WFTW

What is Wheels For The World?

Wheels For The World is an outreach program of Joni and Friends ministry where used and discarded wheelchairs are collected by volunteers, refurbished by inmates at correctional facilities and distributed in developing countries by short-term missionaries. The wheelchair is a gift greater than gold to the disabled who otherwise face a lifetime confined to bed. A gift from God, the wheelchair meets a temporal need, while the ultimate gift through Jesus Christ meets an eternal need. With every wheelchair, walker, crutch or cane distributed, the Gospel is shared in deed and word. The primary purpose of Wheels For The World is to evangelize the lost and share the good news of Jesus Christ to those affected by disability.

Returning...

Good evening,
I will post more, but thought I would try and add some quick thoughts on Peru and experiences there.  I think the most awesome part of the trip is the ease which I/we can see God working.  From the heartbreaking stories from the patients, to the love shown by the Peruvians and our teammates.  God's grace constantly was apparent from the availability of perfect wheelchairs, to the availability of the right medicines.  And the openness   of the people to God and hearing His message of redemption was inspiring.
I think the saddest, yet most God glorifying story is of a young 14 year old girl who had been neglected for here entire life, and ended up in a hospital, starved and weighing 40lbs before a Christian orphanage had adopted her 4 months ago. Despite a lifetime of neglect, her attitude was joyous, and she won the hearts of everybody she interacted with.  This orphanage had a full house of girls loving and showing Christ to this girl, and it showed so much.  It was a testament to what God's love can do!

Thank you for praying...I know you did because we did not have very many good wheelchairs left to give away today. But we did give many wheelchairs away, and after a lot of adjustments and Hand made parts, they looked pretty good if I say so myself! We are seeing a lot of people with rheumatoid arthritis, paraplegia and children with cerebral palsy. At least 3 children have taken their first steps with a special walker one of our therapists makes out of adult walkers. We are out of canes, so our mechanics have been making standard canes out of adult walker by cutting them in half. Pretty amazing. The routine is that when people arrive to the clinic, they are evaluated by a therapist, prayed for by the team of therapist, interpretor, mechanic and guide, and fitted and given the equipment they need. Then they go to see the doctor and nurses where they receive medicine, wounds are dressed, and the health team counsels/prays for them, and then they are presented the gospel by the Peruvian volunteers from the church where the outreach is held. The church is called Iglesia Alianza Cristiana y Misionera. The Peruvians are very direct about presenting the gospel and asking for a response-what is your decision? Then they record the responses. Yesterday ~100 people made a profession of faith or re-committment to Christ. It seems to me that those who are so very poor-many live in houses with dirt floors, are rich in faith. It is all they have! People come from many surrounding towns, some from 1-5 hours away. We have seen many people from the highlands (mountains). They are short and small but sturdy people. Another exciting thing happened today-I met a missionary from Wycliffe who has just finished translating the Bible into Quecha-the language of the people from from the highlands. How wonderful to get to see the fruits of your labors before you die! My mechanic Michelle and I cried twice today over the suffering of two of our patients. We had to go behind the curtain because we try to be brave but caring when face to face. The first woman had many deformities from rheumatoid arthritis. She lives high in the mountains and spends most of her time on the floor. She is 31-no husband-her daughter 16 cares for her and somehow supports them. She has a 4th grade education. She is on the floor because she is too heavy and it is too difficult of a lift to move her from the bed to the floor. We had to lift her on a blanket-every move is excruciating for her. We take our modern medicine for granted. Well, sorry this is so long. I must go to bed in preparation for another rich day of serving our King. Thank you so much for your prayers. The labor is very hard, but bearing much fruit both now and for eternity. With love, Pat

