Thankful
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Early on July 11, 1989, 16-year-old Jenny Smith went to cheerleading practice at Seneca Park. The group from Christian Academy was preparing for an upcoming competition.
That morning, a soft blanket of dew covered the grass. Like she had done a thousand times before, Smith bent her knees, whipped her arms up and around for a backflip.
But this time, she slipped, fell face first on the ground, and something popped.
Friends nearby asked if she was OK. But this was more than a fall.
“Don’t move me,” Smith told her friends. "I think I hurt my spinal cord.”
A lot of dreams died with that backflip that day. Smith injured the C6 and C7 vertebrae in her neck, breaking the superhighway of messages between her brain,
arms and legs.
Spending life in a wheelchair isn’t what any teenager plans.
Though some of Smith’s dreams died that day, determination didn’t. Neither did gratitude for every day.
“Later on, I learned that it is not about me,” Smith said. “I can be grateful for what happened 22 years ago, and I can be grateful for so many things God has done
since. I’ve grown through my disability. I don’t follow the ‘what ifs,’ but my life would have been totally different if I hadn’t slipped that day. It has opened up all kinds
of opportunities.”
While waiting for the ambulance, Smith asked her friends to pray.
“From that point on, the whole situation was covered with prayer,” Smith said. “Word spread fast. People at Northeast Christian Church, Southeast and Christian
Academy prayed. The North American Christian Convention was going on that week. Soon they were praying, along with everyone who heard about it.”
Doctors can do a lot, but they couldn’t fix Smith’s injury.
After two weeks in Kosair Children’s Hospital in downtown Louisville, she moved to Baptist Hospital East for rehabilitation. Friends and family crowded her
hospital room.
Three months after the fall, Smith went back to school and began going out with friends who “tossed her in the car.”
She didn’t deal with anger or depression–although years later, Smith realized part of her thought that “good Christians” don’t get mad or depressed.
“My favorite verse through everything was Isaiah 40:31,” Smith said. “…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’”
At times, she struggled with God’s ability to heal and the fact that He didn’t heal her. Some of those questions remain unanswered.
“For me, the key is holding onto hope,” Smith said. “I have something wonderful to look forward to in heaven. All this is temporary.”
Dancing is on her “heaven agenda.” So is running, doing gymnastics and playing piano.
Smith graduated from high school a year early, earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Louisville and went on to earn a master’s degree in counseling
psychology.
She bought a condominium and an equipped van that has logged more than 100,000 miles.
She offers to chauffeur large groups and often has house guests. She has played tennis with the University of Arizona, for Frazier TNT quad rugby, and for the last
seven years, she has rowed with Louisville Adaptive Rowing.
She doesn’t think much about what she can't do.
A whole new ministry opened up in 1998 when Smith learned from missionaries that many people with disabilities in other countries have no access to
wheelchairs.
Some never leave their homes. Others are carted around in wheelbarrows or handmade carts. They cannot make a living or build a life.
She began to think about how to change that. Smith talked with Southeast members who wanted to take wheelchairs into Central Asia, where many suffered
profound injuries from landmines and to Mexico, where few with disabilities have access to mobility.
“When they asked if I wanted to go to Mexico that first time, I laughed—a little like when Sarah laughed at God about having a baby in her old age. Six months
later, I took my first mission trip to Mexico, and it was the beginning of a whole new life,” Smith said.
Smith began working with a non-profit organization, taking refurbished wheelchairs to countries that needed them most. She went to Afghanistan in 2003, soon
after the Taliban had been removed, and returned five more times.
“The thing that kept me going back and back again is seeing the smile on someone’s face, whether it is an adult or child, when they get a chair and see what
they are capable of doing,” Smith said.
Southeast member Larry Freibert was part of several teams to Afghanistan.
“I’ve seen Jenny in some really tough spots,” he said. “One time when we landed, the officials wouldn’t let her have her chair. I tried to argue with them, but Jenny
just smiled and talked with officials until they released her chair. She is like that all the time no matter what she faces.”
These days, Smith now works in Member Care for Team Expansion, a church-planting organization active in 43 countries. She encourages and spends time with
young missionaries going to the field.
“She has total confidence in God’s will,” Peterson said. “She’s here to minister to others. It’s remarkably humbling to all of us—especially when we want to complain about something. Jenny lives with a constant attitude of gratitude.”