of a restaurant, sits there
and waits, and I asked my pastor host, I said, "Who is that woman?" and so, "We we know her well. She's respected in this community, but she has so very little, and she's waiting for a handout. She would never say
that she is begging. We love her so." And I thought, "This shouldn't be. It should not be that people
created in the image of God should have to drag themselves through the mud and wait for a handout
because they're hungry." And I remember coming home from the Philippines on the airplane praying, "God
if there's anything that I can do to partner with You to make her life better, or the lives of people
like her--millions of them with disabilities around the world who have so little--if there's anything
that You can do to use me to make a difference in her life and others lives, do it, Jesus, please. I
want to expend my life. I want to empty my life on behalf of people like her with disabilities who
don't even have a wheelchair, and so that's what kick-started Joni and Friends (by the
way it's spelled j-o-n-i, although my daddy was very happy that I was a girl, I got named after
him, but it's it's spelled j-o-n-i, and I rather than Johnny, as you would normally think), so that's what
started Joni and Friends so many years ago back in 1979, and so now we, as you said, have a global
outreach to people with disabilities around the world, delivering wheelchairs, Bibles, hundreds of
thousands of wheelchairs, and providing retreats for families with special needs, not only here in
the United States, but in developing nations. And Nick, every, every morning when I get up, I think,
"Jesus, if there's any way You can squeeze any more ounce of effort under this paralyzed body to serve
others who have nothing, literally nothing, that I'm all in. Use me, Jesus!" So that's how it got started,
and that's pretty much what we're doing. Nick>> I'll never forget when Life Without Limbs actually
went and partnered with "Wheels for the World" that has changed so many lives bringing mobility
and the hope of the Gospel to people impacted by disabilities. I mean, shipping containers full of
wheelchairs, and when you go out into the world-- I don't know, my friends who are watching, if you've
ever seen poverty, if you've ever seen somebody in an impoverished city or country where they
even makeshift wheelchairs, or even get dragged on mattresses around, if they need to go from place
to place, and I've I've seen poverty for the first time in 2003. I'll never forget it. I was nearly
21 years old and when you see someone without those basic necessities, and even a cultural
equality wherein there are some countries still today that if a woman gives birth to a
disabled son or daughter, that she's ostracized from community, divorced straight away, and still
in today's age, can you believe that some babies are absolutely neglected, and children
who are living, but I'll tell you, when Joni and Friends comes in through "Wheels for the World"
to preach the Gospel, that every single family affected with disabilities has not been forgotten,
that what the enemy tried to use for bad, God can turn into good, that when you don't get
a miracle, you can still be one and still have the joy of the Lord. And it's one thing to
read it in the Bible, where, "Don't go up to someone without clothes and say God bless you and not
give them clothes." That's exactly what the heart behind Joni and Friends really is and recently
opened an International Wheelchair Restoration Center in El Salvador. Get this--that trains and
employs people with disabilities. I mean talk about a full arc of coming alongside a nation to come
alongside and hug and mobilize and equip those who are neglected often in the world. This has been
a recent opening. Joni, can you tell us more about this exciting project? Joni>> It is. You know, you mentioned
earlier about babies--children with disabilities, born with disabling conditions, being neglected.
Often those babies will end up in dumpsters. They will end up being buried alive, choked, starved,
so it's not just a matter of helping individuals. You want to change culture.
You want to change the way a nation looks at disability. Of course, that can only happen through Jesus Christ.
