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A
diving accident in 1967 left Mrs. Tada a quadriplegic in a
wheelchair,
unable to use her hands. During two years of rehabilitation,
she spent
long months learning how to paint with a brush between her
teeth. Her
high detail fine art paintings and prints are sought after and
collected.
Due to her best-selling books, beginning with her autobiography,
Joni,
as well as having visited 35 countries, Joni's first name is
recognized
around the world. World Wide Pictures' full-length feature
film, Joni,
in which Mrs. Tada recreated her own life, has been translated
into 15
languages and shown in scores of countries around the world.
Mrs. Tada's role as a disability advocate led to a presidential
appointment to the National Council on Disability for three and a
half
years, during which time the Americans with Disabilities Act
became
law.
Joni and Friends was founded by Mrs. Tada in 1979 and has grown
into
four flagship programs that affect the lives of thousands of
disabled
people and their families. In 2002, Joni and Friends will
serve over 500
special needs families through nine Family Retreats across the
nation.
Through Wheels for the World, over 14,000 wheelchairs have been
collected nationwide, refurbished by inmates in correctional
facilities,
and shipped to developing nations where physical therapists fit
each
chair to a needy disabled child or adult. Joni and Friends,
a daily five-
minute radio program, is heard over 850 broadcast outlets and this
year
received the "Radio Program of the Year" award from
National Religious
Broadcasters. Through ten Area Ministries offices, Joni and
Friends
teams provide church training and education to promote inclusion
of
people with disabilities.
Mrs. Tada is a highly sought-after conference speaker both in the
U.S.
and internationally and is also a columnist for Moody Magazine,
the
United Kingdom's Christian Herald, and several European
Christian
magazines.
Mrs. Tada holds an honorary Bachelor of Letters from Western
Maryland College; an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Gordon
College; an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia
International
University, the first honorary doctorate bestowed in their
75-year-old
history; and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Westminster
Theological Seminary.
Mrs. Tada and her husband Ken have been married since 1982. Mr.
Tada
recently retired from 32 years of teaching and has come on board
with
Joni and Friends to serve as Director of Ministry
Development. He is
also a member of the Board of Directors and recently received
Family
Life Ministries Robert McQuilken Award honoring "The
Courageous Love of
a Marriage Covenant Keeper." |
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About our
people pages:
Because many visitors have asked for more information
about particular people whose words appear on the site,
we'll try to give you as much information as we can about
individuals. The Amazon links should give you access
to works by the author, though at times they'll display
other books if the author has written an essay or
introduction for those books. |
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The best we can hope for in this
life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is
enough. It's enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrows
currently assail us aren't worthy of comparison to that which waits over the
horizon.
Joni Eareckson Tada
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