Praying Big Prayers | Kaela's Story

Kaela grew up carrying challenges most kids around her never had to think about. She had a stroke at birth, later diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and much of her childhood was shaped by surgeries, hospital visits, braces, and hard work just to do what others did naturally, run, jump, play sports. But her family had a steady foundation through it all: prayer. Even when a major surgery carried an 18% success rate, her story became one that doctors still look back on as a moment covered in prayer, the kind of outcome that feels like more than medical odds.

Prayer wasn’t only for the hospital. Kaela also grew up praying big, adult-sized prayers as a middle schooler, asking God to protect her family through her dad’s struggle with alcoholism and to hold her parents’ marriage together. The answers didn’t come overnight, but years later she can see how God was moving, how her family was preserved, and how those early prayers mattered. When she moved to Norman for OU, she came to Victory Family Church nervous and unsure, and a simple moment at the end of service, someone praying over her with confidence and care, made it feel like home. Today, Kaela gets to pass that same gift forward, praying with kids and watching them realize God hears them, even when the answer takes time. If you want to hear how she learned to trust God day by day, and why she’s convinced prayer changes more than circumstances, watch Kaela’s full story on YouTube.