(There are) “approximately 143,000 people in the Jackson area who were touched with disabilities. Of those, only 10 percent go to church. It’s the number one unreached group of people in North America.”

Joni and Friends is a nonprofit ministry that works to share the Gospel with those living with disabilities. The organization is starting a satellite office on the Northside and recently named Rev. Craig Barnard as its chapter director.

Barnard recently spoke to Sun Staff Writer Anthony Warren about the ministry and its efforts to reach out to residents and churches on the Northside.

He is a graduate of Belhaven University and Covenant Theological Seminary and lives with his wife Mary Beth and three children near the Ross Barnett Reservoir.

Tell me about Joni and Friends.

“We seek to educate, equip and encourage the church to reach out to families with disabilities. We also help connect families with disabilities to churches or resources that they might need.”

How do you do that?

“We have four main ministries that we work through to achieve those goals: Through the Roof, in which we train the church to develop their own special needs ministry; Family Retreat, a ministry that allows entire families to have a break, get rested and be revived; Wheels for the World, where we harvest old wheelchairs, crutches and other tools, have them restored to like-new condition and take them to countries around the world where people don’t have the means to purchase them; and Special Delivery, where we deliver gifts of resources, encouragement and hope to families through the church.”