He's the only one who can give people a sense of strong value of individuals with disabilities who are
indeed created in the image of God, so it's not just a matter of delivering wheelchairs. We've got
to change culture, and the way we change culture is giving people disabilities a hope, dignity
respect, of course, in embracing the Gospel of Christ, but also giving them a job, giving them
a place of employment. So this International Restoration Center is all about employing people
with disabilities because you mentioned shipping cargo containers of wheelchairs. That's great, but
wouldn't it be even better if we could use the wheelchairs on site and repair those, and restore
those wheelchairs in country, and use people with disabilities in employment to actually do
that job. Give them a sense of worth. Give them an opportunity to support their own family,
support themselves. So slowly we are all about changing individuals by the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and then shaking that salt and shining that light out into the community and into the countryside,
and indeed, even the nation, so that all people with disabilities will become to be respected. And
the International Restoration Center is just the start of other centers to be replicated all around
the world. Nick>> Wow! so excited about all those programs
and how the church can be the hands and feet with "Wheels for the World." And yes, we could talk about for hours and hours about all
the amazing layers qualitatively of "Wheels for the World" missions, and even how the ministry
engages with inmates within prison facilities worldwide to build wheelchairs, and feel like there
is a a God-given purpose for their own life even to this point to being a part of someone else's
miracle through the ministry. Joni, we can talk about "Wheels for the World" all day long, but I want
you all, friends, who are watching, to understand as well that Joni and Friends also has started an
"International Family Retreat and Warrior Getaway" for Ukrainians, held in Germany and Poland right
now! Like you are not slowing down. You continue to be the hands and feet on the front lines,
especially in countries that are broken, war-torn, and really desperately need help. Joni>> Well, here we are in March of 2023, and a little over a year since the war in Ukraine began, and Russia has mounted a spring offensive. And so the bombs are falling, even though we
might not see it in US news, but the plight of disabled people in Ukraine is even more desperate
than ever. We have helped evacuate over 600 families affected by disability and relocated them
in countries like Switzerland Germany, and in the Netherlands, providing not only support for them
medical supplies and also finding them housing that's accessible, but also giving them the Gospel.
These people come out of Ukraine wounded, weary, burdened, and they have to leave so many other
family members--sometimes their husbands behind who are fighting, and so we run retreats for families
affected by disability in Holland and in other countries: Germany, one in Hungary, so that these
people can get a little bit of a respite, but the rescue efforts are still going on out of Ukraine--
our in-country partner, Galena Cymbol, is coordinating and networking the evacuation of so
many more people with disabilities out of Ukraine, especially during the spring offensive that Russia
is mounting even now, and so thank you, Nick, for for highlighting Champions of the Brokenhearted
because it's not just me, it is not just my efforts, or even my team's efforts. All of us can be
concerned. All of us should be concerned, and there are ways that all of our friends who are watching
can get involved, whether in your ministry, my ministry, whichever, to make a difference for Christ
among the world's neediest, lowliest, forgotten, lost little, and last. These are the ones that we need
to reach for the Lord Jesus. Nick>> And JonI, I know your heart for the next generation and university students who obviously we've seen now how the world has has put a lot of us in a spot
where we're witnessing anxiety and depression across the globe like never before--able-bodied
but broken-hearted people still on the inside, and not only have you seen the joy of
the Lord as He has used you and your team and the ministry to go and heal another broken heart.
In that purpose-driven mission, you also want to engage university students across the globe, but
especially here in America to go and volunteer and engage for themselves, in even a combative sense,
in the spiritual for their own sake to say, "Hey, we're not just here to survive this life and
just get through college and just get to a certain point that we think is going to be satisfying
here on Earth, but getting engaged in what the Lord has for the next generation, to go out and be with
the brokenhearted." Go out and and go to the family retreats and encourage these families and children
affected with disabilities. I'll never forget the several keynotes that I've had at family
retreats, and here I am thinking, "Yeah, well I'd love to come and encourage, you know, anybody there, and
I'll be going soon in Dallas with the Joni Eareckson Tada team out there in Dallas, the Joni
and Friends, and every time I go to some of these incredible opportunities, I walk away speechless!
