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Global Access Conference 2015 Workshop Culture, the Gospel & People with Disabilities

Brian Funk & Yaling Wang

Global Access Conference 2015 Culture, the Gospel, & People with Disabilities Brian Funk & Yaling Wang

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Joni: Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada, and you're listening to a resource from the Global

Access Association, sponsored by Joni and Friends. Learn, connect, and share at www.gaa.joniandfriends.org. Global Access, where disabilities and possibilities meet.

Brian Funk: Good morning, everyone.

Yaling Wang: Good morning.

Brian: Thank you for coming to this breakout session. My name is Brian Funk, and Yaling Wang- or Wong Yaling for our Chinese friends- she and I will be co-presenting, but you will also be presenting in this workshop because we want to have a lot of good dialog and we want to hear from you.

A little bit about myself, in a nutshell. I'm in my third phase of life. I started out as a professional chef. I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America back in 1974, and then spent a year training in France. I became a pastor years later, and then in 2006, after volunteering with Joni and Friends as a pastor at their family retreats, and on the board of the Eastern Pennsylvania Office, I became the director of Joni and Friends Eastern Pennsylvania. I've been there since December 2006.

It is a joy to be part of this organization. One of the greatest joys is that I am the country liaison to China. I do that as part of my job, but I get to work with Yaling, who works full-time with China outreaches. Yaling, tell a little bit about yourself.

Yaling: Okay. Thank you for coming to our session. It's a great pleasure to see all of you and talk about the cultural difference. Considering the cultural difference, because I grew up in Beijing, so even when I come to the United States, it's a great culture shock. I'm sure a lot of people from overseas coming to this conference can feel that. Even if you have the language barrier, you still feel very strong about the culture difference here.

Myself, I was a medical doctor in China, then I came to this country. God is leading all the way to my job now, and is still working with my love for people in China, but from a very different perspective, a Christian perspective.

Brian: Yaling was also a journalist in China after she completed her medical studies. As a result, she knows everybody in China. She has been to every province and whenever someone might say, "I wish we knew someone who was in ...," Yaling says, "I know someone." Yaling has fabulous connections in China because God

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used her to do stories all over China during the years she was a journalist.

Yaling: Brian is always so nice, and such a big complimenter, but you know there's 1.4 billion population in China.

Brian: But we got them covered.

Yaling: I wish I knew everybody!

Brian: The other thing, how many of you here today are Chinese, or serve in ministries in China? Raise your hands. We want to see who you are. Yes, let's hear it for our Chinese friends. Thank you for making that 12-hour flight and everything else to be here.

We also want to recognize that today is the Chinese New Year's Eve day. Hopefully tonight, we'll be able to get a word in on stage, but for our friends who have come here from China, for us Americans and other cultures, it would be like us going to a conference in China over Christmas Day and Christmas break. Chinese New Year's celebration is when everyone comes home to their families and they are there together for food and giving envelopes with money in them.

Yaling: To children.

Brian: It is a big deal in China. The fact that you are here is huge. We are honored and we thank you for making that journey.

I want to read to you the purpose of this session so we can all be on the same page. We recognize we have some other cultures here besides the Chinese, and we want to hear from you also.

The description that is in your booklet says, "Followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to take the gospel into every cultural context, where different challenges emerge. One such area of challenge is the intersection of the message of the gospel with the cultural understandings of disability. This workshop describes some of the challenges by traditional Chinese understandings of disability, and the opportunities that disability ministry presents for sharing the gospel in China."

That also has to do with ... You are from where?

Participant: From Guadalajara.


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Brian: From Mexico. There are also cultural challenges that come with the gospel and meeting the needs of people with disabilities in Mexico. We want to hear from you later on.

Before we go any further in this time, let's just commit it to our Lord. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be here for Global Access. As Dr. Kathy just pointed out in the session before this, the incredible overview of where we're going this week. We thank you for what you are going to do in the hearts and lives of each of us because of being here. In every single one of the 16 breakout sessions that are taking place now, we thank you that you're everywhere, and that your Holy Spirit is going to use the time in each of these sessions. We give you this time, and we say thank you in advance for what you're going to do. For it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Now, we also want to say that in one hour we cannot adequately cover what is written to cover. As you're seeing, as Kathy explained, everything that's going to happen this week is going to build on itself. You're going to get some questions, and hopefully you'll get some responses to the challenges we face here, but you're going to get more responses and more answers as you continue in other plenary sessions, and also workshops. See this as one step, and yet another, of the different sessions that are going to be taking place.

