Nuhamin “Naomi” Bogale’s life changed forever in the blink of an eye. Originally from Ethiopia, the world-class runner had just moved to Colorado to train with aspirations of being a world record holder. She had previously received a sponsorship from Nike before an injury and had won multiple races against the world’s top athletes. In Colorado, she hoped to get a fresh start with better medical care and more opportunities. All that changed, however, when a hit-and-run driver wrecked the car she was riding in on her way home from practice. Bogale’s back was broken in the wreck, and her spinal cord was injured. “All my body was paralyzed,” she recalled to CBS. Despite the devastating injury and being told it would be years, or possibly never before, she would walk again. She told reporters at the time of her injury, “I believe if I can walk again, why not? I can run again.”

Now, that faith has made sight. “I saw Jesus on my bed [in a] dream, and God is taking my hands too, and Jesus has healed me,” she recalled. With the help of a family in Colorado, she was provided with temporary housing, and a charity helped her pay her bills. With the promise that Jesus would heal her, she determined to do all she could to get better. She shifted her focus from being an athlete to simply walking, beginning physical therapy at Craig Hospital. “Before the accident means, you know, I worked hard as a professional runner to be a champion. Now, like a baby, I was thinking about just to walk,” she said. Slowly, she began to regain feeling in her legs and was able to take her first steps just two weeks before Christmas. Being able to take steps with the aid of a walker just seven months after the accident is nothing short of a miracle, according to Bogale. “I’m working hard, but I do believe more in miracles. It’s a miracle, you know. The science doesn’t prove it [and] the doctors never imagined. Nobody can imagine,” she said. 

Bogale’s story is similar to many stories of miraculous recovery. In 2010, Father John Murray of Brooklyn was facing similar predictions of a lifetime of paralysis after bone chips from his neck severed his spinal cord after he tripped on a New Jersey boardwalk. Yet within a year and a half of his injury, he was able to rise from his wheelchair and walk again with the help of a walker. He credited prayer for his recovery, and the statistics support that belief. According to Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, over 4000 studies have shown that religious people have better mental health, healthier lifestyles, and better recovery outcomes. “People who are more religious just live longer; that’s kind of the bottom line,” he said. Having attained the goal of being able to walk, Bogale is now hoping to run again and believes that Jesus has already healed her. “When [Jesus] healed me, [is] when I walked again. And I can run again for sure,” she said with confidence.