JONI EAREKSON
Joni Earekson grew up in an active family where she always engaged in swimming and hiking. Her father taught her to ride horses, her mother taught her to play tennis. When she got older she played hockey and became the captain of her high school lacrosee team, and she won many ribbons doing trick riding with her horse. But all that changed on July 30, 1967, when Joni was seventeen. While diving into Chesapeake Bay, she hit a rock, which crushed her spoine. When she was pulled out of the water, she couldn't move her arms and legs or feel anything below her shoulders. In the hospital, doctors drilled holes into the sides of her head, put in metal tongs, and attached cables to keep her head from moving lying felt on her back. She was put in a sandwich like canvas and metal frame so that she could be flipped over every two hours.
The next weeks were terrifying. Joni's doctors weren't sure she would live. She couldn't eat without getting sick, so she was fed through a tube into her veins. Her weight dropped to eighty pounds. Heavy doses of medicine gave her hallucinations like nightmares. The one thing that kept her going was believing she would get better. When her doctor finally told her she would be paralyzed permanently, she became so depressed that she wanted to die. Joni went under severe physical therapy sessions to train the muscles.
After three and one half months in the hospital, she was moved to a rehabilitation center where she learned to live with her paralysis. Because she had been lying flat for so long, she was gradually tilted a few minutes at a time until she could finally be raised to a sitting position. Later she learned to draw and paint, holding pencils and brushes with her teeth. She learned to use a wheelchair and it was fitter for arm braces. After working very hard, she finally learned to feed herself. She used a spoon attached to her brace and swung her arm, using shoulder muscles. At last she was ready to leave, and she went to live with her sister , Jay.
Joni was a Christian, but that didn't keep her from struggling spiritually during the years following her accident. She couldn't understand why God didn't answer all of her family's her friends and her own prayers for healing. Along the way, a new friend named Steve Estes stepped into her life. He held a weekly Bible study in Jay's home and encouraged Joni in many ways. As she spent more time studying the Bible and praying, she began to accept God's will and learned to praise Him in spite of her circumstances or feelings.
In the meantime, a man saw one of her drawings in her father's office, and he arranged an art show for her. When word went out that she did all of her artwork using her mouth , she was interviewed on a local and national television shows. Soon she was getting many invitations to be in art shows and to speak to different groups. She wrote a book about her experiences and even played herself in a movie made about her life and her faith in God.
After the movie was finished, Joni prayed about what God wanted her to do next. She realized that many disabled people didn't have loving family and friends as she did, and she encouraged physically challenged people and helped them in many practical ways. And Joni found more than work to do in California ; she also met a handsome teacher named Ken Tada. Eventually he became her husband.
Her trust in God has deepened with each other, but life was still difficult for her. Every morning, someone had to get out of bed and fix her breakfast. Nearly every night she has to go to bed at 8.00 because of her physical condition. But Joni choose to take one day at a time, to praise God in spite of her troubles, and to live in the power of His spirit. Her obedient attitude and determination to choose joy have inspired thousands through the books she was written, her daily radio program, and the songs she has recorded.
What can we learn from her life? She looked on to God at all times. She never murmured or quarreled against God at any time.
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