What we want to do, and Yaling, we understand this is being taped and you will not pick up on our microphones, but we want to just briefly go around the room. We want you to tell us your name, the country you're from, and also what organization you might represent. Why don't we begin right here? Please speak into the mike and we want to know a little bit about you as we move forward.

Participant: My name is Erastus Weru. I come from Kenya and I work as a pastor in Nairobi Baptist Church. I'm the pastor for missions and outreach.

Brian: Thank you.

Participant: My name is Gretchen Ziegler, and I'm from central New York. I'm very interested in Joni's ministries, specifically to those in different cultures. I just want to learn some more.

Yaling: Thank you.

Brian: Gretchen serves as a nurse at our family retreats in Eastern Pennsylvania, I just had to say it.

Participant: Hi, I'm Don Prince with the West Michigan area ministry with Joni and Friends.


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I'm a pastor in Northern Michigan.

Participant: I'm Cindy Prince from West Michigan. I'm the director of the area ministry in West Michigan.

Participant: My name is Jo Wilson. I'm a student at Florida State University studying special education, and I'm with Young Life Capernaum.

Brian: Great.

Participant: My name is Magdalene Munoz. I come from Guadalajara, Mexico. I am a doctor, pediatrician. I'm working with the indigenous poor people in southern Mexico, Oaxaca, for 20 years in the mission.

Yaling: For 20 years? Wow!

Participant: I'm Lorraine Mazza, I'm with Joni and Friends.

Yaling: Okay. Lorraine is actually our Vice President, in our Development department.

Participant: My name is Jennifer O'Connor. I work at Cal State Northridge, but also serve in the short-term missions at Grace Community Church. I'm just interested in the culture aspects.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: My name is Marilyn Bloomberg, and I'm a high school language teacher. I work with different cultures. I'm interested in developing cultural sensitivity in our ministry in Orange County.

Yaling: Oh, wow.

Participant: Chris Fong, I'm with Faith Church in Dyer. I serve in the respite/reflectors ministry.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: My name is Andy Peterson, and I've worked for many years with distance learning and with Joni and Friends. I'm at Western Seminary where I'm VP of Educational Innovation and Global Outreach. Long title. I live in Charlotte.

Yaling: Thank you.


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Participant: My name is Kathy Kistler, I'm from San Jose, AKA Silicon Valley, which has massive amounts of different cultures that live there. A lot of Chinese and Indian. I just work in the special needs ministry in our church.

Yaling: So a lot of experience with Indian?

Participant: No, I'm just saying there's a lot of people from India and from China.

Yaling: Okay, thank you.

Participant: Laura Lee Wright. I currently work with Bethesda Ministries, as well as sit on the national board for Young Life Capernaum.

Yaling: Good.

Participant: My name is Elish Kanthi, and we have a disabled ministry in India. Over the last 16 years I'm heading it as executive director. Also we're an affiliate of Joni and Friends. In fact, we brought Joni and Ken in 2004 for a conference there in Bangalore.

Yaling: Wow.

Participant: Good morning, everybody. I come from China and I work in the Christian background organization named Amity Foundation. I serve for autistic children and mentally disabled adults in Nanjing, our city. We are a partner of Joni and Friends, and we do the programs such as the Wheels for the World and the Family Retreat, and some programs about autism. Thank you very much.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: Hello everyone. My name is Julie, and I think I'm a volunteer in China. I worked with Joni and Friends once, but I hope I have more chances to work with them, so I'm here.

Participant: Hello. My name is “Clever.” I come from China.

Participant: Nice to meet you all. My name is Emma Xu. I came from Nanjing. I came here to learn how to be a volunteer and what we can do better. Thank you.

Participant: Hello everybody. My name is Wang, Bing Jing. I'm from China. Thank you.

Participant: My name is Steve Glavan. I'm the San Francisco Bay Area director for Joni and Friends, and country liaison for Thailand.


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Participant: Hi, I'm Bob Klein with Global Aid Network. I've been a part of wheelchair

distributions in China, the Middle East and soon to be Africa.