Monday- Well started off the day with almost everyone taking a cold shower because the electricity went out. Burrrrrr. Had a wonderful devotional about STRETCH MARKS!!! We really need to stretch and know that God will show up when we feel we can't do "it". We may be comfortable with the things in our lives and get in a routine, but while on this trip we WILL be stretched beyond belief. We got to the site this morning and were all ready to get started!!! What a wonderful beginning to our week of distribution. But we WERE STRETCHED!!! After dinner we all shared the amazing events of the day and expressed how very much God showed up today. I will be listing some of the comments from different people: 1. Lydia (nurse) while seeing a patient, she began talking about the boy from the community. She was the grandmother who was now the parent of this boy. Her daughter, son-in-law, and 2 other grandchildren were in a horrible accident and all died except this little boy and his brother. He was covered head to toe in scabes. They only have 1/2 glass of milk for breakfast and dinner and for lunch a bowl of soup 2. Pat and Michelle- used the first 3 wheeler. The lady loved it. She had a huge smile on her face. She began to wheel around and was having so much fun with it. 3. Pat and Michelle-a lady with terrible Arthritis. Her daughter was about 50 years old. She has been carrying her mother around on her back. The daughter has bad back pain. Mom is in so much pain it hurt to just lift her leg up. There is no money for meds. 4. Aaron and Kathy found the perfect chair. It looked like a bed. Murphy's law doesn't seem to work. Things DO work out!! 5. Reid was asking people to pray for patience. Their 1st one reid and frank had a 7 y/o who was wailing. Had a great fear in his eyes. They laid hime on the cushion. Amy Jo came to save the day. She played with him with puppets. He never gets on sides or sits up. Mother and husband showed up late. Grandma cares for him. 6. Eunice- brake extention needed to be made. She had a peruvian help her. He heated up the PVC and smashed it. He used cardboard to start a fire to melt the PVC. 7. Stacie walked into her room at the outreach and found a bag of meds on the floor. There were so many meds they needed and had been talking about trying to find. They had even been praying for God to help us. 8. Frank's most complicated was a little boy. He knew God was leading the way. Felt prepared after that. 9. Amy Jo said it was so humbling to talk to people. There was a man who had been waiting for 24 years for a wheelchair. Angels are watching over me. My husband is in a wheelchair too. sometimes I call for people and no one comes. 10. Eunice had a trio of 3 OLD men (like 90 and above). They were singing to Giannina, and michelle. The girls of Huanuco. He was all in love with Giannina even when holding Michelle's hand. 11. Giannina talked to people of the church. She was talking to the counselor ladies. They didn't understand how huge this process was gonna be. 'Wow hermana, that's more than we expected. Mone on 2nd day. We are just tools from God...Tools of LOVE! 12. Michelle- had a boy named Miguel come. He was very involved. Needed a bed type stretcher. He understood things and seemed pretty happy. I started talking with him asking him if he liked to swim. He started laughing and smiling. I told him I thought he was so sweet and that I think he is my new boyfriend. He would smile so big and make so much noise!!! When we finished, we took a picture and he raised his hands and pointed to God. We was amazing and had so much love.

Sunday

Sunday-Well, today was busy, productive, entertaining, educational, and full of God's work. In the morning, we met for breakfast....eggs, eggs, and more eggs. We then met for a devotional with Reid leading the time. We sat out by the pool, worshiped, prayed, and spoke about prayer needs. We have a terrific and faithful team!!! We then went to the church, had service, and opening ceremony. We gave a woman who has a broken hip (for who knows how long and will never be able to get it fixed) a wheelchair. She was so happy to be able to move around. She has not been able to walk at all for a very long time. Her face was glowing, her smile was all teeth, and the thankfullness she had was unspeakable. After the opening ceremony, we took a tour of Huanuco. We got to see some beautiful country. We saw churches from the 1500's, we saw bridges made out of egg whites, sand, and lime (the egg whites help flexibility during the hundreds of earthquakes they have each year), we saw sugar cane farmland and the food and drink they make from it, we saw a ceremonial building that is 4000 years old. Then we returned to our hotel for a quick bite, took group pictures, and headed back to the distribution site to set up for tomorrow's 1st day of distribution!!! WOW, amazing....we had about 40 people there and everyone worked so well together and got EVERYTHING done!!! WE R READY!!! Got back to the hotel at 11:30 and the last event of the night occured when a waiter brought a group of us ladies some tea and coffee. Mary initiated a conversation with him asking if he would like us to pray for him. Elizabeth followed up with a few words. Within minutes, he sat down, was so very interested in knowing about God, and asked Him to come into his heart. He was crying and so excited to hear the good news of his new friend....GOD!!!! What a wonderful way to end our evening!!!

Mary, Giannina, and Michelle got to work today at the distribution site. We spent many hours organizing the chairs, getting rooms ready, shopping, visiting our old and new Peruvian friends and pastor Enrique!!! The church was full of excited people and people eager to work on converting the church to our distribution site. We have many chairs without foot rests but we will be on a search for them tomorrow. The rest of the team came in today!!! Everyone is so excited to see and meet each other. We went to the church and had the opening ceremony, meet the pastor and the volunteers, sang and played Bingo. In the evening, crazies went for a late night walk and saw many fun and exciting things.

