Hurricane Harvey and Carlos

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a thought about Hurricane Harvey.

Even though months have passed since hurricanes swept through Texas and Florida, we are still hearing stories of courage and compassion, and they never fail to inspire me. I’m thinking back on Hurricane Harvey when it ravaged south Texas. Just days after the hurricane, Joni and Friends received a call for help from the mayor’s office in Houston. It was an urgent plea for wheelchairs. Hundreds of elderly and disabled people had to be carried from their homes through the flood waters, leaving their wheelchairs and walkers behind. And then many of these people were living in shelters without any mobility equipment.

Normally ‘Wheels for the World’ only delivers wheelchairs overseas, but in a national emergency, we always stand ready to help. And so, we asked the inmates at two prisons that run our ‘Wheels for the World’ shops if they could double down and work quicker. It’s amazing! When the prisoners realized that they could do something to give to all these people in need, they jumped right on it. In fact, we shipped 1,100 wheelchairs and walkers almost immediately to our Joni and Friends team in Texas who, in turn, worked with the mayor’s office to see that our equipment reached those in need. And one of those was a 10-year-old disabled boy named Carlos.

Carlos and his mother were rescued from their home when the waters began to rise. She swept her son up in her arms when the first responders came to get them. As Carlos was carried out the door, he looked back at his wheelchair about to be submerged in the water. Over the next few days in the evacuation center, Carlos was stuck with a chair loaned to him by his school, but it was too small. Their insurance agency told them that they would have to wait for almost a year before Carlos could get a new chair. His mother tried to go back into their home to get his old wheelchair, but after sewage water overflowed into their house, they realized that everything — including his wheelchair — all of it was unsalvageable.

This little boy simply didn’t have a suitable wheelchair. Thankfully, his mother heard about our Joni and Friends wheelchair provision, and she carried her son to our distribution site. We saw this little boy and we knew we had the perfect fit for him. In fact, when Carlos was placed in his new wheelchair, his mother started crying because this new chair was even better than the old one he had lost in the flood! What’s more, we were able to give Carlos’ mother a brand-new “Beyond Suffering Bible.” And that was just one story of hundreds because often it is the elderly and the people with disabilities who are forgotten in a disaster.

So, I want to first thank all of you who have donated used but serviceable wheelchairs and walkers and I also want to take the opportunity to thank the prisoners at Taft Prison in California, and at Norton Prison in Kansas for going the extra mile to work on our wheelchairs; and thank you, friend, for praying for our ‘Wheels for the World’ team as we are in Guatemala this week delivering wheelchairs and Bibles. And real quickly, please visit my radio page today at joniandfriends.org/radio to see a great photo of Carlos in his new wheelchair. And while you’re there, pick up your free gift called “When Bad Things Happen.” It’s a great little booklet to give a child, like Carlos, who has serious questions about why God allows big things like hurricanes. It’s all for you at joniandfriends.org/radio. Oh, and by the way, if you

have a prayer request let me know on our radio page and our Joni and Friends staff will lift up your need before the Lord. God bless you today and thanks for listening to Joni and Friends. 

© Joni and Friends