Participant: I'm David Anderson, the president of Crossing Bridges, Inc. We work globally to promote inclusion in churches and in schools.

Participant: My name is Judy Butler, and I'm the volunteer International Family Retreat facilitator.

Brian: Judy was, for years, Joni's assistant and right-hand woman, and traveled with Joni extensively for 35 years. She has recently retired, but as you can see she still has her thumb in the works.

Yaling: I want to add a word. In some ways, we can say, “Without Judy we may be without Joni and Friends.”

Participant: What am I doing?

Yaling: Introduce yourself.

Participant: I'm John Wern. I'm a friend of Judy Butler's, and I came to heckle the speakers.

Yaling: John was also our co-worker before, and we respect him so much. Actually, he has led so many teams to many countries. A lot of you might know him.

Participant: Hi, I'm John Baker, and I've gone to China several times with Joni and Friends for Wheels for the World and family retreats.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: Hi, Randy Galloway. I work with Miller at the other end of the room there, going to China for 12 years. I have two artificial arms, so I have contacts to get prosthesis for people in China who could never get one, and we're helping launch some disability centers across China.

Yaling: I know your new book has come out, right?

Participant: Yes, we have a new book out called, Death Knocking, Life Calling. It's the story of me getting electrocuted 40 years ago and the whole adventure of recovery, 38 surgeries, then university, and finding a ministry. We'll have some at a table later, I think. Thank you.


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Participant: Hi, I'm Bonnie Nichols, I'm with Mephibosheth Ministry. Many of you know Mary Jane Ponten. I am her secretary and she's in the room next door. I believe she knows you. She's been to China and Taiwan and Ghana and Romania. She's been many places with Joni, and on her own also.

Brian: Mary Jane Ponten is also a wheelchair user and an incredible woman of faith and speaker.

Participant: I'm Jenny Hanks. I am an occupational therapist, but I've volunteered with Joni and Friends for years. This lady in Brazil kept praying that a couple would join her, so we're the couple that joined her about three years ago. We've been missionaries to northeast Brazil. We work at a disability camp.

Yaling: Welcome.

Participant: I do the carpentry and any of the work that needs to be done at the camp.

Participant: He does what I tell him to.

Yaling: Okay.

Participant: I'm Marianne Galloway, I'm Randy's wife. I'm a counselor.

Brian: Yaling, Judy came in here.

Yaling: Oh, Judy, introduce yourself.

Participant: Hi, I'm Judy Sores, I'm the country liaison for Thailand and a former Bay Area director.

Brian: These two tables down here, Yaling. I know this is taking a little bit of time, but I think it's crucial that we begin to get to know each other and the countries we represent as we move forward.

Participant: Hi, I'm Nathan Grylls from Australia. I've been working in India, in missions in the north of India, doing community-based rehabilitation projects. Just arrived this morning.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: Hi, I'm Joanne Peterson from Oregon, and new with Joni and Friends area ministry in Portland.


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Participant: Hi, I'm Hannah Mooney, I'm a missionary in Guatemala where we have Wheels to the World wheelchair distribution and also the family retreats.

Brian: What country did you say?

Participant: Guatemala.

Brian: Guatemala, thank you.

Participant: Hi everyone, my name is Michael Panther. I'm from a country called South Sudan, Africa. I grew up in Kenya. I heard my brother from Kenya, I'm hoping to meet you afterwards. Believe it or not, I'm a college student. I go to school in Louisiana, and I'm looking forward to this event.

Brian: Thank you.

Participant: My name is Osmond, I was born here in California, but both my parents are from Guangdong province in China. I recently graduated with a Masters in Social Work, with an emphasis on physical and mental health. I feel a calling in that direction.

Yaling: Okay, thank you.

Participant: Hello, my name is Omar Sabada from Monterrey, Mexico. I work helping Joni and Friends in Mexico for the last 10 years.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: Hi, I'm Judy, I'm a physical therapist and I'm interested in missions and disability ministry overseas.

Yaling: Thank you.

Participant: I'm Dana Avery. My husband Kevin and I are in Shenyang, China where we partner with Joni and Friends for Wheels for the World and International Family Retreat. Our organization is SHIC Asian Health Services Exchange.

Yaling: We have a lot of partnership with Dana and her husband, Kevin.

