Stroke Survivor Katherine Wolf Speaks At Liberty’s Convocation, Shares Inspiring Personal Story

“We all have invisible wheelchairs,” Katherine Wolf said during Convocation on April 8. She is the founder of Hope Heals, a ministry devoted to spreading the message of hope and Christ. She started her ministry to help others be able to experience this hope and spread its message through books, summer camps and speaking events for people with disabilities. 

“My favorite thing she mentioned was the camp for disabled people. When I was younger, I served at a camp for disabled kids, and it resonated with me. I can totally get behind something like that,” Liberty student James Moffat said. 

Along with her ministry, Wolf brought up some statistics about disabled people. She said that they score the highest out of any minority on rates for suicide, depression and divorce, “all the worst things,” as she put it. 

“People living with disability are the most unchurched population in the entire world … surely we can do better, honoring our brothers and sisters with disabilities by helping them get in the door, much less enter into the deep encouragement available in Christ,” Wolf said.

Wolf’s ministry started after she became wheelchair-bound due to experiencing an arteriovenous malformation. AVM is an abnormal entanglement of blood vessels which disrupts normal blood flow and oxygen circulation and very easily allows the blood vessels to rupture. It should have killed her, but because of a neurosurgeon who decided to take a chance, she survived. 

After going through the surgery, Wolf spoke about how it was not easy to accept her new life in a wheelchair. She had no medical history of prior health problems and had a normal life growing up.

She went to college, where she met and married her college sweetheart and had her first son. But when her son reached about  6 1/2  months old, one of the worst things imaginable happened. Smith had a catastrophic stroke, due to a congenital brain defect, and she fell into a coma for two months before she woke up. 

For five years, she sat there just trying to come to terms with it. But over time, she spoke about how she discovered it was more than a disability, it was a way to reach others.

“The term wheelchair-bound never really settled right with me … because I’m not. I am actually wheelchair-free. Not because I can jump up out of my wheelchair, but because this wheelchair enables me to do my life,” Wolf said. 

She said that we all have wheelchairs, whether physical or other things that take a toll on our minds.

“I love how she talked about how sometimes our wheelchairs can become the ways that we bless and show others the love of God because sometimes things that look like they’re bad can actually be a good thing, and they can show love,” Liberty student Nolan Kraft said.

This was where Wolf heavily emphasized that there is both good and bad in life.

“There can exist both joy and sorrow in the same story,” Wolf said. 

She spoke about how her first few months after waking up from the stroke were especially difficult, and while she has always had deep faith and joy in the Lord, it was not easy. 

“I’m not saying that this wheelchair is the best thing that has ever happened in my life and that I just love it every day. No, that would be silly. But I think there’s something very powerful about recognizing that this is in my story. This is a part of my life, like it or not. So, all that matters now is what you’re going to do about it,” Wolf said.

Wineman is a news reporter.

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