How Joni & Friends Has Impacted My Life!

             I thought I was going to serve, but I ended up being served. I thought I was going to help the needy, but I realized I was the needy one and was helped. I realized that people with disabilities have value and many gifts that most of society overlooks. These are some of the thoughts I learned from my involvement with Joni & Friends (JAF). In so many ways, JAF has impacted my life.

 Let me give you a brief history of events that has lead to these life-changing moments in my life. When I was a junior in high school, the infamous question was, “What are you going to go to college for?” I really didn’t know and often replied, “Maybe Accounting?” I realized I didn’t have a clue and asked God to help me figure it out since he created me and knew me best.

Shortly after asking God to help me out, I had a strong urge to read a book. This was very unlike me, as I was not a book reader and hated reading unless I had to. However, for some reason, I had this strong urge that brought me to my parents’ bookshelf, looking for a book to read. I came across one titled Joni that had a picture of a gal with a paintbrush in her mouth. It looked interesting. I pulled it out and asked my mom if it was a good book. She told me it was, so I took it to my room and began reading.

Joni’s story captivated me and I could not put the book down. She wrote about her diving accident and her newly found life with quadriplegia. She wrote about her long road in rehab and the many challenges she faced. She wrote about her therapists that helped her regain function and retrained her how to do daily, as well as recreational, activities again.  One of those recreational activities included drawing and painting. Joni learned to draw with her mouth since she could no longer use her hands like she did before. At that point in the book, I said to myself, “Now that would be a cool job!”

From that moment, I pursued a degree in Occupational Therapy. I went to college for 6 years to obtain my Master’s at Concordia University Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. In 2001, I found out that Joni was going to speak at a conference in Wheaton IL. I had to go!

That conference changed my life. There were hundreds of people there with and without disabilities. I never have been in a place with so many people with disabilities before. It was powerful, especially as we sang. I saw people singing with all their hearts, uninhibited, and genuinely real. No fakeness, no facades.  I saw people full of joy and happiness even though their lives were full of struggles.  I felt a joy and a love fill the room that I never felt before. Joni spoke and also sang beautifully. I was able to meet Joni after the conference. I had her sign my book and told her that her story inspired me to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy.  She was excited for me and praised the therapists that helped in rehab.

Also at the conference, there was a recruiter (Jon Ebersole) at a booth recruiting people for their Family Retreats and Wheels for The World programs. I was very interested and took the information. However, being in college and working, I was unable to get to a retreat until after I graduated. 

In college however, pursued working in the disability community as a secretary of the Milwaukee chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. There I made several friends with disabilities and began learning what life was like for people with disabilities.  I also had my student fieldwork experience in a hospital with a spinal cord injury rehab unit.

In 2004, I finally made it to my first Family Retreat at The Oakwood Inn in Syracuse, IN.  It was one of the most life-changing weeks of my life. I was matched with a girl close to my age with Cerebral Palsy named Lauren. We hit it off well from the start. I learned she was a lot like me, with similar interests and struggles in life. She ended up teaching me more than I think I taught her. For the first time, I experienced first hand that people with disabilities had a lot to offer and value overlooked by most. From that moment, I would forever seek to surround myself with people with disabilities. Lauren and I grew our friendship over the years to come and we are still friends today.  JAF became a family to me right away and continued to grow stronger every year.

I would drive 8 hours from Green Bay, WI to JAF Retreats the every summer, being the highlight of my year.  I searched for opportunities in my hometown and home church to connect with people with disabilities. At the time, I struggled finding them. Eventually, my brother gave me a brochure for a camp for people with disabilities asking, “Have you ever heard of Camp Daniel?” I said, “No,” taking the brochure and seeing the address was in Athelstane, WI. Just an hour north of where I was living! This was in my own backyard! It was in during the winter months, so it was a long ways off until their summer camps. However, I looked on their website and saw that they met in Green Bay once a month for a church service called The Able Fellowship. It was a church service for and run by people with disabilities. That concept never crossed my mind before and it intrigued me.  I anxiously awaited their next meeting January of 2007.

My first time at The Able Fellowship was amazing. Two people with disabilities happily greeted me at the door.  Others with disabilities helped lead the prayer and singing. It was truly nothing like I’ve experienced before. It was most real and genuine church service I’ve ever been to. 

I continued to attend The Able Fellowship each month until finally the summer camp season began. That June, I served two weeks with Joni & Friends Retreat once again. It was amazing as always and so good to see my JAF family. When I returned, I couldn’t wait to serve at and see Camp Daniel’s summer camp.

That year, Camp Daniel’s camp theme was “Family”. It was a very fitting theme as it was during that summer that God led me to join the Camp Daniel family.  I joined their missionary staff, where I have been serving as a fulltime missionary within the disability community ever since.

            Camp Daniel was named after a boy named Daniel who had a form of muscular dystrophy and was called in to ministry at a young age. Daniel was friends with Joni and impacted the disability community in many ways, just like her.

After Daniel passed away in his young 20s, Camp Daniel was developed in 1996 with summer camps and Christian family group homes.  The Able Fellowship transpired after several years of having campers come to camp, beginning a relationship with God, and have no spiritual connection or church family to connect with when returning home. Summer camp ended up being most of the camper’s only church connection all year long. The Able Fellowship eventually evolved into a weekly church service called, The Able Church, in which I played a vital role in its formation. Its leadership of its members with disabilities continues to grow. It even has a pastor with an intellectual disability, naturally teaching the Bible simplistically so its members can understand.

Today, my husband and two-year-old son join me as fulltime missionaries in disability ministry. We run a group home and help run the summer camps with Camp Daniel. We are currently in the process of starting The Able Church in another community near by. We speak at churches, colleges, schools, and Bible studies about the value of people with disabilities and their importance within the church. Special Olympics have also been a huge part of our lives. We continue to serve with Joni & Friends retreats as leaders for the young adult group. Joni & Friends retreats have been a dear family for us with the relationships we’ve made with other volunteers and attending families.  We hope to someday serve on a Wheels for the World trip and also at a Warrior Getaway (my husband served in the Marines).

Joni & Friends has guided my life in so many ways. It has guided my jobs, my mission, my thoughts and most importantly, my relationships.  Without JAF, I would not have realized the value of people with disabilities, much less sought them out as friends. I would not have sought disability ministry as a full-time, life-long commitment. It would not be my mission to see churches filled with people with disabilities. JAF has played a huge role in who and where I am today, and I will be forever grateful! www.joniandfriends.org