Joni Eareckson Tada Named WORLD's 2017 Daniel of the Year
/An inspiring Christian leader and advocate for people with disabilities has been named the 2017 WORLD News Group Daniel of the Year.Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community since 1979.
By A. Larry Ross Communications
Joni and Friends runs a multifaceted nonprofit covering a number of program outlets headquartered in Agoura Hills. The longest running program is Joni and Friends Radio, a five-minute radio program begun in 1982 that can be heard each weekday on more than 1,000 broadcast outlets. Tada also records a one-minute radio broadcast, Diamonds in the Dust, that airs daily. Joni and Friends Radio received the Radio Program of the Year award from National Religious Broadcasters in 2002, and Diamonds in the Dust won the same award in 2010 in the short-program category. Joni and Friends also produces a television program, hosts family retreats where individuals with disabilities and their families learn they are not alone, and distributes wheelchairs and Bibles for those in need around the world through its "Wheels for the World" outreach.
Each November, WORLD's annual Daniel of the Year award is bestowed on a person or persons who exhibit courage in defense of God's authority by helping those who are being persecuted. Tada is the 20th recipient of the award. Other winners include John Ashcroft, Franklin Graham, Wanda Kohn, and Stephen C. Meyer."For twenty years, WORLD Magazine has been telling the stories of Christians who are overcoming great odds to make the world a better and stronger place," said Marvin Olasky, WORLD's editor-in-chief. "We have shared many great stories in that time, but the Daniel winners are always a little different and are doing some amazing, amazing things. Joni Eareckson Tada is one of them. She is an inspiration."
Click here read Jamie Dean's profile on Tada and her ministry.
A Baltimore native, Tada was injured in a diving accident in 1967, at age seventeen, that left her a quadriplegic in a wheelchair without the use of her hands. After two years of rehabilitation, she emerged with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations.During her rehabilitation, Tada spent long months learning how to paint with a brush between her teeth. Her high-detail painting and prints are much sought after and collected by fine art enthusiasts. Her best-selling autobiography, Joni, and the feature film of the same name have been translated into several languages, introducing her to millions of people around the world. Tada has also visited more than forty-seven countries to share her story.In addition to her ministry efforts, Tada has served on the National Council on Disability and the Disability Advisory Committee to the US State Department; she has served as Senior Associate for Disability Concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and serves in an advisory capacity to the American Leprosy Mission, the National Institute on Learning Disabilities, and Christian Blind Mission International, as well as on the Board of Reference for the Christian Medical and Dental Society. Tada currently serves on the Young Life Capernaum Board.After being the first woman honored by the National Association of Evangelicals as its Layperson of the Year in 1986, Tada was named Churchwoman of the Year in 1993 by the Religious Heritage Foundation."We as Christians have to promote a culture of life and help parents of special-needs children ascribe positive meaning to their child's pain," Tada said. "The church can show the world that a child or an adult with a severe disabling condition is not 'better off dead than disabled.' Each individual, no matter how medically fragile, is a stunning image-bearer of God; that, if anything, gives him immense worth, dignity, and life worth living."About WORLD News Group:WORLD News Group is a nonprofit organization that produces WORLD Magazine, WORLD Radio, and WORLD Digital, all dedicated to providing clarity in the news through wise insights into the stories that matter most. To learn more about WORLD and its award-winning Christian worldview journalism, visit wng.org.
What is really going on in culture today, both practically and spiritually speaking? Could the rampant activism we see now be going in the wrong direction?Today's problems don’t simply exist at a level that's clearly visible to everyone and commonly talked about. They exist at another level. And really, the problems are only one problem — the heart of the guy who lacks character. The poor and wrong choices men make create a lot of the injustices. For example, the choices men make are the impetus behind sex-trafficking, domestic violence, the orphan epidemic, and fatherlessness, just to name a few.What would happen if all the energy spent on today's activism, which addresses problems only on the surface level, went to the root level instead?As a men’s expert, Kenny has a different perspective than today's activists. The problem will never be solved by skimming the issue or simply reacting to the issue. The only way to talk about solutions to the issues of injustice is by changing the heart, character, and conduct of a man. When you do that then you are talking about a solution.The best response is to deal with the issues where they actually exist: in the hearts of men.Listen to a brief word from Kenny on this topic below!