Participant: Hi, my name is Susana Matus. I'm Mexican, but I live in San Jose. We recently started a ministry for special needs kids in our church. We work with Communidad Christiana, which is a Spanish Church.


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Participant: My name is [inaudible] and I'm the director of Embracing the Journey special needs ministry in our local church in San Jose.

Participant: Hi, I'm Susan, I come from China.

Participant: She's a high school student. My name is Miller, originally from the region of Guang Zhou. I went to Canada as a visiting student and turned to Christ in 1981. Since then, my life has changed. I'm a Latino-Chino, “Yo trabajo con los chinos en Venezuela.” God called me home, so in 2003 I started working in China. I'm trying now to establish China Young Life, so founding China Young Life in China. Second is we already have a disability center for teenagers in Guang Zhou, so we work with the government. We work with the disabled community since the earthquake, helping the victims.

Brian: Thank you very much. As you can see, we have a lot more people and nationalities here than just Chinese people. As I continue on, I want you to be thinking about the whole purpose of this seminar. What are the cultural challenges that you face in your country when it comes to people affected by disability?

We're going to bring the microphone back around to you, and we want to hear from you as opposed to my perspective of how I see a challenge in China. We want to hear from our Chinese friends. We want to hear from you.

As we begin, you can look on the blackboard. There are cultural challenges there in the center of the blackboard, that then lead to opportunities. Every country has social services that are provided by the government or by caring organizations. Those opportunities can be secular. Many times they are secular.

But when you add the gospel to it, you take it to a whole new level. That's what this whole conference is about. When you add the gospel to it, then the results are Kingdom differences. What we want to do is, we want to hear some of the challenges, then we want to hear from you what are the opportunities to share the gospel or how the gospel can make a difference.

We all know the bottom line is we're all made in the image of God. Yet, there are many pastors around the world who know that truth but they don't live it out in how they treat people affected by disability.

One of the things we're seeking to do is change the mindset of pastors and churches so they can then be like a yeast that permeates the culture and makes the difference. We're seeing it happen, and that's the good news.


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Last night, Joni did a fabulous job of setting Yaling and me up for this time. She opened with sobering stories about the challenges of disability ministry, not only in the United States, but in cultures around the world. She said, "We have to hear the bad news so we can champion the Good News."

Then she said, and it could be but, yet, or and, we are all broken and in need of redemption. I think many of us recognize our brokenness. As a result, we serve effectively because we know our own limitations. We also know what the power of God has done and can do in our own lives. We step out, knowing He will work through us so we can make a difference in what we are doing.

We're all broken and in need of redemption. She said we are all a work in progress. Can we say Amen to that? Because of that, because our own feet are clay, we recognize our need of God in our lives.

She also said, "At this conference, we want to hear your stories." You have stories to tell and we want to hear them. In hearing these stories, we are going to hear the purpose of this seminar take place. Your stories of how God is working through people affected by disability and your efforts, is going to be an encouragement to all of us. We're going to learn from that and from each other and how it works out in your culture.

Yaling, did you have a story you wanted to tell at some point? Did you want to tell it later?

Yaling: I can start. I do have a story, because we visit so many orphanages and senior people's houses, I'm not sure about your experience. Do you have the feeling as you step into the facility, you can figure out if it's a good orphanage, a good senior people's house, or if it's bad?

I have been into a wonderful, wonderful orphanage, a wonderful facility. They have all the modern things. But kids were banded there for their therapy, and there's no love. For 2-3 year old child, we touch them, but they have no feeling. They just let you do that. It's a very different perspective.

We also go to what we call a factory. It's a very successful entrepreneur. Because of his mom's disability, he's collecting old beggars on the street. Most of them are disabled people, to work in his factory. He has a great, great heart. When he introduced them to us, he said, "Look at those people. They were beggars on the street. Look at them now, we give them a job and some of them even married here. They find their boyfriend, girlfriend, have a wonderful life."

But the whole time, those people just stand with their heads down, and had no


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eye contact with us. Do you know the reason? I think the deep heart is there is no God in their hearts. They think they are giving a good thing to the people. They bring all the good things to those people, but that's not from God's perspective. It's very different.

I think that's a huge difference, to put God into our service or exempt God from our service.

Brian: I would like to begin with our friends from China. We would like to hear from you. Yaling will bring the microphone to you so we have it on tape and we can also be heard. We would like to hear from you what you see to be the cultural challenges. How people with disabilities, in general, are viewed in the Chinese culture and society. Who would first like to address that?