My heart full, and me being ministered more than anything--me feeling like I've imparted anything.
you know what that feels like when God wants to now use us to be His hands and feet, all of us, and a call to action for university students in America. Let's talk about that. Joni>> Absolutely, but real quickly, when people ask me, "Man, I'm just so depressed. I can't get rid of this discouragement, this heavy cloud over my head. What do I do?" My first advice is always, "Get up in the morning. Take a hot shower. Get dressed. Go out the door and find somebody else who is hurting worse than you are,
and be a difference in their lives, and so thank you, Nick, for being a champion of that for
calling your friends who watch our friends to be engaged in service because it's always
better to give than to receive, and it is always so healing. And part of what we love to do at
Joni and Friends is to engage young people in just that, so we're working with a number of universities
that have nursing programs--programs for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and we're encouraging
these young people to come and intern with us here at Joni and Friends, teaching them to give
respite to families with special needs in their own communities who just need a little bit of a
break. They need somebody to come in, learn their child's routine so that Mom and Dad could go have
dinner together, that kind of a thing--just simple ways of serving, practicing just a little bit
of Christianity with its sleeves rolled up, but then getting them engaged to even come and serve
with us on our "Wheels for the World" outreach. Oh, I'm so excited because this summer we have got an
internship team coming from Shepherd's College, a group of intellectually disabled young people, who
are serving as interns, are going to go to Brazil and minister to other families down there. Nick>> That is awesome! Joni>> So Moms and Dads in Brazil will see these young people with intellectual disabilities serving in positions of leadership, and they will think, "Wow, my own kid might be able to do one of these days!" So just serving, just finding ways to to meet the need, not waiting around to be asked, but take the initiative. Be proactive. Find a way to go out there and be salt and light. Nick>> If someone is watching from a local church in America, and they are like, "Well, I may not go to a missions field," and this is amazing to check out the family retreats, and please, please, please go to Joniandfriends.org and look for the information, and ask God, "God, how would you have me as one
member of my local church in my community to move the needle and make a difference and go serve a
family and be Your hands and feet, who are affected with disabilities. There are so many ways that
your church can engage the conversation, and even from your week-to-week services, being educated in
how to take the approach and welcome families with disabilities in your own church. There's so many
resources on your website. It is so amazing, and so this is so exciting. I have never heard of
a program like that, and I mean, that is phenomenal. I mean, you're not slowing down! Joni and Friends
is not slowing down. You have done this for more than 40 years. This is so amazing. Joni>> Well, we'll have 59 family retreats here in the US this summer, and oh, II am going to say a little less than that number in developing nations around the world this summer, and our friends watching, we will give all the training. Don't even worry if you don't have a disability awareness. We will train you. Just come a day early to the retreat and you might end up carrying food trays in the cafeteria line for
a wheelchair user or you might be playing baseball with a kid with Down's Syndrome. You might be hanging
out with a kid with autism. You might...there's all kinds of ways--helping people worship, holding
hymnals, just being the hands of some kid with no hands in arts and crafts center, so there's
all kinds of ways you can help, and we'll give all the training. Just go to, as you said, Joniand Friends.org
and visit our Family Retreat page, and sign up for a family retreat in your area. Nick>> Joni, what's the God-given dream in your heart and hopes for the church when it comes to ministering to the disabled and being a champion? Joni>> Well, God's power shows up best in weakness. We're told that in 2 Corinthians 12:9, and so if churches want to experience that
power--if they want to release an explosion of power in their congregation--then go find the weak,
go find the vulnerable, pack them into your pews, people with wheelchairs, white canes, and walkers.