Cash said his hope for the annual event is that Christians are encouraged and that unbelievers would discover the truth about the gospel.“I think of when Apollos came to town (as described) in the book of Acts. He was more eloquent and he defended the faith. He was an encouragement to those that lived in the city,” he said. “Sometimes when they hear someone like a Clayton or an Adrian encouraging them in their faith then I would hope they leave encouraged. I would hope that people who don’t know Jesus would hear the gospel and see the truth.”Kershaw also described the importance of the event.“This is just a great way to maybe reach people who have never heard the Word before, never heard testimonies,” he said. “I know baseball is a great platform to be able to use that for Jesus. That’s why we do the faith day — maybe our stories can help a little bit.”Gonzalez, who has been on the injured list, appeared to enjoy the event not only as one of the players giving their testimony, but as a Crowder fan relishing the time of worship with his family by his side.“If we can be a blessing to one person in the stands, it made it all worth it,” Gonzalez said.
READ: Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw Return To Mound Includes His Best For God and Fans
When asked by TLA how he approaches high schools for the first time, considering that the current political climate includes a large adversarial component, he said, “I don’t think that there is as much hostility towards the gospel as there is towards religion. I think defining those two (gospel and religion) and separating them from the beginning and realizing that a religious agenda is not the same as living out the gospel.“What we find in going into a campus is that we bring the Good News of the Kingdom,” he continued. “The Good News at its core is that we don’t have to be bound and linked the same as we once did. There is freedom in Christ. That’s not just modeled in a sermon or ‘Let me do worship in your school’ or ‘Let me go preach to all your kids.’ That’s modeled first in my response to how I will serve an administrator or my willingness to obey even some of the laws that already exist.“Sometimes, it’s not even [about] laws, but confusion about what separation of church and state really means. When we go into a campus we are there to serve… whether they let me preach the first week or let me preach in 5 months, I’ll do whatever I can to serve that campus and to bring the love of Jesus onto that school.”For more information, go to One Voice Student Missions' page about 
VALIDATE AND ENCOURAGE EMOTIONAL PROCESSING
"When I was commuting from Torrance back to Orange County on the 405, I remember how the programming on 99.5 preserved my sanity and connected me to God,” he said. “It was a lifeline. That's why it is both humbling and exciting for The Every Man Show team to have that same opportunity in our new 3pm slot.“I know that lives will be changed forever, men will be activated, and Spirit empowered transformations will take place.”Pastor Kenny adds, “So many new relationships with Southern Californians are now underway and the feedback has been so positive already. The greatest gift we can give communities across the southland is a spiritually and relationally healthy man. That is the spiritual blast zone of good that God wants us to bring in our new slot.”The Every Man Show, produced and co-hosted by Anthony Dever and 
“The kingdom is churches, God’s people coming together to advance and expand His kingdom — can’t do it separately, you need to do it together — and so Stadia is so committed to God’s kingdom, planting churches, people coming to Christ, being discipled…,” he said. “That’s who we are amongst the urban poor and under-resourced communities and so it’s a beautiful marriage.“When we think of LA together we also think of Stadia and World Impact together. We need to come together to move God’s kingdom forward.”
“This night represents a beautiful and extremely significant partnership and relationship between churches in Orange County and our local government and community,” said Erin Kim, who is a foster parent trainer through Social Services and Saddleback Community College and enjoys supporting the foster care community as a volunteer through Mariners Church in Irvine. “As the light of the world, the local church should be loving and serving the families and children in our community and no one church can do it alone.“We need to work together, we need unity and a common vision to love and serve the vulnerable among us.”Vision Night For OC organizers said that each night there are nearly 2,700 children in Orange County's Foster Care System that “go to bed with their heart's crying and silently wishing they had their own permanent loving family.”“As long as one of these vulnerable children is waiting for that loving, permanent family to take them home, we will not rest,” leaders of the initiative group stated. “With the help of our local government this can be accomplished through a church-to-church strategy working together for a united goal.”Organizers are asking churches of any denomination or non-denomination to join them for “a night that will go down in history” as the result of churches partnering together to find families for every vulnerable child in the system.Representatives from the County of Orange are scheduled to attend along with dozens of churches in Orange County to launch this vision.“This event has been years in the making and it will be a night you don't want to miss,” organizers said.
