Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast

Last week on the podcast, Crystal talked with Jasmine and Joey Tell , a young couple who is working to transform the lives of people impacted by disability in Thailand. Today, Jasmine and Joey are back on the show to share more about their ministry and the impact that providing a wheelchair has on a person in need of mobility, as well as their family, their community, and their church. Hear how a...

It’s remarkable to see how God will use our experiences and challenges to reveal His plan and move our hearts toward His purpose. This week on the podcast, Crystal is sitting down with Jasmine and Joey Tell, a young couple with an incredible story of answering God’s call to serve people with disabilities in Thailand. Listen as they share personal stories of God’s restoration, some of the typical c...

After 37 years of marriage, Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada know firsthand the challenges that a married couple can face when disability involved. Today on the podcast, listen as they share stories from their own relationship and how they live out their husband and wife roles in a caregiving marriage. Because caregiving is not a detour for their lives; it is the main road that God has set out for them...

Following Crystal’s last podcast episode featuring a conversation with Dr. Todd Stryd about caring for someone with schizophrenia, we’re sharing the personal story of a Christian woman who lives with schizophrenia. Her testimony was originally given at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation Conference in 2018 following Dr. Todd Stryd’s message on Schizophrenia, Psychosis, and Scripture...

November is National Family Caregivers Month and this week on the podcast we’re continuing the conversation about caregiving with a focus on how to care for someone with schizophrenia. If you have a loved one afflicted with schizophrenia, you may have wondered about the way forward. Today, Dr. Todd Stryd who serves as a faculty member and counseling coordinator at the Christian Counseling & Educat...

November is National Family Caregiver’s Month, a time to recognize the dedication of family members who provide around the clock care to their loved ones. Today on the podcast, Crystal is chatting with Peter Rosenberger, a dedicated husband and caregiver for more than 30 years to his wife, Gracie. As he’s cared for Gracie who lives with disability and extreme pain, he’s learned so much about perse...

This week, Crystal is continuing her conversation with Vaneetha Risner, a special guest who has experienced the powerful presence of God through a lifetime of suffering. If you missed last week’s episode with Vaneetha, you can listen to part 1 to hear her share of God’s faithfulness through a debilitating disease, multiple miscarriages, the death of a child, abandonment, and an unwanted divorce. I...

This week on the podcast, Crystal is talking with a special guest who understands suffering. With the diagnosis of a debilitating disease that led to 21 surgeries by the time she was 13, years in the hospital, and bullying from classmates, Vaneetha Risner encountered extraordinary pain early in life. She then experienced multiple miscarriages as a young wife, the death of a child, abandonment, and...

Nicole Pollastrini is back to the podcast! Last episode, Nicole shared how her daughter’s unexpected diagnosis of Down syndrome impacted her family . Today she’s talking about the community she found through her daughter’s special needs. The diagnosis of disability for Sage opened Nicole’s world to new people facing similar challenges. This community of other parents raising children with special...

In honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Crystal is talking with Nicole Pollastrini, a wonderful mama to three kids. When Nicole and her husband first decided to grow their family, it wasn’t on their radar that their daughter Sage might be born with a disability. Listen as Nicole walks through the thoughts and emotions that she experienced following her daughter’s diagnosis of Down syndrome, and...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and according to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer sometime during her lifetime.* Today Crystal is talking with Amy Brands, a young woman for whom this topic hits very close to home. As a busy 34-year-old mother to a school-aged daughter, Amy was stunned to hear her doctor say the words, “You have cancer.” Listen...

Kristin Hamer is back on the podcast this week to talk about what it means to incorporate all people in the body of Christ. In a previous conversation , Kristin shared about her disability and her journey of finding contentment and purpose in her visual impairment. Along her journey, one of the influences in her growth was the opportunity to serve as a Joni and Friends Cause 4 Life intern. Listen...