Well, mary, giannina, and michelle arrived in Huanaco this morning after a meeting with Elizabeth. It is so so beautiful in Huanaco!!!!!! The weather is PERFECT!!!! No sweating! No humidity!! No clouds!!! No problems!!!!! We went to the church to see how we would be setting up, saw some strange wheelchairs we will be using, ate some yummy chicken and fries with our green spicy sauce, and did lots of pre-distribution work. We also did lots of laughing today....Sure feels good to be here. God sure made this a beautiful place with BEAUTIFUL people.

1st event of the trip

Ok, sitting at the airport waiting waiting waiting. The computers were all glitching from the solar flairs, The airplane is 30 min late, we may possible miss our connecting flight to PERU. But all is well, drinking a Keva Juice, enjoying the company of good friends, and watching the sand storms rolling around Albuquerque. Excited about being in 70 degree weather.

Got great sleep! Getting ready for our 1st day in Peru. Don't forget.....DON"T USE THE WATER!!!

We have arrived!!!! Saw Debbie and Paul in Houston. Small world huh? We got to Houston just in time to get on our plane to Peru. Whew!!!! When we got to Lima, thank God we got every piece of luggage and through customs without any problems. Rosario picked us up in a fancy van and took us to our hotel. There is a paint factory that is on fire and it is very smoky here. The weather is VERY humid and all of our hair is super curly!!! Kathy and Mary express exactly how hot it is!!!

Amy Jo Smith

Hello from snowy Canada... It's not quite spring here yet! Thank you for the warm welcome already to your team! I am excited to meet each one of you (very soon now!) and to working together in the week ahead. Wow! It's hard to believe I am actually going! It's been an adventure already...but God is faithful and has opened the doors one at a time. I am so thankful for all the work that has been done in co-ordinating and leading the team. So a little about me... I am blessed to have a wonderful family, 3 older brothers, a younger sister and soon to have a new sister in law. I am 26 years old (at least till Saturday:o) and have loved children since I became a big sister 25 years ago:o) The Lord has given me so many awesome opportunities to work with children over the past several years, here in Ottawa, and also farther south...a camp in Quito Ecuador, my Uncle's mission in Reynosa Mexico, and our friends Christian school in the Dominican. So I have picked up some Spanish which I am excited to use again. I am currently working in a Primary school as an Educational Assistant for children with special needs, and a piano teacher as well...so I am thankful for the freedom that March Break brings! I was encouraged to be an STM for the first Family Retreat here in Canada last August...and was so incredibly blessed by the experience. I heard about the 'Wheels for the World' trips at a "Through the Roof' conference in Ohio last September and was encouraged by a couple there to join a trip someday, so I have been excited about joining a team ever since! So I am so thankful for this opportunity...for the privilege of being part of sharing the love of Jesus with the people He will bring to this outreach. Dios te bendiga! as each of you finish packing and preparing, Hasta pronto,

Frank and Becca Zalesny

My Name is Frank Zalesny, and my wife's name is Becca Zalesny. This is our first mission trip for the both of us. We are both 26 and were recently married this past July! We also both just began to work this past year, I am a physical therapist and Becca is a pediatric nurse practitioner. God pointed out this opportunity to us and made it possible for us to do this trip. We are both very excited to use our skills for the name of Jesus!

Allison Martinez

My name is Allison Martinez, I am married with five children ranging in age from 27 to 12; as well as two grandchildren, ages 3 and 1. I am a homemaker living in Clovis, California. Born in Detroit, Michigan, my family moved out to Fresno when I was just a few years old, so I suppose that makes me a Californian. :) We have homeschooled our three youngest children for the past thirteen years but this year the decision was made for them to go to school. This left me without a full time job! It has been strange and exciting to watch the Lord open doors for opportunities for me to serve Him in my community and around the world. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to be a part of this mission, and for his great provision and faithfulness. I will be fulfilling a support/photojournalist role on this trip, so I hope to have the opportunity to serve each one of you in some capacity.

Eunice Anderson

Hello – I am Eunice Anderson. My husband, Tim, & I live in Wheaton, Ill just outside of Chicago. I have been a PT for 38 year, most of the time in home health. I my childhood was first on a farm in northern Wisconsin, & then in New York City. Then back to Wi for college. Then a few years in Portland, OR. & the last 22 years here in Wheaton. We have 2 grown, married children, Rachel & Paul & 1 grandchild, Jacob, 1 ½ yrs. All of them live in Wash DC area. So we make lots of trips that way. This is my 2nd Wheels for the World Trip. I am delighted that the Lord as lead me again to this mission. I have done 3 other short-term mission trips, all to Honduras. I am looking forward to meeting the new people on this trip and renewing friendships with those I was with my last time to Peru. The Lord is Good!