Participant: I work with autistic children and mentally disabled adults in our city. In our culture, the people refuse to focus on the disability. If parents have disabled children, they feel sorry and they feel oppression. In the past year, many of the disabled people live at home. They cannot go outside to shop, to play, to make friends. They feel ashamed based on their disability.

In our organization, Amity Child Development Center, I often talk with the mothers of autistic children. They are very sad because the mothers struggle in the [inaudible] because of the autism. I often tell them, "If you choose, autistic children can bring happiness to you because every child is a gift from God."

Even if they have a disability, they can grow up happy if the mother gives her heart and her love to the child. It's very important for the child to grow up like that. In our country, in our community, the mother cannot get help from the community, from the family, even from their husbands. I think it's a big challenge for these mothers.

In our organization, we have one social worker to work with the parents. The social worker set up a group for mothers and grandmothers.

Brian: I think we're beginning to move into the solution. Right now, we just want to hear the challenge. You have told us that many of the children live at home and cannot go outside of the home. You didn't say anything about education. Can children with disabilities get an education in China?

Participant: We have a special education school in China. If the children about seven years old, they can go to the special education school to accept education, but the school also chooses the children based on ability. If the disabled children have higher level of ability, it is easy for them to get into the school. If the children


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have a lower ability, the school refuses them. It's a big question. It's a big challenge.

Brian: Anybody else from China have something they would like to add to what Wan Xin has mentioned? Miller?

Participant: I think there are several issues in the education system I've been working with since 2006, with the government. To know that and to learn that. The assessment for special needs and special ed, those also are taking place not until after kindergarten. Basically at primary school, the first two years they see those kids out of control, then they start to pay attention, Autism, ADD, ADHD and all this.

But when you're born with these tendencies, you have to see that there is another critical issue among Chinese, which is single child policy. Actually, there's a lot of abortions that took place before that. When you heard the bad news, which they say every day there's bad news in China, every family that doesn't want bad luck. Chinese talk about bad luck. This is bad luck for the whole family, so the divorce rate is high among those families. It happens even right at the birth.

It's a cultural challenge for all of us. This is a dominating thing of a minority people of China, the Han people. We don't even touch the 56 other minority people. There's more bad news than that because that is more challenging. This is a multi-cultural China.

Also human rights. China has a totally different sense of human rights. We see a baby in here is a treasure or a tragedy. This is two different ways of seeing it. For China, the family if they get a beautiful baby, it's a blessing. If it's not a beautiful baby, it's a curse. The whole family departs, from the grandparents on, everybody departs. Only the couples who bind together, hold their baby as their beloved, then that will draw back the force of the family.

That's kind of a division or divine combination. When we work with them is really a mental challenge beyond cultural challenge.

Brian: Thank you so much. One of the recurring themes we're hearing in China is that it can be divisive in families. The divorce rate is high in families that have a child with a disability. Often one parent will leave, especially if the husband leaves and the wife is left with the child, there are money issues, poverty, and it goes from there.

Something else, Miller, you want to say?


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Participant: There's a paradigm shift in the coming days, in the coming years. China is

changing. I see closely with the government, China is changing. For the policy, for all those people. If they want to take an assessment, they can do it as early as they want. Now China is in a paradigm shift. I'm very happy. God is working something. Through Joni and Friends and other organizations, they are paying attention. Please continue to pray.

Brian: That's part of the solution, right there.

That's China. We have an idea of what some of the cultural challenges are in China. Let's hear from Mexico. We have a few people here from Mexico. Would you like to speak to the cultural challenges in Mexico? In other words, how people with disabilities in Mexico are viewed by Mexican people?

Participant: It's not very good. Not just by the government, but by the normal people. We were talking with the government there, a little bit, and they did not think about the sidewalks and facilities for people who use wheelchairs. I think the list of expenses they have, it won't appear. It is maybe less than 1%, according to someone who works directly with the government, talking with them.

Sometimes as a ministry, we are having a lot of meetings with them in order to do something together. Hopefully, using this ministry, what we can do for you. Not just to give the wheelchairs a social program and things like that. Actually, the Baptist church last year established the first church for disabled people in Mexico. Right now we have a church just for those people. The government helped us with some paperwork in order to help.

