The View from Where I Sit

Tag: joni and friends

  • Disability Awareness Sunday

    Introduction

    Today, I got to share what it is like to be a wheelchair user, at the St. John’s Ben Rhydding Church in Ilkley, during their first ever Disability Awareness Sunday! There were also other disabled members who watched the service on Zoom.

    Opening  worship

    Songs  Amazing Grace ( My chains are gone)

    Waymaker

    Then we had a scripture Reading. Our scripture reference was Luke 5: 17-26. We watched a video at this point of this service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HVIqckVMc.

    Through the Roof and Roofbreakers was founded upon this scripture. The founder of the foundation is Joni B. Eareckson Tada.

    Song    God of the poor (Beauty for brokenness)

    Daniella Jade’s experience

    What difference in access to things did you find coming from Bermuda to here?

    College and University was wheelchair accessible, however the college made it mandatory to get an electric wheelchair because Bradford is very hilly.

    In education, what barriers were there and how were things changed to help you?

    Wheelchair Accessibility and Integration were the recurring barriers. There were two public high schools to choose from. One building was completely wheelchair accessible from it’s inception but I would’ve ended up in a special class/program instead of being integrated while the other high school was nowhere near wheelchair accessible which impeded on things like class participation, attendance and receiving an accurate product grade. Once I got to the high school phase of life, I started out in a building with all stairs, which made it hard to get to classes easily and on time. But in my second year, I moved to a fully wheelchair accessible building.

    What barriers do you in coming to church and how can we help you to be included?

    None

    Then we included the church in a Talk –  including a time for discussion.

    Song    Be still for the presence

    Prayers

    Song    God of justice

    The audience seemed quite interested and receptive. I’m very thankful for this opportunity. I enjoyed sharing my experiences and hearing other people’s perspective.

    The Enabling Church Course

    http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/my-body-is-not-a-prayer-request/409340

    https://throughtheroof.org/forchurches/celebrate-inclusion/

  • ‘Through the Roof Charity’

    Did you know that, there are 1 billion disabled people living in the world today, and 12 million in the UK (18% of the population)? Statistics show that globally a disabled person is more likely to live in poverty and isolation and to be a victim of crime and discrimination.  They are less likely to be in employment and have less access to education, transport, appropriate housing and the internet (Office of Disability Issues).  The cost of bringing up a disabled child is three times greater than bringing up a non-disabled child (Scope). 

    Through the Roof is a registered charity that exists to ‘transform lives through Jesus with disabled people’.
    The charity’s name comes from the Bible account where some men break through the roof to help their disabled friend meet Jesus according to Luke 5. We recognise that every person is made in the image of God and has inherent value and worth, which includes people who have personal experience of disability.

    “they went up on the roof and lowered the paralysed man on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus”-Luke 5

    Many of our dedicated trustees, staff team, volunteers and donors have personal experience of disability and seek to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people and their families by:

    • Providing life-changing opportunities for disabled people
    • Equipping the Christian community to fully involve disabled people

    We achieve these aims by delivering three activity programmes:

    Through the Roof is part of the Churches for All network. Follow this link to find out more about CFA. 

    According to the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, “90% – 95% of the world’s disabled people never hear the Gospel“. It is vitally important that our churches and ministries include them.

    This ministry is the brainchild of Joni B. Eareckson Tada. She is an international author and speaker and the founder and Chief Executive of Joni and Friends International Disability Centre in the USA.  We are privileged at Through the Roof to be an affiliate of JAF since being founded in 1997, after Joni’s European speaking tour in 1994.

    At the age of 17 a diving accident left Joni quadriplegic and in a wheelchair. She founded Joni and Friends in 1979 to provide Christ-centred programmes to families with disabled children, as well as training to churches. Joni and Friends serves thousands of families with disabled children through Family Retreats, and has delivered over 100,000 wheelchairs and Bibles to disabled people in developing countries, as part of their Wheels for the World programme, which Through the Roof UK ‘imported’ in 1997. Joni’s lifelong passion is to bring the Gospel to the world’s one billion disabled people. What a great way to Deal with Disability in the Church!

    Joni survived stage 3 breast cancer in 2010, yet keeps a very active ministry schedule. She and her husband Ken were married in 1982 and reside in California.

    You can learn more about Joni’s ministry at www.joniandfriends.org or can write to her at response@joniandfriends.org.