At Joni and Friends, 98% of our ministry programs around the world come to life through the Christlike love and dedication of volunteers… like Jonathan...

Joni and Friends Blog

22.04.2025

The Fellowship | Joni and Friends

The words “fellowship” and “suffering” don’t look as though they fit together. One communicates comfort. The other, pain. Yet God links these words...

Joni and Friends Blog

21.04.2025

Lover of My Soul | Joni and Friends

When I approach the Lord in prayer, I relate to him in different ways. Occasionally I talk with him as my elder Brother, which he is...

Joni and Friends Blog

21.04.2025

Serving with a Heart Full of Faith: A Volunteer’s Journey of Love and Purpose | Joni and Friends

Cindy first heard about Joni and Friends while serving as a home health and hospice volunteer. Walking alongside a family whose two sons had...

Joni and Friends Blog

20.04.2025

Easter Sunday | Joni and Friends

When I was a child, I sang a lot of hymns with my family. As a five-year-old, my imagination went wild the first time I heard everyone singing...

Joni and Friends Blog

19.04.2025

Holy Week: Good Friday | Joni and Friends

Most of us can get a little worked up when we are falsely accused. Sure, we can handle “valid” criticism—or maybe we can’t! But when someone attacks...

Joni and Friends Blog

19.04.2025

Holy Week: Saturday | Joni and Friends

“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’)...

Joni and Friends Blog

17.04.2025

Good Friday: A Day to Remember Christ’s Ultimate Sacrifice | Joni and Friends

Every year around this time—right before Easter—a certain plant comes alive on my patio with bright, red blossoms. It is a Euphorbia milii, commonly known as...

Joni and Friends Blog

17.04.2025

Holy Week: Thursday | Joni and Friends

Do you recall what it’s like to cram for an exam? Especially a “now or never” exam? How about an exam on the Bible? Unless you’re a seminary student...

Joni and Friends Blog

17.04.2025

Holy Week: Wednesday | Joni and Friends

We don’t often associate laughter and joy with the days leading up to Easter. You can’t sentimentalize something as gruesome as a crucifixion...

Joni and Friends Blog

15.04.2025

Finding Love, Acceptance, and Friendship at Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

It had been a long day. But for a moment, sitting poolside during her child’s swimming lesson, Lea got to compare notes with a fellow mom named Pam...

Joni and Friends Blog

15.04.2025

Holy Week: Tuesday | Joni and Friends

Follow me. That’s something we often hear Jesus saying to us either from the pages of Scripture or from that still small voice in our hearts...

Joni and Friends Blog

14.04.2025

Holy Week: Monday | Joni and Friends

Certainly, during this week leading up to Easter, many of us are following closely in the footsteps of our Savior. On Palm Sunday he entered Jerusalem...

Joni and Friends Blog

13.04.2025

The Sheep Are Gathered | Joni and Friends

Zechariah 13 says, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” It’s exactly what happened that night the disciples deserted Jesus...

Joni and Friends Blog

12.04.2025

Me Crucify God? Never! | Joni and Friends

When I was first paralyzed in the hospital, I kicked a girlfriend out of my room and screamed, “Don’t come back!” I’d like to think my rage was...

Joni and Friends Blog

12.04.2025

Yosemite’s Majestic Beauty: A Powerful Reflection of God’s Infinite Power | Joni and Friends

Yosemite National Park is one of the most glorious places on earth. Tucked deep into the High Sierra mountains of California, this park covers nearly...

Joni and Friends Blog

11.04.2025

Compassion | Joni and Friends

What word best describes the way you feel when you watch a dear friend in agony? What is the word you wrap around your feelings when...

Joni and Friends Blog

10.04.2025

Consider It Pure Joy | Joni and Friends

A trial is not just an assault to be withstood, it is an opportunity to be seized. And this little verse in James is intended to inspire, showing us that...

Joni and Friends Blog

09.04.2025

Serving with Love: The Heart of a Volunteer in God’s Mission | Joni and Friends

The Lord’s call to Deb Butcher came through the radio… in a spot promoting Joni and Friends Family Retreats in her area in 2001. She had been looking for a...

Joni and Friends Blog

09.04.2025

A Good Soldier | Joni and Friends

If the Bible were filmed as an action-adventure movie, the script would read like this: the King’s most trusted officer turns renegade and gathers a powerful...

Joni and Friends Blog

09.04.2025

A New Chapter: Welcoming Shawn Thornton as President | Joni and Friends

Oh, I have great news!... It’s important news, too. Whenever I pray about the future of Joni and Friends, I always ask God to help us keep the Gospel of Jesus...

Joni and Friends Blog

08.04.2025

Faith That Blesses | Joni and Friends

Over the last few months my backyard bird feeder hasn’t been much to look at. No visitors except a few hardy sparrows...

Joni and Friends Blog

07.04.2025

Power Made Perfect in Weakness: Leading with a Disability | Joni and Friends

Growing up, Lindsay never wanted to be different than other kids her age. But she knew that she was. After all, Lindsay couldn’t run on the playground...

Joni and Friends Blog

07.04.2025

Will God Give Up on You? | Joni and Friends

I grieve to think how I treated my friends when I was in the hospital. They would sit by my bedside while I lay there in stubborn silence. They would...