About the community, they see bad. As I heard what you said about the Chinese people and all that, it's exactly the same thing that happens. We have a Christian school there at our church, from kindergarten to university, in Monterrey. We started a ministry that helps those students especially.

We have our day-by-day, but we call it a camp. It's something to help the parents, helping those people. What we see is a child has a bad grade here, but if we saw inside that family, we saw divorce people. We are going with that. Our pastors and people of our church are having meetings, disciple these students, disciple the parents and that is affecting a lot. It happens in our Christian school.

What we're seeing is that this is a huge problem. Divorce and a lot of financial troubles because they do not like to have children with a disease. It is a huge challenge we have in Mexico, cultural trouble. They do not see exactly the necessity the people have.


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Brian: Okay, thank you very much.

Maybe could we hear from Kenya? If either one of you would want to speak to

that.

Participant: I think our challenges are more or less what we've just been told about the Chinese. I think one of the greatest challenges there is, is children living with disabilities usually are hidden because they are a source of shame. Families do not quite accept.

We have had situations where children are hidden for years. There is a bishop in Kenya who was born without legs, and who was hidden in the house until he was 18 years old. A church group that was doing evangelism, from Dr. Graham Evangelism, as we call it back home; found this boy who was 18 years old kept in the house.

They got interested in him, took him to school, he became very successful in school. At around age 40 he graduated with a degree in theology. He's a very successful bishop, but he was hidden in the house for 18 years. That's a story that cuts across all communities in Kenya.

I think another challenge is lack of awareness, both by people living with a disability themselves, and also the people who are caring for them and the general population of the country. Lack of awareness of "What do I do with someone who has a disability? Where do I access help? Where do I access information that could help me to meaningfully live with this person?"

On the side of the people living with the disability, they do not have much information of services that the government is giving to people living with disability. Some of the privileges, if you can call them so, the government tries to extend to people living with a disability, like not paying tax, importing goods duty-free, or even accessing a fund. We have a fund that was established recently to help people living with a disability to start businesses.

But the people for whom it is intended have no idea that certain facilities exist, because they are not educated, they are not exposed, they are poor. So even help to access this information becomes hard for them. This money ends up being misused by people who are not living with a disability themselves.

The other challenge I found myself is just how to address people living with a disability in our country. Here, I have heard us talking of disabled people. It would be so offensive in my country to call someone disabled. We used the


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term "people living with disability" or PTB.

Currently, even that one is starting to become offensive, so even for me as a pastor, when I'm at the pulpit, I don't know how to address people living with a disability. It's offensive to call someone blind, it's offensive to call someone deaf. It's just hard.

Brian: This is huge that we're hearing from a pastor who, if he works or addresses people with disabilities, in essence, some of the shame comes back on you. Talk about a challenge! This is not just in Kenya. I think we're hearing, commonly, people, children with disabilities, that it brings shame on the family. That when you get into the African countries, as maybe someone will address, it's maybe because of an evil spirit. We have not heard from Thailand or India yet.

The dilemma now, when we bring the church into it, and to be a pastor in your own culture ...

Participant: Yeah, maybe as a close, let me share two more. One is the fact that in a church like where I pastor is a well-endowed church, financially. But just arguing my case for budget, even before the elders who generally pass the budget, it's not very easy. They don't see a good reason as to why we should apportion a big budget for the disability ministry. Even if the budget is to be slashed a bit, the disability budget is usually a casualty.

Finally, for people living with a disability, accessibility to buildings. We have laws that state that now if architects are designing buildings, they have to provide accessibility, but it's only on paper. There are so many buildings people with a disability are not able to access.

Of course, in my country most of the people use public transport. I don't know of any public transport that has provided accessibility to people living with a disability. It's a bit hard for people with a disability to access facilities.

Brian: You're going to be hearing from Dr. Zhang, Xu this week, who has a ministry in China. Just to come to this conference, when he got to the airport in Shenyang, the airlines told him, "If you cannot walk onto the plane, we will not fly you." So he emailed us and said, “I'm sorry, I cannot come to your conference.”

Of course our travel agent got on it right away and booked him on a different airline. He returned to the airport later and fortunately was able to fly from Shandong, Shanghai and then come to the LA Airport. His email said, "I was surprised that this discrimination still exists in my country today to this degree."


