When Saint Hewett was in the fourth grade, she discovered a deep and undying passion for grammar. She pursued this love through high school and college where she sought a degree to become an English teacher. Alongside her passion for grammar, there was a love of literature and an intense yearning for a deeper relationship with Jesus. She earned a double major in biblical studies and English literature before getting her masters degree in teaching. Saint Hewett hoped to take her high school English teacher's job when she graduated as they had agreed when she was a sophomore in her class, but the Lord had other plans. Her dream job was not available when she graduated, and she felt the Lord prompting her to learn a lesson of dependence on him by moving outside her comfort zone. Way outside her comfort zone. She applied to teach at schools in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Germany, India, and the Czech Republic. She was hoping for Mexico or Germany, and Germany offered her the job first. She moved to Germany without knowing a word of German (aside from a few salty unusable terms she picked up in The Book Thief) in August 2013 to teach English and Bible at Black Forest Academy.
The position was better than her dream job, and she loved everything about working at BFA. The weekend before the first finals week she worked here, she went to an indoor rock climbing facility with a few friends and never made it home. Laura fell from the top of the rock wall and broke two vertebrae. She asked the Lord to heal her, and he has and is in the most unexpected and beautiful way.
Laura still works at BFA, though only part time, and she is working hard to regain mobility and function through ongoing physical therapy. She has learned so much about her Savior, and she delighted that he's chosen to use her to make him famous in any small way that she can. She originally started sharing about her journey of recovery post-paralysis on the Post Hope platform, and you can read the first five years of her blog posts by clicking here.