About Rachael

For a major part of her life, Rachael was the kid that got picked on.  She has good ears.  She could hear what others were saying as she passed.  Rachael had a learning disability.  Verbally she was great and able to grasp anything one had to say.  She also suffers from a mild form of Tourette syndrome.  It was a tick that she suffered from on occasion.  Her way and methods were often met with behind the back ridicule and mocking.  When she was in high school, she was an honored member of the Venice High Weightlifting Team.  She graduated with a special needs diploma from Venice, High School and worked for several years at a nursing home before deciding to go to Moody Bible College in Chicago, Illinois, a gutsy move for someone with her challenges.  Not only that, she learned to maneuver around Chicagoland on the ‘L’ and other trains.  Upon returning, the Lord worked mightily in her life, changing her heart in many ways.  She ended up going to Word of Life in Hudson, Florida where she was working on her 2 year study until the day before her return for her last semester, January 1, 2011, when the accident occurred.  It was then that Rachael’s heart all but stopped from an electrocution accident in our backyard.  Her brain damage was considered “catastrophic” and the prognosis was very grim.  We were told to be ready to face the fact that Rachael would be in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS).  Read the blog, see what Jesus has done.

Rachael is brave.  She has never liked ‘being different’ and always sought acceptance.  She is the type of person that God uses to modulate the very things that most of us try to keep subdued.  She was as comfortable to a person as the conviction of your sin.  She fought many internal battles in her life relating to her place, her image and her acceptance.  She reached a point where she questioned her continued existence.  Seeking the Lord, she pulled back and got on track.  All those hard times are nothing compared to what she has gone through following the accident.  She is an incredibly brave lover of our Lord.  With her high level of cognition and low level of functionality, she laughs and has even found ways to joke around.  Yes, she has hard days and every day there is a cry but she is overcoming more than she has ever been faced with before.   She is brave due to our Lord, she is joyful due to our Lord and she is healing due to our Lord.  Rachael Hinkle is incredible.