Just get the weak into your congregation. God's power will explode because our vision, our
dream, is to help every person on the disability find hope, dignity, and their place on the body
of Christ. So churches need to get prepared to experience that power of God as people with
disabilities come into the fold of the fellowship. Nick>> Amen. I am so honored to coserve with you
on the front line to challenge the church. Don't just go out there and pray for
revival. Go and be the hands and feet. Summon them in. Joni, there is someone who might be
watching right now, who either themselves have had an ailment of physical disability,
handicap, that either they were born with or now they're struggling with, and they're
discouraged right now or a parent out there of a child. Look into that camera and speak
to their heart as the Lord leads, please. Joni>> Absolutely, and I would
share with you who are watching, you who feel overwhelmed, a parent, a child,
a young person with a disabling condition, I get it. I understand. I resonate. Again, there's
not a morning I wake up that I don't think, "I don't have strength for this. I’ve got no resources
for this. God, I cannot do this one day more!" Quadriplegia! I'm so tired of this!" So if you wake
up that way, if you wake up like that, like me, celebrate it because it's your chance
to go to God and say, “I cannot do it, but I can do all things through You,
Lord Jesus, as you strengthen me.” And the first way He can strengthen you is for
you to first give Him all your weakness, all your inability, all your rebellion. Remember that story
I told earlier? You don't have to break your neck to find God or get close to Him. Give all of it
to Him and let His life take a grip in your heart. And, oh my goodness, the joy, the strength, the
power, the resources that will overflow as you live your life moment by moment! “Jesus, I
can't do this! Jesus I'm a sinner. Jesus, I'm rebellious! Jesus, I have so much
weakness! Jesus, I'm prone to depression, discouragement. Make me and mold me into the
person you want me to be today. I can't do life, but I can do all things through You as you
strengthen me." Those are good words for you tomorrow morning when you wake up, so step into
that reality and leave the discouragement behind. Nick>> And, my friend, I want you to know that
that whether we have a disability or not, that if you're brokenhearted, Joni has so many
books. The latest one, I don't know, which one it was, but Songs of Suffering, that if you need, if you know that, yes, I know I need to read my Bible. Yes, I
know I need to go to church and pray. Yes, I have a devotional. No, go and check out Songs
of Suffering. It will draw your heart close to His bosom, and He will tenderize your heart and
open your ears to His soft-spoken love for you where you can embrace Him and know that He
embraces you through your suffering. Joni, this conversation has blessed me,
and I know millions of people out there. We love you. We're praying for you and
Ken. God bless you and your marriage, continuing all your team and all the legacy of
impact across the nations for many generations. Joni>> Thank you, Nick, for Life Without
Lambs. I often think that God has raised you up to step into that role that I
once enjoyed many, many decades ago, and how excited I am to those you're taking the
Gospel to places around the world where there's such a need for hope and help and the light of
the truth of God's Word. Thank you for that. Nick>> You have inspired the next generation of coservers and
ambassadors alike to look at you and the ministry and your marriage as an incredible example of joy
through it all and commitment unto death unto Him. Joni, know that you love singing. Is there one hymn that you would love to at
least quote or share a couple lines? Joni>> “Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy
of what Thou art. I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.” I sing
this to Jesus every night when I can't get to sleep because of pain. “Thou has bid
me gaze upon Thee and Thy beauty fills my soul for by Thy transforming power, Thou hast made me
whole.” I sing that to Him at about two o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning
when I can't get to sleep because of pain, and it just chases away the anxiety and fear,
just to worship the Lord Jesus in that way. So, my voice isn't what it used to be, honestly,
Nick, but I still enjoy singing as best I'm able. Nick>> Joni we love you. God bless you, and thank you for sharing everything as you have
committed unto Him to the world. We love you. God bless you. My friends, please go
to JoniandFriends.org, and I want to thank you for prayerfully considering to financially support
Joni and Friends Ministry, praying for them, engaging in family retreats, “Wheels for the
World,” and however God uses even your local university to engage in the next generation
to make a difference in the name of Jesus, and being the Champion for the Brokenhearted,
those affected with disabilities. My friends, thank you for watching, and
I encourage you to visit also Champions for the Brokenhearted on our website
LifeWithoutLimbs.org where you can find additional resources and information. I also want
to again invite those who are passionate about serving the brokenhearted to join our Circle of
Champions where you can take part in our mission. Thank you from the bottom of our heart, and here
at Life Without Limbs, for being with us all here today. I love you so much. God loves you so much.
Take care. God bless and we'll see you next time.
