A Purpose in the Pain: An Interview with Joni Eareckson Tada

Joni Eareckson Tada has lived in a wheelchair for more than forty years due to a diving accident at age seventeen. She is the founder of Joni and Friends, a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 to accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community through various outreach and church training programs. Joni and Friends has distributed more than thirty-eight thousand wheelchairs worldwide through Wheels for the World. 

This month's issue of Tabletalk features an interview with Joni Eareckson Tada and she answers questions like these:

When you first discovered that you would never use your arms and legs again, what went through your mind and how did you cope with this reality?
Which passages of Scripture have given you encouragement during your struggles with disability and cancer?
How important is it for a person with a disability to have the support of his or her family and church during such times?
What is the best way to help nondisabled people view disabled people as more than just the sum of their disabilities?

Read the interview.