Joni Eareckson Tada Released From Hospital After 16-Day Stay
Joni Eareckson Tada Released From Hospital After 16-Day Stay: Joni Eareckson Tada, a Bible teacher, best-selling author, and disability rights activist, has been discharged from the hospital following a 16-day stay for double pneumonia.
“Like many of the people we serve who struggle with constant health challenges, I can say with them, ‘God rescued me!’ After 16 days in the hospital struggling with double pneumonia, I am home, happy, healing, and resting,” the 73-year-old shared in a social media post last week featuring a photo of her and her husband, Ken, outside the hospital.
She thanked her husband and friends for all they did to care for her, saying they “made sure I rested.”
“At night, the promise from God in Isaiah 43:1-2 was such a great source of comfort: ‘Do not be afraid, for you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown,'” She said. “Yes, Jesus was with me through every scan, x-ray, blood draw, and breathing treatment.”
Tada was paralyzed after a diving accident in 1967 and has since used her platform to advocate for those with disabilities. Her book detailing her experience, Joni, has been translated into over 30 languages and made into a feature film.
The experience, according to Tada, who is in charge of Joni and Friends, a group “accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community,” made her realize how important it is to “share the salvation message of Jesus with the families we serve.”
“It’s why we do what we do at Joni and Friends, and I couldn’t be happier than to be on the frontlines with you and every friend of the ministry,” she wrote.
In addition to living with quadriplegia, Tada has battled cancer twice and, recently, COVID-19.
The speaker and author revealed during an interview that resting in God’s sovereignty, come what may is what enables her to have “profound, unshakable gladness” in the face of “horrible hardships and jaw-biting pain.”
God’s sovereignty “isn’t some doctrinal, otherworldly, theological ivory tower concept that academics talk about, but you’d never really know how to put into practice,” she said, but a “trust in His Word; He can be trusted because He’s not going anywhere.”