Stroke
December 11, 2011 an event happened that drastically changed my life.
At the age of 31, I suffered a major stroke when a part of my carotid artery had a small tear and caused a blood clot to go to my brain. I had gone home to watch our four children after having lunch with a friend, while my wife, Beth, went to an appointment. I was not feeling well but attributed it to just beginning an aggressive exercise program to lose the large amount of weight I’d gained. I’d also hoped to lower my occasional high blood pressure, but I had not taken it too seriously because I was only 31. That day I simply got up to go to the bathroom and, in a moment of time, collapsed. My life was forever changed.
Before the Stroke
I think everyone who knew me before my stroke would say that I was striving to serve God and had a growing personal relationship with the Lord. Three of my passions were, and still are, music, technology, and camp ministries. I had grown up in a minister’s home and had actively spent my life working in and around ministry. At the age of four I accepted Christ as my Savior and, shortly after, began piano lessons, which was the beginning of my passion for music. I was baptized a few years later and, at the early age of 11, became the pianist in my father’s church. Many people said that I was a natural leader and seemed to be pursuing after God intently. I excelled academically in school and also tried hard to be a leader there. Through high school and college, I traveled to several countries on mission trips with Word of Life. My first trip was to Peru with Rick Warken when I was just 15. Rick has become a lifelong friend, and I have never forgotten how those trips increased my perspective on ministry opportunities. Another lifelong interest has been technology. An uncle introduced me to computer programming at about age ten and I continued with that interest through college, eventually developing web pages and building computer systems. After college I married my wife, Beth, and we began serving as Word of Life Local Church Missionaries in Washington state. In 2009 we moved from Washington to Pottersville, New York, to work at the Word of Life headquarters, where I continued to serve local churches, work on technology, and serve in music ministry. I also spoke at many events within the different areas of Word of Life. I was then promoted to a director’s role with one of the teen camps, which was a dream opportunity for me. However, God had other plans.
Since the Stroke
The world as I knew it crumbled in just a few moments. Following my stroke, I was given a drug to break up the clot but then had a brain bleed to further magnify the damage caused by the stroke. The day after my stroke, it was determined that the small hospital I was at could not help me any further. I was life-flighted to another hospital where I underwent an emergency craniotomy to relieve the pressure on my brain that was sure to take my life if not fixed. After three weeks in a coma, I had another surgery to place a tracheotomy, so I could breathe without a ventilator. As I slowly regained consciousness, the damage was soon realized. Initially, and for many days and weeks, I was only able to speak two words: ball and line. Through intense physical, speech, and occupational therapies, I was able to relearn to stand and walk again. My right, dominant side was paralyzed, so many things needed to be relearned using my left hand. Though aphasia is still very much a part of my life now, I have learned to communicate in other ways.
Through my difficulties I have determined I can still strive to have an impact on the world around me. I am continuing to find ways to serve and share Christ with others. One of those ways is through the Grow My Walk online Bible study tool. It is designed with those who, like me, have an inability to read, especially after a stroke, but still want to grow daily from the Word of God. However, it could be a great tool for anyone and everyone to use.
My focus today is on my new website, Never Once. Its name comes from a song by Matt Redmon, which I first discovered in the weeks leading up to my stroke. “Never Once” was the theme song to carry Beth, I, and many of our friends through those very dark and lonely hours. My prayer for this new ministry, NeverOnce.org, is that it will assist other stroke victims through resources and encouragement, and it will help them and their families know they are not alone; they have the online presence as well as occasional group meetings in the future.