I still walk a little funny: The kick-butt chaplain’s faith

In 1996, doctors found a benign tumor in her brain the size of a tennis ball. The day after it was removed, she had a stroke. Her right side became paralyzed.

"I was frightened and mad. Mostly I worried about my husband and daughters: What about them?" said Chaplain Margaret Muncie.

So many people prayed for her. She was not allowed to abandon hope, not through the years of physical therapy that reduced her paralysis to a lurching limp, thanks to a recently fitted electronic neurostimulating device she calls "my own little miracle."

"I walk faster now. I’m the kick-butt chaplain." Now she is in her fifth year at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.

She says her core belief about healing is found in Psalm 121: "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth," – spirit and body, faith and medicine.

Her own experience deeply informs her ministry now. "In Scripture it says, ‘Get up from your bed and walk, your faith has made you well.’ ‘Well’ doesn’t mean perfect. But wholeness and healing can happen, even when there is still brokenness on the outside. I’m more whole than 12 years ago. But I still walk a little funny."

Advice: Faith and medicine are a powerful combination.

Read one of our brain tumor survivor stories, or read more from Jan Hoffman’s article in today’s New York Times.