In April, a Justice Rising team went to Syria, "going from house to house meeting with those who suffered from war," Watts writes. "Over a cup of thick coffee and some small cookies we asked many people what their greatest needs were. Without hesitation they all replied, 'When you leave, tell the church not to forget about us. We are watching them from here and we see how many are responding to Syria. But we need them. Tell them this is our greatest hour of need, and we need the help of the global church community.'”In the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a school recently re-opened after being closed for two years as the result of the conflict, according to Justice Rising. The organization wants to help the school and its students.The school was founded with Christian roots and fights against extreme ideology in a predominantly Muslim context. Some of the best teachers have fled, students are traumatized by the war, money is hard to come by and bombs are a constant reminder that each day could be their last."We as a church have the opportunity to respond and support the 880 students that are currently attending this school," Watts wrote. "Teachers need to be paid, materials need to be purchased and the building needs to be repaired from the bombing."Watts continued, "As the sound of bombs could be heard in the distance, Cassandra (Justice Rising Co-Founder) asked at what point they should respond and become worried. Their response: 'We don’t know. We don’t know when they will strike. When a bomb comes and you feel it hit the house, that’s when it’s a concern. But we don’t know when that will be. So we keep living. All we know is that God is good. Even still. He is our protector.'”Justice Rising team members asked the headmaster of the school why he continued to stay and work in Syria, "surely no one would have blamed him for leaving."“After the war, everything was damaged in a critical way. All the furniture was stolen. We had nothing. But we knew the power of education. That is the greatest tool to end terrorism, building schools. So we restarted and opened up our classes. We are growing a generation that knows what the word ‘love’ means,” he said.Every house we visited we seemed to find individuals who were rising up in the midst of conflict, having a stare down with war and coming out with an attitude that said, “I’m not a victim to this situation, but an architect of it” (Quote by: Simon Sinek).
Organized by The Salvation Army Southern California Division with Friends of The Salvation Army Entertainment Industry Committee, the event benefited The Salvation Army and Besos Care Packages coordinated outreach to homeless individuals living on Skid Row. Inspired by Isaiah 58:10, the Houghtons created Besos Care Packages, which offers basic necessities plus handwritten notes of encouragement to people living on the streets of downtown Los Angeles.Last Comic Standing finalist Ron McGehee served as host with Major Osei Stewart, General Secretary for the Southern California Division.“The event was a great success,” Stewart said. “What was presented that evening touched the hearts of so many—we shared Salvation Army videos and stories in an intimate setting for blessed individuals who were able to experience Israel Houghton and his wife Adrienne Bailon-Houghton as they performed selected Christmas songs and some of Israel Houghton’s popular praise and worship songs. It was heartwarming and a worshipful evening concert.”The concert offered an up-close listen to a Christmas album currently in the making.In addition, it included a performance from Laci Kay and a message from United Nations youth representative Meredith O’Connor. Performing from The Salvation Army were David Longoria, Lt. Alexander Williams (aka Shalem) and Naia Tillery.Before the concert, over 300 athletes and celebrities attended the PS Media Talent Fuse Event ESPY pre-party, a charity and networking event benefiting The Salvation Army.
Ninety percent of pastors feel inadequately trained to cope with the demands of ministry, according to 
He was just another inmate asking for a Bible. I had only small-print Gideon Bibles with me and he was hoping for larger print and a more readable version. So, I took time to search the Chaplain’s office and returned with a large print, Life Recovery Bible. The inmate thanked me for it, and I went on my way—something that has happened countless times at the jail.At the reception, Sean told his story to a dozen men who either had taken or taught our ministry training classes at the jail. As a teen, he had followed every rebellious urge, indulging in drugs and alcohol, which led to trouble with the law. When he turned 21, he decided that he would change his ways and transform himself into a model citizen.At his first honest job, however, he suffered an accident and the tragic loss of his leg. He thought, “How could God allow this to happen?” Sean’s “faith” in his ability to earn God’s favor turned to doubt, then to a return to his rebellious ways and soon back to jail.Here in California, many jails and prisons now offer our TUMI ministry training classes. In one of these classes, Sean heard the Good News of God’s grace and mercy in Christ. For the first time in his life, he experienced forgiveness and began his journey toward genuine life recovery!As he finished his testimony that evening, Sean held up his Life Recovery Bible and reminded me that I was the one who had given it to him at the jail.At that moment, I felt as if a window from heaven had opened, showing me how our willingness to serve in small ways is multiplied by our great and awesome God.Let us “not get tired of doing what is good,” because “at just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” (Galatians 6:9 NLT)
