Bonnie Kate Zoghbi is the kind of woman you want your daughters to grow up to be.
Max Zoghbi
Heck, she’s the kind of woman I want to grow up to be.
A woman who radiates the love of Jesus in every circumstance, exudes joy and passion beyond comparison, and inspires everyone around her to be a better person. A person who serves faithfully, loves wondrously and overcomes evil every single day with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Not to mention, she’s a woman who sprinkles flowers everywhere she goes, sports mermaid hair that even Ariel would be envious of, and brings life and color to the world around her.
Beyond her incredible qualities, it’s Bonnie Kate’s story, that makes her all the more admirable.
When she turned 18, Bonnie Kate moved to Haiti to serve full-time in the mission field.
After just a few months, she contracted a tropical virus that caused her to become violently ill and vomit hundreds of times a day.
There was no cure for her illness.
As her now-husband, Max, puts it, “She learned to live with this disease, but still was slowly dying.”
But rather than feeling sorry for herself, or finding it easier to just give up, Bonnie Kate embraced it, knowing God was working through her in this.
After returning home to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bonnie Kate visited her friend Elizabeth in Seattle before the two took a road trip back home to the south.
On July 19, 2012, the girls stopped on their road trip in Colorado—at a town outside of Denver, called Aurora.
The midnight premiere of the new Batman movie led them to the Aurora theater on their quest to make memories.
But just 15 minutes into the movie, James Holmes opened gunfire in theater 9, leaving 12 dead and 70 injured.
Through the darkness—both literally and figuratively—Bonnie Kate and Elizabeth prayed.
An AR-15 rifle bullet sailed across the theater and struck Bonnie Kate—completely destroying her left knee. But both girls survived.
In a video that her husband and filmmaker, Max Zoghbi, put together to propose to his now-wife, he explains that Bonnie Kate has been in pain every hour since the shooting, and very well could be for the rest of her life.
Beyond that, recovering from the massacre was a battle like no other.
“Massive surgeries, unthinkable relentless pain, physical trauma, processing what happened, mourning with those who did not make it out, wondering why she was spared, nights of bad dreams, little rest, more pain, more surgery, more physical therapy…it just seemed too much,” Max says. “And it was.”
“But bathed in prayer by thousands, and cared for and served by her family, Bonnie Kate rose.”
Through perseverance, determination and faith, she learned to walk again. Praying through the pain, choosing joy every day, and putting on a heart of gratitude when given the option to choose bitterness.
In spite of the “to your core, deep bone, angry, relentless type of pain that drains her every day and night,” Max says Bonnie Kate continues to rely on Jesus for her strength.
Her circumstance could easily be blamed on the evil of this world that overtook a man. But Bonnie Kate instead chooses to share her story as a way to praise God for His goodness, His mercy and grace that spared her life, and gives purpose to tragedy today.
Last week, Bonnie Kate took to Instagram on the anniversary of the shooting to reflect on the past five years, and how her life has radically changed because of that fateful night.
“O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be…”
Bonnie Kate Zoghbi
After quoting lyrics to the classic hymn “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go,” the colorful “wildflower” writes:
“Today is a big day.
Today makes five years…
Five years since that fateful dark night.”
Max Zoghbi
“What a bitter, yet beautiful none the less, five years these have been. I’m in constant pain. Everything is challenging, just living and breathing is overwhelming. Every day I’ve had to choose to be brave and soldier through. It’s hard because bravery looks like getting out of bed and choosing joy and putting one foot in front of the other…to most people watching, walking and living doesn’t seem like much, it’s just ‘normal.’ But it’s not normal for me, everything is so costly and those little things are huge challenges for me, and that’s really hard. I love to go and do and adventure and it’s so frustrating to feel so trapped in this broken body weighed down with so much pain….
Bonnie Kate Zoghbi
BUT despite all this, God has used this for good! I have a lump in my throat and hot tears stinging my eyes saying this, but this I cling to, this I know, despite how I feel; God is working through this, He loves me, I have a sure hope, and I can trust Him. His love will not let me go…. So here I am…five years later. Discouraged and heavy to be sure, but determined to choose joy and ‘chase the rainbow through the rain’ as that sweet hymn so poetically puts it.”
As admirable as she was before, Bonnie Kate is the role model we all need in our lives. Whether it’s the clips of her in Max’s video, or the “post-it-sized snapshots” of her life on social media, there’s no question that contagious joy radiates out of her, and draws those watching near to Christ because of it.
Max Zoghbi
Bonnie Kate has the love and strength of Jesus in her heart, and makes others realize that they want whatever it is that she has.
That’s because what man meant for evil, God is using for Good.
