School of Music alumni Gracie and Peter Rosenberger Speak on Accident, Mission
On Wednesday, Belmont welcomed back School of Music alumni Gracie and Peter Rosenberger for the inaugural “Alumni on Mission” event, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations. Alumni on Mission is a new series featuring Belmont alumni who incorporate mission and ministry in their everyday lives.
Emerging from a catastrophic car wreck resulting in more than 70 operations, including the amputation of both legs, Gracie and her husband Peter founded non-profit organization Standing With Hope in order to provide artificial limbs to amputees in developing countries… all as an evangelical Christian outreach. The couple also recently released a new book chronicling their story, Gracie, Standing with Hope.
On Nov. 18, 1983, Gracie was injured in a devastating car accident as she traveled from Belmont, where she was in the first semester of her freshman year, to Little Rock to meet a friend. The extensive trauma Gracie experienced included multiple breaks in every bone from her waist down, multiple compound fractures, massive blood loss requiring 23 blood transfusions, and infections. Eventually, both legs were amputated below the knee. Relinquishing her own legs became the springboard to a ministry to other amputees. Drawing upon her own experiences with quality prosthetic limbs, Gracie purposes, through Standing with Hope, to equip and train local technicians in developing countries to fabricate and maintain limbs for their own people.
“It takes a lot more guts to believe in a good and loving God when you’re doing it wearing artificial, metal legs,” Gracie said, as she described her loss as beacons of God’s redemption. “I’m so grateful that I’ve been allowed the opportunity to see the part of God that redeems horrible things. If God can make sense out of this, then He can do it for you. He’s big enough.”
Click here to see additional photos from the event.