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Our brother from India, would you be willing to share with us?

Yaling: Before that, I want to mention, even in the United States, there's still discrimination because Dr. Zhang, Xu is still fighting back about the flight going back. One of the airlines said they could not touch his body, but if people cannot touch his body, how can he be carried to the aircraft? They asked if he could walk. The situation is still there. They don't know how to think from the disabled person's perspective.

Brian: Did you have something you wanted to jump in with quickly?

Participant: Although we're in the Silicon Valley, we're from San Jose, my husband is a pastor. We have two kids on the autism spectrum, and we have tried to make our church inclusive. We started a special needs ministry. Our biggest challenge is the families don't want to come to the class because it's something you don't talk about. It's not accepted, even though the pastor has two kids with autism, and they see they're happy and thriving.

We have different countries from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, but there's still a lack of awareness. The parents we're trying to serve, even though they're in an area where there's so many resources, they won't seek them. People give them the information, but they don't do the follow-through. Our biggest challenge is getting them to that point where they can accept it and move on.

That's our biggest challenge. Even though we're here in the U.S. and have so much to offer, they won't go for it. Our biggest challenge is trying to educate them that yes, you can do this. Having God on your side, you have all the favor in the world. You can do this. I think even in an area where we have so many blessings, there's still a lot of challenges. That's what we're facing in our church right now.

Our kids, they just will not come to the class. We're praying and seeking God to make a breakthrough.

Brian: That's addressing what Joni talked about last night. Inclusive. We need, because- Corinthians even talks about- the people who appear to be weaker have much to offer us. That is one of our challenges. Thank you very much.

We're hearing some challenges and some encouraging news laced in with this. Oh my, it is 12:15, we're needing to keep moving. I think we have to be done at 12:30, correct? Okay.

Participant: Thank you. I don't think I will take much time. Straightaway, I will go to the


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challenges. You all know that India is the second-largest populated country, 1.23 billion people, of which more than 60% are living in rural areas. About 630,000 villages. Right now we are serving in 30 villages.

The parents, what they think about the children with disabilities is that it's a curse. They believe that due to karma ... Karma means sins committed in a previous life. Because of that, and/or the god or goddess is angry with our family and that's why we have a child with a disability. That's the first challenge.

They don't accept them. They are totally abandoned. At the same time, the siblings are actually dedicated to serve doing household chores and take care of their siblings. They're not supposed to go even to school. At the same time, non-disabled children are provided education assistance, so they expect in the end it's an investment for them. They hope in the end, when they grow up, they bring an income to a family. That is the second challenge.

The third challenge is the government has a lot of facilities, but because of the red tape and because of the huge corruption, the facilities are not reaching the rural population. That's the third challenge.

The fourth challenge we experience is young girls and women with disabilities in the rural areas are more liable to sexual abuse. That's the worst thing. It's a most common thing, but it's really pathetic.

The fifth one is India has the largest people's group, you must know that. Evangelizing the most marginalized is very difficult because 80% are Hindu, a little over 30% are Muslim, and 2% are Christian. When I talk about Christian, it includes Catholics. They're mostly based inside city limits. The challenge is, in 360,000 villages, 80-90% don't have a church. How do you evangelize them? That's a challenge.

Brian: Wow. It is sobering to hear, as you said, these five facts about India. As Joni said, we need to hear the bad news before we get into the good news. This is why I'm thrilled that even though you saw this session was primarily about China, you chose to come anyway because we have a lot to learn from each other. Thank you.

Judy, Thailand.

Participant: I'm glad I followed my brother from India because we have some similarities in Thailand. Missionaries have been in Thailand for well over 160 years. There's 2-5% Christians in Thailand. It's the most purest form of Buddhism, except for Nepal. It's a tough evangelism field. It's not that Christians haven't been there,


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it's very tough.

God provided us a way to work with government to enter into Thailand with Joni and Friends. They allow us to tell them about Joni, to tell the people as we distribute the chairs. God gave us that entrée, and then gradually found the church. But the church is small.

Also in Thailand, there are 12 million stateless people. The tribal peoples are huge in Thailand, many of which came from China into Thailand, into Southeast Asia. Buddhism, like Hinduism, would say they will work to help the people for merit because that brings them into a higher state and eventually reaches Nirvana. They will work to help us, alongside us, but we have to be careful to tell them why we serve God and why we're there.

