Pursuing Joy in Christ with Disabilities on this edition of Truth and Love.

I'm Heath Lambert and you're listening to Truth and Love, a podcast of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors,

where we seek to provide biblical solutions

for the problems that people face. This week on the podcast, I am uniquely excited about our guest

and our topic. Our guest this week is Johnny Erickson Tata, and our topic is the one of pursuing

joy in Christ with persons who are affected with disabilities.

And Johnny, we are so excited that you've joined us here on the podcast.

You've done it before, and we're glad you're back.

I'm happy to be back, and I hope that this conversation between us really edifies, encourages, and builds up our listeners.

Well, I know it will.

And one of the things that I

have just grown in enthusiasm for over the last two and a half, three years is just connecting the

ministry of biblical counseling with persons who are affected with disabilities. And I want to view

your podcast that you joined us on before. And this podcast this week is even just an introduction to that.

And so for people who are listening to our conversation, and maybe they don't know even what a disability is, how would you explain what a disability is?

Well, it's a good question, Heath, and forgive me for being a little technical, but a disability

is any physical or mental impairment which makes it more challenging to fulfill any sort of

different major life activity, walking, seeing, thinking, hearing.

So if we were to categorize it, disabilities would be disabling conditions such as hearing

impairments, visual impairments, blindness, intellectual disabilities. We don't use the words

retard or people with defects. We talk about people with intellectual disabilities, people with cognitive impairments,

stroke survivors, let's say, who have a bit more of a challenge to do math, let's say.

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