Source: Joni and Friends, Hendrickson Publishers, The Lausanne Movement
“I’m sorry, sir, that the only person who responded to your invitation to give themselves to serve the Lord in mission was the little crippled girl who could never do it.”
The apology came after a service in my little rural church. It was about me. When I was five years old, polio had profoundly weakened me. Now 12 years old, using my crutches and braces, I had walked down the aisle to say, “Yes, I believe the Lord wants me to be a missionary someday.” Logically, it looked like an impossible dream, but the speaker looked the other gentleman in the eye and said, “Whom the Lord calls, He will use.” Those words could not be a truer description of my experience of disability in mission.”
» That’s the story of Elinor Young, and one of several recently shared in a new blog series on disability in mission from Joni and Friends. To learn more about Elinor, watch World Team’s 2015 video, Bad Legs: A Story of God Using One Woman’s Weakness for His Glory (YouTube).
» Check out the Disability Concerns network at Lausanne, and/or pick up the 2019 book Disability in Mission: The Church’s Hidden Treasure, edited by David C. Deuel and Nathan G. John. Looks like these blog posts are excerpts from the book.