Joni Named WORLD Magazine’s 2017 Daniel of the Year
We’re excited and honored to announce that Joni Eareckson Tada has been named WORLD News Group’s 2017 Daniel of the Year!
Each December, WORLD’s annual Daniel of the Year award is bestowed on a person or persons who exhibit bravery in defense of God’s authority by helping those who are being persecuted. Joni is the 20th recipient of the award, and other winners have included John Ashcroft, Franklin Graham, Wanda Kohn and Stephen C. Meyer.
“For 20 years, WORLD Magazine has been telling the stories of Christians who are overcoming great odds to make the world a better and stronger place,” said Marvin Olasky, WORLD’s editor-in-chief. “We have shared many great stories in that time, but the Daniel winners are always a little different and are doing some amazing, amazing things. Joni Eareckson Tada is one of them. She is an inspiration.”
On top of serving faithfully here at Joni and Friends, Joni has served on the National Council on Disability and the Disability Advisory Committee to the U.S. State Department; she has served as Senior Associate for Disability Concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and serves in an advisory capacity to the American Leprosy Mission, the National Institute on Learning Disabilities and Christian Blind Mission International, as well as on the Board of Reference for the Christian Medical and Dental Society. Joni currently serves on the Young Life Capernaum Board.
“We as Christians have to promote a culture of life and help parents of special-needs children ascribe positive meaning to their child’s pain,” Joni said. “The church can show the world that a child or an adult with a severe disabling condition is not ‘better off dead than disabled.’ Each individual, no matter how medically fragile, is a stunning image-bearer of God; that, if anything, gives him immense worth, dignity, and life worth living.”
Read WORLD Magazine’s profile on Joni and our ministry on the WORLD Magazine website.
