I met Trent Dubberke at camp meeting two years ago.
He was about to participate in the annual 5K run/walk. He rolled up to the starting line in a manually powered wheelchair and enthusiastically sped off down the road.
The route takes participants up and down several small hills. One-by-one I watched the runners cross the finish line. Then the walkers. Then finally—eventually—Trent. His arm strength had long been spent, yet he had somehow willed himself to push on with a determination that nearly catapulted his slender frame out of the chair with each thrust of the wheels. It didn’t matter to him that he had finished last. What mattered was that he had finished.
It wasn’t always like this.
Trent grew up in Beaman, Iowa. He had what most would consider a normal childhood. He was outgoing, active and enjoyed sports. In high school Trent participated in hockey, football, wrestling, track, dance, speech and musicals. He dreamed of being a professional hockey player and had even been invited to try out for a USHL hockey team.
The night everything changed
On June 14, 2004 while watching a movie at his grandparents’ house, Trent’s right shoulder started to cramp. The pain grew more intense until what felt like electricity shot down his arm and across his chest. Thinking he was experiencing a heart attack, Trent’s grandparents rushed him to the emergency room. Because his heart seemed fine, the doctors were convinced it was an anxiety attack and sent him home with something to help him sleep.
A few hours later, however, Trent was back in the ER. He could feel his limbs growing heavy and numb, and within minutes he lost feeling and movement throughout his body. An MRI confirmed that Trent, at the age of 17, had suffered a spinal stroke.
“I was fully paralyzed from the neck down,” he said. “Doctors had no idea how much movement I’d get back, if any.”
The long road to recovery
Trent spent two weeks in intensive care, followed by six months of physical rehabilitation. He regained some movement in his arms and hands, but not enough to care for himself.
“My parents had to help me with everything,” he said. “Dressing, getting in and out of bed and my chair, driving me places, going to the bathroom, showering, cooking—everything. I honestly thought it was going to be like that for the rest of my life.”
In 2010 Trent was encouraged by his mom and doctors to attend a Christian wheelchair sports camp in Minnesota. Though he had some reservations, Trent agreed to go.
“For the first time since my injury, I didn’t feel like a minority or out of place,” he said. “I met people who were close to my age who had similar experiences. What separated them from me, though, was that they never let that stop them from living life and being active.”
Trent had been convinced he would not see any further improvement at that point, but at the wheelchair camp he found encouragement to push himself to live a fuller, more independent life.
“During those five days my life took a turn toward a brighter future,” he said. “I did things I never thought were possible: water skiing, scuba diving, playing softball, paintball, [hand-powered] biking, rope climbing, horseback riding, tennis, dodge ball and so much more!”
This newfound determination led to other improvements at home. Trent, who had previously been confined to his power wheelchair, began using a manual chair full time. He worked on transferring in and out of the chair until he perfected it. He figured out how to dress himself and do other tasks and eventually decided to live on his own.
Trent returns to the wheelchair camp each year with a whole list of improvements and has become a source of hope and encouragement for others there.
Beyond the physical
Trent believes God allowed this trial to come into his life to save him.
He grew up in a Christian home but struggled to make his family’s faith his own. Like many teenagers, he experimented with drugs and alcohol. As he grew older, Trent became convinced that God didn’t exist.
In 2014 his mom learned about an Adventist prophecy seminar being held at Marshalltown Community College in Marshalltown, Iowa, where Trent was then a student. She asked Trent to go with her, but he wasn’t interested. When she couldn’t find anyone else to go with her, however, Trent agreed to go.
“The first study was on Daniel 2, and I was blown away!” he said. “I’m a huge history buff, so I was familiar with the four kingdoms. I also knew that no man could possibly predict the future with that much accuracy on his own.”
Trent and his mom kept coming back night after night, and God began to change him. He gave up drugs and alcohol, and he made other significant changes to his diet and lifestyle. Trent and his mom began attending the Marshalltown Church after the series was over and were both baptized on June 28 of that year.
Trent now regularly preaches at his church and has been a guest speaker at several other Adventist churches in the area. He plans to attend Southern Adventist University to obtain a theology degree.
New possibilities for a full recovery
When I reconnected with Trent at camp meeting last year, he again lined up to compete in the 5K run/walk. This time, however, he was using a hand-powered recumbent trike and finished far from last place.
He introduced me to his wife of just over a month, Suzy. They met online a couple years earlier and, after studying the Bible together, had started dating. Suzy has helped Trent push himself even further, and for the first time in 14 years there are signs of hope of a full recovery. Through the power of prayer and sheer determination, Trent has regained limited use of his legs.
There’s an intensive physical therapy program in Minnesota that Trent hopes to participate in this summer. It’s being headed up by the physical therapist Trent had when he was first injured, and she believes she can help him. Trent has started raising funds so he can participate.
“I truly believe it will greatly improve my lifestyle, further my independence and increase my strength,” he said. “It will also allow me to take the gospel forward into places that would otherwise be inaccessible to me.”
Please keep Trent in your prayers. He may or may not experience a full recovery this side of heaven, but in either case I’m confident I will see him at camp meeting once again as he takes his place at the starting line for the 5K run/walk. Trent is an example to all of us to always keep striving—physically, mentally and spiritually—until, like Paul, we can say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7, NIV).