Jake and Stacie Salowitz

Stacie and I live in Davenport, IA. I am an engineer working for John Deere and Stacie is a 1st year resident physician at the local hospital. This is our first WFTW mission trip, and we are really looking forward to it! Stacie grew up in Cedar Falls, IA and I kind of grew up all over the place, but I am most recently from Minnesota. We are looking forward to serving together, and Stacie can't wait to practice her Spanish!

Mary Ingham

I am Mary Ingham, a physical therapist and Seating Specialist on the WFTW team. This will be my 7th trip to Peru, with Kathy Hedemann every year. It has been one of the most beautiful times with God; each time is different, unique, and wonderful. HIS plans are perfect and sometimes unexpected...changing the hearts of HIS Team! I graduated from UNM in 1978 and will serve again this year with one of my best classmates, Pat Fraser. I work at a children's hospital at UNM Hospitals, working in the pool a lot, to help make my old knees last. I have also worked with the Indian Children's Program through the Indian Health Service, adult inpatient on weekends, and a hospice. I was born in South Dakota and grew up on the Sioux reservation until 8th grade, when we moved to Crownpoint, NM and I graduated from high school on the Navajo reservation. Stewart and I just celebrated our 25th Anniversary in Sept. and we also have 5 kids: 2 adopted brothers Conrad-deceased 3 years ago/ Josh 25 y/o with a 5 y/o son Zach, 22 month old Kalley and a son due March 4. Nora is 23, getting married May 5th to Walter and applying to Law School. Lauren is 18 and a freshman at UNM studying Spec. Educ. and playing Rugby there. Thomas is 14, in 8th grade and playing football this spring ag

ain. We live in a kind of rural setting and I am able to grow "championship tumbleweeds!" Ha. The wedding is here, so I have LOTS of work to do. If you have ever seen "Sanford and Son", you can get a picture of our house and yard. I look forward to getting to know all of you and work alongside old and new friends in sharing the Gospel and doing God's work with God's sweet and precious people in Peru.

Michelle Bianchi

Hello all you out there!!! My name is Michelle Bianchi I don't like talking about myself, so not sure how this will go. Um...I am 45 years old. Single, never been married. No children of my own, but I have 2 nephews and 2 nieces that I am with usually 5-6 days a week. I claim them as mine. I am a special ed school teacher at an elementary school. I have been working there for 18 years. I love my job but hate the paperwork and expectations these days. I am also a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. I work there on call to make some extra money. This will be my 4th year going to Peru with Joni and Friends. I really love going on this mission because it really allows me to feel God's presence in the world. I have never Co-lead a team, but Kathy is an awesome partner and she is helping me along. I have always felt I wanted to do missionary work and our church sponsored the group to Lima. I kept seeing the videos of the trip and a tug on my heart....I stepped up and said....I wanna go....what can i do? They said MECHANIC....ok. I am now officially.....A MECHANIC. It fits me pretty well too. I love all the people I have met on the trips. I am excited to go back with some friends I've made along the way and meet you new comers!!!! Can't wait to see how God shows up on this trip.....Don't be surprised by ANYTHING!!!!

Amy and Reid Warner

Hi team, I'll write for both Reid and myself. God got us involved in Wheels for the World in 2006. Elizabeth Takury, who heads Corazones Unidos, the group we work with in Peru, "happened" to be at our church here in Albuquerque the Sunday after our daughter found out she'd be in Peru with the Peace Corps. Reid and I both knew this was more than a coincidence and felt God calling us. So this will be our 6th trip to Peru with WFTW. Our faith has been stretched and we've been blessed beyond what we ever would have imagined, so we look forward to what God will do this year in Huanuco. I'm a Hoosier by birth, a preacher's kid ending up in New Mexico in high school when my father was pastor of a church in Santa Fe. Reid's father was in the Air Force, so he was born on a base in Illinois, moved to England, Maine, Phoenix, then New Mexico. Reid and I actually met in high school, but not being each other's type:-) remained just friends until God showed us that we really were made for each other and now we've been married 35 1/2 years. We still wonder how that happened! We have 3 children. Two sons, Nathan, married to Angela, who have our 4 year old grandson, Jacob & Ben, married to Lesley, who are expecting our 2nd grandson any day, due date 2/24. They all live in Southern California...Whittier and La Mirada...yep, they went to Biola. Our daughter Heidi finished the Peace Corps in 2008 and now lives in Denver with her 2 cats. Her German Shepherd, Guillermo, whom she shipped home from Peru in 2007 when he started eating her host family's guinea pigs, lives with us as he just doesn't fit in an apartment with 2 cats. We've owned a janitorial company for the past 35 years, Reid's the general manager and I'm the financial manager. Reid's role on the team is a mechanic, and I'm support. We both look forward to meeting you new folks and serving together with everyone in this adventure God has before us. Hasta nos vemos, Dios les bendiga mucho! Amy

