Her Body is Broken; Her Soul is Not. Meet Katherine Wolf.

“It started as a normal day…”

Anytime a story begins with that line, you know it’s not going to end well. Katherine’s story begins like that.

April 21, 2008 started as a normal day. Katherine was a 26-year-old wife and new mother. She had been the picture of health. But on that fateful Monday she experienced what she describes as a “funky feeling” she couldn’t shake. Within hours, she was on her hands and knees throwing up, her body slowly going numb.

The paramedics arrived in the nick of time to save Katherine’s life. She lost consciousness on the emergency gurney and didn’t wake up for two months.

She had suffered a massive brain-stem stroke caused by an extremely rare congenital defect. Basically, a tangle of weakened capillaries and blood vessels, invisible without sophisticated medical tests, ruptured. The pressure from the bleeding was literally squeezing her brain into her spinal column.

It could have killed her.

Katherine survived but has endured a lengthy recovery process, including 11 post-stroke surgeries. She remains severely disabled. She can’t walk on her own or drive a car. She is deaf in one ear, suffers from double vision, and has one hand with no fine motor control. Her face is paralyzed on one side.

And yet, as you’ll hear on our program today, it hasn’t affected her soul!

Katherine’s story inspires me and reminds me why our relationship with Christ is the ultimate answer for our pain.

That’s not to suggest that the journey has been easy for Katherine or her husband, Jay. Their faith in Christ has certainly been tested. They know how deeply tragedy cuts – even when we know it’s coming.

Jesus told us it would be this way, and the pages of God’s Word never minimizes the suffering of humanity. But it also teaches us that it’s in the fires of trial and difficulty that our faith is truly challenged.

Katherine and Jay Wolf have worn a long path down that road. Maybe you have, too. We hear from a lot of families who have experienced unexpected tragedy like the Wolf’s – or similar pain, like illness, divorce, or the death of a loved one.

Join us for their story, “Staying Together When Tragedy Strikes Your Marriage.” Rediscover for yourself how God’s answer for our suffering is deep and abiding Truth that infuses hope into our darkest realities. You can hear our program on your local radio station, online, or download our free phone app.