{SUMMARY} This paper documents the history of Joni and Friendsas a worldwide missions ministry to people with disabilities which, in 2005, celebrated its 25th anniversary. The organization's ministry, while initially an outgrowth of one person's struggle with a disability {(Joni} Eareckson Tada), developed into a worldwide ministry of witness and service in which evangelical witness was deemed as important as providing wheelchairs to the persons needing them. Gradually, the ministry has grown to a point where ministries in the United States and around the globe function independently yet in a highly integrated manner with the Joni and Friends International Disability Center. Especially significant is its focus on the needs of people with disabilities in developing and formerly communist nations.