Lydia and Aaron Abell

Hi everyone! We live in Scotts Valley, California. Aaron works as a manufacturing engineer in the Bay Area, and Lydia works as an Emergency Room nurse near Santa Cruz and as a nurse for the local Pregnancy Resource Center. We will be celebrating 2 years of marriage in April! This will be our second wheels trip, our first was in 2010 to Lima Peru. Our first trip was filled with miracles, and the awesomeness of seeing God work first hand. We are so excited to have this opportunity to join the Huanuco team and see all God has in store for this trip. We are greatly anticipating, with much excitement, the mighty work God has planned!

Pat Fraser

Pat Fraser Seating Specialist: My name is Pat Fraser, and I will be joining you as a seating specialist. Really I'm just a physical therapist who loves the Lord! Anyway, this will be my 6th trip to Peru. That sounds like I should be "experienced", but I sill feel inadequate which presses me to depend on the Lord for this entire trip. That has been one of the blessings for me on these trips: to totally depend on God, to see Him answer prayer in AMAZING ways, and to see Him move in people's hearts. Though we go to bless the Peruvians, we come back with our cups pretty full! My husband George, also a PT, and I own a gym for people 50 and over as well as an out-patient PT clinic for all ages. He has been on the last 2 trips to Peru with me, but can't go this year due to a shortage of staff. We've been married 31 years and have 2 boys and 2 girls ranging in ages 22-29. The boys live here, one daughter is in Minneapolis and one lives near Dallas with her husband and our 10 month old grandson.

Kathy Hedemann

I'm Kathy Hedemann, a physical therapist from Albuquerque. I've lived in Albuquerque since 1981, was born in Indiana, grew up in Michigan, and I lived in Pasadena, CA for a few years after graduating from college. I work in the public schools, and have pretty much always been a pediatric PT, but a year ago I started working PRN at a couple of skilled nursing faciilities. That has been quite a learning experience! I have three kids: a 31 year old son (and daughter-in-law), a 28 year old daughter, and a 23 year old daughter. The older 2 currently live in Albuquerque, the youngest is in Miami, Florida in grad school. I have no grandchildren, but have 3 granddogs, and two grandcats. I have been on WFTW trips to Lima, also to Mexico, and last year I went to Uganda and Cuba-as seating specialist or lead seating specialist, but never before as a co-team-leader! We have an interesting mix of "veterans" and "newbies" and I think this trip will be awesome. We will have some challenges in Huanuco, since the mix of wheelchairs is a little different--there are a lot of adult specialty chairs, and a number of kids' chairs, and a lot of chairs without footrests, and some without front casters! My WFTW trips have helped my Spanish speaking skills quite a lot!

more wheels

Well, Eunice was able to obtain 4 more footrests for the wheelchairs in Huanaco that are without. This will be very helpful because without footrest, those chairs are kinda useless!!! Everyone, PLEASE pray for our minds to be sharp and inventive during this trip. We will be working with chairs that were vandalized and we will be needing to MAKE things in order for the chairs to be able to be useable.

One week away

Well, we just finished packing 6 suit cases full (50 lbs each) of supplies for our upcoming trip to Huanaco, Peru. This is going to be a new city we will be traveling to. Lots of challenges so far, but this allows us to trust in God even more. There will be 9 returning members of our team: Kathy Hedemann, Mary Ingham, Reid Warner, Amy Warner, Pat Fraser, Eunice Anderson, Aaron Abell, Lydia Abell, Michelle Bianchi. Our new team members are: Allison Martinez, Jake Salowitz, Stacie Salowitz, Frank Zalesny, Rebecca Zalensny, and Amy Jo.

We are all looking forward to this new adventure. We hope you can enjoy it while reading about our daily ventures with the Lord and the Peruvians