Joni and Friends Blog

06.04.2025

The Dead Shall Rise | Joni and Friends

What an odd Sunday afternoon I had. My mother-in-law recently purchased a family grave plot at a cemetery called Forest Lawn...

Joni and Friends Blog

05.04.2025

The Love of Christ | Joni and Friends

The supreme reason that you can and should trust God through suffering is found at Calvary, for no better argument can be voiced apart from the cross...

Joni and Friends Blog

04.04.2025

Getting to Know All of God | Joni and Friends

When I think of God the Father’s special gift to us, I think of his plan of salvation. The Father was the one who came up with the idea.

Joni and Friends Blog

03.04.2025

Sow in Tears | Joni and Friends

What a promise! Think of it. When you sow in tears, what a marvelous and abundant return you will enjoy on your investment...

Joni and Friends Blog

02.04.2025

God Starts What He Finishes | Joni and Friends

You ought to see how many half-finished drawings and paintings I have in my art studio. They are piled everywhere...

Joni and Friends Blog

01.04.2025

Discovering the Love of God in Thailand through Joni’s House | Joni and Friends

Praram was just a year old when his mom, Phornnapa, first asked herself: Does my son have autism? At the time Praram’s doctors didn’t share...

Joni and Friends Blog

01.04.2025

Jesus’ Pre-Cross Crash Course | Joni and Friends

Have you ever crammed for a “now or never” exam? On the Bible? Unless you’re a seminary student, probably not...

Joni and Friends Blog

31.03.2025

The Power of Grace | Joni and Friends

I wish I could describe what it’s like when I sense the overwhelming presence and power of God’s grace. It’s like “living above” my wheelchair...

Joni and Friends Blog

30.03.2025

You Did It for Me | Joni and Friends

The year is A.D. 33. It’s late on a stormy Friday afternoon, and I am standing on a rugged hill by a trash heap outside Jerusalem...

Joni and Friends Blog

29.03.2025

Winter’s End | Joni and Friends

I’m getting tired of winter. But not the winter you are used to. In southern California, the season is one long stretch of balmy, sunny days...

Joni and Friends Blog

28.03.2025

Mary Listened | Joni and Friends

For weeks, Jesus had been telling His disciples that He would soon be crucified and taken from them. Judging from their confusion after His death...

Joni and Friends Blog

27.03.2025

You Are God’s Friend If… | Joni and Friends

How do you like your friends? Do you like them to be faithful and loyal? Encouraging, thoughtful, and kind? Of course you do. But how many of your...

Joni and Friends Blog

26.03.2025

Wrong Expectations | Joni and Friends

No wonder those people waving palm branches were so excited. They had great expectations of Jesus. This was the one who would throw...

Joni and Friends Blog

25.03.2025

Giving All You’ve Got | Joni and Friends

Ken and I have often enjoyed participating in the annual Wheel-a-thon to benefit our local university’s center for disabled people. We fill up sponsor forms...

home›Joni and Friends Blog›Kids & Parenting

Joni and Friends Blog - Kids & Parenting

Building on the Foundation | Joni and Friends

A Lesson from a Sprig | Joni and Friends

Our Volunteers Demonstrate the Love of Jesus Worldwide | Joni and Friends

The Fellowship | Joni and Friends

Lover of My Soul | Joni and Friends

Serving with a Heart Full of Faith: A Volunteer’s Journey of Love and Purpose | Joni and Friends

Easter Sunday | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Good Friday | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Saturday | Joni and Friends

Good Friday: A Day to Remember Christ’s Ultimate Sacrifice | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Thursday | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Wednesday | Joni and Friends

Finding Love, Acceptance, and Friendship at Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Tuesday | Joni and Friends

Holy Week: Monday | Joni and Friends

The Sheep Are Gathered | Joni and Friends

Me Crucify God? Never! | Joni and Friends

Yosemite’s Majestic Beauty: A Powerful Reflection of God’s Infinite Power | Joni and Friends

Compassion | Joni and Friends

Consider It Pure Joy | Joni and Friends

Serving with Love: The Heart of a Volunteer in God’s Mission | Joni and Friends

A Good Soldier | Joni and Friends

A New Chapter: Welcoming Shawn Thornton as President | Joni and Friends

Faith That Blesses | Joni and Friends

Power Made Perfect in Weakness: Leading with a Disability | Joni and Friends

Will God Give Up on You? | Joni and Friends

The Dead Shall Rise | Joni and Friends

The Love of Christ | Joni and Friends

Getting to Know All of God | Joni and Friends

Sow in Tears | Joni and Friends

God Starts What He Finishes | Joni and Friends

Discovering the Love of God in Thailand through Joni’s House | Joni and Friends

Jesus’ Pre-Cross Crash Course | Joni and Friends

The Power of Grace | Joni and Friends

You Did It for Me | Joni and Friends

Winter’s End | Joni and Friends

Mary Listened | Joni and Friends

You Are God’s Friend If… | Joni and Friends

Wrong Expectations | Joni and Friends

Giving All You’ve Got | Joni and Friends

home
›
Joni and Friends Blog
›
Kids & Parenting