Our Story of Disability

Since 2017, we’ve been building a space of belonging and belovedness alongside our community of over 4,500 Hope Heals Camp participants. Creating and sustaining Hope Heals Camp is among our highest callings and greatest honors, but it was never the work we expected to do with our lives.

After I survived a near-fatal brainstem stroke in 2008, we were left with a bittersweet new normal—living a miraculous second chance but also dealing with long-term, life-changing disabilities.

At first, I didn't want to be the "miracle girl in the wheelchair," but after years of connecting with all kinds of hurting people, I found my external disabilities were a bridge to those with "invisible wheelchairs.” We came to see there is a deeper, universal reality that we are all disabled—unable to do life without God or each other. 

In 2014, we were the speakers at a camp for families with disabilities where we had a profound revelation that although we were on stage, we could just have easily been campers. These were our people. We uniquely understood their struggles, and we could be a voice for this unheard population, the largest minority group in the world. In a plot twist only God could write, we took ownership of that family camp in 2016 and have been running sessions of Hope Heals Camp ever since. 

Our story of disability is hard but good. We’ve been able to flourish within these constraints because of the spiritual resources and communal support we were given. Sadly, our story is the exception, not the norm. Most individuals and families affected by disability are struggling to live in a world not made for them...isolated, lonely, despairing. The Hope Heals Camp community believes hope and hardship can co-exist for every person with a broken brain, body, or heart.

We’ve prepared this sacred space for you—the hurting, the healing, and the hopeful—to experience the goodness of God in the context of inclusive, intentional, inter-ability community.