Another Special Life in Christ

These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model!
These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

Julie Reagan:

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she grew up in the small Illinois town of Byron, having been born with cerebral palsy in 1958. She was raised in a Christian family, members of an Assembly of God church. She had such difficulty being understood (because of the cerebral palsy) that she hardly talked. Parents were very loving but strict, knowing of the difficulties awaiting Julie in the "real world". I first met Julie when she e-mailed me 23 December 2004, having read a testimony on my website.

Julie came to belief in Jesus at an early age...no special salvation testimony. The miracle testimony is of how God has worked with her cerebral palsy and scoliosis of the spine.

This miracle testimony, written by Steve Blow, appeared as a write-up in The Dallas Morning News, 18 December 1998. Julie copied it to me, and here it is for your information that God currently is in the business of miracles:

The student has also been quite a Teacher

"They will call it graduation. But transformation is probably a better word. Julie Reagan will walk across the stage at Dallas Baptist University on Friday morning to receive her master's degree in liberal arts.

"That's quite an accomplishment at any standard. But for people who have known Julie over the last few years, its nothing less than miraculous. And I don't use 'miraculous' lightly.

"When Julie first appeared on the Dallas Baptist campus in the early 90s, people saw a 30ish woman with terrible physical disabilities. Cerebral palsy caused her left arm to draw up at an awkward angle. She got around campus in a wheelchair or with an electric cart. A curved spine cast her head partially downward. And when anyone tried to speak to her, she could barely get out a stammering sentence.

"To put it kindly, people wondered what Julie was doing on a college campus. And the truth is, so did she. 'I felt like God was telling me to come here.'

Leaving home

"She grew up in a small town in Illinois. And it seemed that she would remain there all her life. But she made a long visit to Dallas in the 1980s. And when she got back to Illinois, she couldn't stay.

"'It took everything for me to move down here'.  People said, 'You have to be crazy.' I said, 'Yeah, I am crazy. I argued with myself about it, but I knew I had to do it.'

"If you ask the experts, there is no cure for cerebral palsy. It's a brain injury, usually birth-related, that impairs physical movement and coordination.

"Intelligence is often unaffected by cerebral palsy. But Julie said her family and friends didn't seem to understand that. 'I felt like they were treating me as if I was retarded,' she said.

"Julie did have problems with memory and with organizing her thoughts and words. 'I always felt like my elevator went all the way to the top,' she said. 'But it seemed like some floors were missing.'

"Nevertheless, she had a passion to attend college. And as she struggled through class after class at DBU, those missing floors began to appear.

"Beverly Powell is director of Dallas Baptist's writing-improvement program. She had big doubts about Julie in the beginning. 'When she first came to the writing center, she had a 40-page paper due. And she couldn't even create a sentence. She was so frustrated. And to be honest, so was I. I didn't think I could help her.'

"But Ms. Powell said that 'something clicked', and Julie has been writing well ever since.

A new freedom

"Julie said: 'I could feel the words coming together in my mind. And it was like the whole world opened up. I felt like I had been released from a prison.'

"At the same time, people on campus began to see physical changes in Julie. Librarian Judy Srygley was drawn to Julie because she has a child with cerebral palsy.

"'Her whole physical appearance has changed', Ms. Srygley said. 'She's standing taller and straighter. And now she gets around without the aid of a wheelchair or electric cart or anything of that nature.'

"Julie brought the audience to its feet for an emotional ovation two years ago when she wobbled across the stage unassisted to receive her bachelor's degree.

"Today Julie gets around even better. She looks far younger than her 40 years and has a bright, bubbly personality that's well known around campus.

"Ms. Srygley said she thinks there has been a transformation not just in Julie but in the school. 'I think I have seen some attitudes change because of her example. I think we have begun to see that limitations in one area are not limitations on all of life', she said.

"Julie has always relied on Social Security disability income. Now she wants to leave that behind and support herself. 'I'm ready to go', she said. She hopes to find a job helping others with disabilities.

"Oh, and Julie has her own idea about the right word for today's event. Not graduation. Not transformation.

"'Celebration', she said. Her Face Book page (Sept. 2015) is HERE.

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Note another cerebral palsy miracle story & links to others HERE.

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(posted 3 January 2005; latest addition 8 September 2015)

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You have just read a very brief example of the powerful, supernatural transformation of a person's life which is possible through the acceptance of Jesus as your savior. Are you tired of life as it now is for you? He will accept you just as you are right this second! Consider accepting Jesus now [check it out]!