This week, occupational therapist Jeannie Wronski is back on the podcast to continue our conversation about helping individuals with disabilities thrive. Jeannie will tell you that sometimes when children appear to have a behavioral issues, they may actually have a sensory processing challenge. Listen as she talks through how children with sensory processing challenges perceive the world and the s...

“All people can and should learn the Scriptures. The Bible matters to everybody. We owe it to our friends, no matter what the disability, to open up the Word of God for them and help them be able to receive it.” –Gina Spivey This week on the podcast Crystal has invited Carrie Jones, a special education teacher, and Gina Spivey, a special needs pastor, to talk through ways we can make the gospel ac...

On the past few episodes of the podcast, we’ve been discussing ways to help families thrive – not just meeting the physical needs of a child with a disability, but also the emotional needs of the whole family. This week, Crystal is speaking with Jeannie Wronski who has a fascinating career as a pediatric occupational therapist. Although her work is centered on the physical aspects of a child’s dev...

“When we speak of children with special needs, we know there is great diversity in the needs and abilities… But nothing is more important than meeting the emotional need for love. Just as the child’s body craves food, so the child’s spirit craves love. When their love tanks are full, children respond more fully to the rest of life.” On our last episode of the podcast, we heard from Dr. Gary Chapma...

“The demands of caring for children who have medical conditions, developmental or cognitive delays, disabilities, behavior issues, are on the autism spectrum, or have other special needs can stress marriages to their breaking point. That’s the bad news. The good news is that care giving parents who know about and implement the love languages say they are a simple and effective way of filling a spo...

“I went through a time where I lost who I was – a deep depression where everything felt so hard. It was a struggle just to get through the day and I was at a point where I was wishing that I wasn’t here anymore… because of how hard days felt, even though I wasn’t living a hard life. It was the mental health that I was struggling with.” -Emily Norton On our last episode of the podcast we talked wit...

For Chris and Emily Norton, walking across the stage at his college graduation seemed like an impossible goal. Paralyzed in a football game his freshman year, Chris was given a three percent chance of moving anything below the neck again. But he trained relentlessly. With his then-fiancé Emily by his side, Chris’ triumphant 10 steps were seen by millions around the world! Little did they know, thi...

“Suffering is intended to make our souls brave.” It’s a broken world. We all have weaknesses and limitations. Disability. Illness. Loneliness. Heartache. Suffering comes at us in different shapes and sizes. Living through 52 years of quadriplegia, battling two rounds of breast cancer, and dealing with chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows a lot about suffering. But she also knows about courage a...

God may use unexpected situations or experiences in your life to reveal His purpose for you – sometimes even giving you a new calling. Today on the podcast, Crystal is chatting with Adam Rinehart who serves as Associate Director, Special Needs Ministry at Calvary Community Church in Southern California. Now Adam didn’t expect to have a full-time career in disability ministry, but listen as he shar...

When disability strikes, it can be easy for someone to wonder, Why me? What’s the purpose of my disability? At 8 years old, Kristin Hamer received the diagnosis of a genetic eye disease. And as her sight grew progressively worse, she did her best to hide her loss of vision; she didn’t want to accept it. But when her visual impairment reached the point that she was no longer able to be self-suffici...

“Pain is disorienting. It changes you in ways that you never saw coming. Chronic pain, the kind that you think about all the time, becomes a part of who you are… There’s not always a smile behind the smile, but there’s a reason for my smile.” Dealing with a chronic condition such as pain or illness is a battle faced by many people – a battle often fought alone. Struggling with daily pain can be di...

“It was kind of a shock… I had been training 4-5 days a week since I was 18. Fitness, lifting, activity… that was it for me. My identity was all wrapped up in physicality, training, and ability.” When someone is talented and works hard, it can be pretty easy for them to begin finding identity in their abilities or success. But what happens when all of that is stripped away? Where do you find your...

How do you communicate the love of Christ to students who have special needs? Don’t miss this week’s episode of the podcast as Crystal chats with Tobias Haglund about his ministry with teens and young adults living with disability through Young Life Capernaum. Through this Young Life program dedicated to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, young adults are given the chance t...