Buddhism is so tightly associated with the culture of Thailand that to become a Christian is like leaving their culture. This is a real challenge. That's probably why it's been so difficult.

Anyway, there's a myriad of social issues, but this aura of Buddhism says it's a punishment if you have a disabled child, because in a former life something happened so you are stricken with having a disabled child. There is the shame. It's very difficult for them.

Many of them do not go to school. We have some very active people in the church at Chiang Mai who God led us to, who are advocates. Once a child gets a little wheelchair, then they go and find them a way to get into ... They're not entitled to do a lot of this.

With the tribal peoples, that's a whole other set of things. They've got animism, ghost worship, and mixed in with Buddhism and everything else, there's shame, guilt, past life. It's a very complicated scenario. The disabled are way at the bottom of the list, but the families will bring them because they want help for them.

It's very similar. Hinduism and Buddhism, they don't have a concept of God. It's just a very challenging thing for us. If you can just come in and encourage the missionaries there. It was so awesome, this year we were in Surin, and these missionaries work in isolation, so just to be there to encourage them. They don't even know where the people are hidden.

Many challenges. I'm sure it's very much around the world. We have to know the culture we enter, and humbly come in because Americans are Americans. We are happy to put our Thai friends forward to share the gospel. That's who


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should be sharing. China and Egypt and Vietnam, our job is to equip them.

Brian: This has been wonderful, and we have five minutes left to pull it all together. I pity the people listening to this tape.

You can see there are the cultural challenges, but when you bring in belief systems, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, it just takes everything to a whole new level of challenge. Yet, we know we're making a difference because we see it in changed lives.

In 2007, at Joni and Friends, they started what we call the CID, the Christian Institute on Disability. I love the way the Christian Institute on Disability is described in the Beyond Suffering book: "Aggressively promoting life, human dignity, value of individuals despite their disabling condition, from a Biblical perspective."

That, in a nutshell, is what we as followers of Christ get to do in our own cultures. Do we face it with many pastors and churches in America? We absolutely do, and that's what Joni and Friends is seeking, to make a difference in our own country. Do you face it in your own countries to totally greater extremes? Absolutely. I could have wept when I heard his story. It just breaks your heart.

This is what we're being called to. I encourage you throughout the rest of this week to eat together, to share your victory stories, to encourage each other of what God is doing in each of your own countries, even though you may feel like it's so small.

I don't know if you've ever read the story of the starfish and the man who was walking on the beach. There were millions of live starfish on the sand, and he was picking these up one-by-one and throwing them back out into the water. Someone came to him and said, "What are you doing? There are thousands, perhaps millions of starfish on the sand." The man reached down and picked up a starfish and threw it out into the water, and he said, "I made a difference to that one."

That's what each of you are doing in your countries and in your cultures and in your churches and in your families. You are making a Kingdom difference because we're tying the gospel to confront the cultural challenges we face in each of these countries.

I want to thank you for coming.


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Yaling: I also want to add one word. God is taking culture into consideration. We have so many challenges and so many cultures that are not friendly, even the opposite, to people with disabilities. Actually, that's our work. That's why we come to this Global Access. That's why we have Joni and Friends. We have other organizations, we have our pastors who try to have a disability ministry in their church.

Brian: When you see Joni today, tell her, "We're telling our stories." We thank you for what you are doing to make a different in lives around the world. Let's close in a word of prayer.

Father, you are our God of love, you are our God of hope, and you are our God of vision. We thank you for today just casting that vision a little bit higher to what you want to do, not only in the countries represented by each person here, but literally globally around the world.

We thank you, as Miller said, that you are on the move. We thank you for what you're doing in China. We can say that about every other country where you are working through the church and your people. Even in places of India that don't even have churches, and all of these thousands and thousands of rural communities.

Father, use us to make a difference for your Kingdom and your glory, that someday when we have the global access in heaven, it's going to be an incredible time of celebrating your goodness. We say thank you. For it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Thank you.

Joni: Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada, and thank you for listening to this audio resource from the Global Access Association, sponsored by Joni and Friends. To find more disability resources, and to connect with others involved in disability ministry around the globe, go to www.gaa.joniandfriends.org and sign up for a free membership today.

http://www.gaa.joniandfriends.org/

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