Disability and destiny: Nick Vujicic
Nick Vujicic has tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare medical phenomenon where an individual is born without arms or legs. Although researchers still don’t know much about his condition, his story is a well-known one.
As shared in his book, “Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life,” Vujicic was born to Serbian immigrant parents in Australia in 1982 and has lived his whole life without arms or legs.
The only semblance of limbs he has are two partially developed feet, one of which — his so-called “chicken drumstick” — has two toes that he uses to grab things and complete daily tasks.
While videos online of Vujicic show him saying he trusts in God’s plan, Vujicic didn’t always know what he was meant to do with his life.
In fact, he often considered and even attempted suicide as a child.
The first born in his family, even his parents initially struggled to accept Vujicic as their son, a story shared by Vujicic in his interview with 60 Minutes.
Immediately upon his birth, his condition was the first thing doctors noticed, but his parents didn’t immediately see him — only the looks on the medical staff members’ faces. When a nurse finally held up Vujicic to his mother, she refused to hold him.
This attitude soon changed though as Vujicic’s parents, Dušanka and Borislav, realized that he was still their son and were given the opportunity to be his parents for a reason.
In his early years, his parents’ love for their son and Vujicic’s “imagination and sheer will” saw an immense growth in his capabilities and independence, despite having a lack of mobility and typical functionality.
This period of unstoppable will was short-lived, though.
According to IMBd, a then-Victoria law prohibited Vujicic from entering public schools, despite no lack of brain development and cognition.
In spite of this law, Vujicic was admitted into school and said he was the first handicapped student in the education system of Australia to be integrated into the mainstream school system.
This then opened up the gateway for a “great trailblazing integration for everyone else with special needs.”
Vujicic, however, also said he was met with significant hardships including bullying and exclusion as well as severe problems with his self-image.
“Obviously, bullying is rampant. Having no arms and legs and actually also not having any medical reason — it was difficult to be the center of attention so quickly,” Vujicic said. “Wherever I went, everyone looked at me and I started wondering, ‘Why me?’ And it didn’t seem like many people could really understand what I was going through.
Vujicic knew he wasn’t normal and quickly learned what type of future was inevitably in store for him.
“That to me gave me quite a fear about my future and this drive to try to find my place in this world but not knowing if I’d ever find it,” Vujicic said.
On top of the incessant bullying and targeting at school, Vujicic said he frequently prayed that God would give him his arms and legs.
“I have a pair of shoes in my closet in case he gives me arms and legs. In fact, it was just last week that I showed those shoes to my oldest son,” Vujicic shared. “He thought it was cool that daddy still sometimes prays for arms and legs.”
Even with the immense faith Vujicic held, his depression pushed him to pursue suicide as early as eight years old.
“I saw a picture in my mind of my mom, my dad and my brother crying at my grave wishing they could have done something more. And that alone stopped me,” Vujicic told PBS’s Lucky Severson in an interview.
While many of these struggles lasted throughout the rest of his childhood, it wasn’t long before Vujicic realized what he was destined to do.
Vujicic said he always grown up faithful and said when he was 15 he began realizing he needed a change in his life.
“I needed my soul restored, saved and my mind rescued,” he said. “That was when I started my faith journey with Jesus and never looked back since.”
Later, when he was 17, his mother showed him a newspaper clipping of a man dealing with a disability. This inspired Vujicic to begin his philanthropic work by sharing his faith, giving talks to his prayer group, and being invited by his high school counselor to speak about his faith and how the challenges he’s faced have built him.
According to the Sarajevo Times, after graduating from Macgregor State School, Vujicic pursued a bachelor’s in finance, graduating at 21 years old.
Vujicic realized soon after it would be his faith-based work which would make his career.
Two years after graduating, Vujicic founded his non-profit organization and ministry Life Without Limbs, which aims to spread the faith teachings.
“It’s not about how many years or how many people at the end. It’s all about ‘am I in love with Jesus? Do I know him? Do I trust him? And am I doing what he wants me to do?’” Vujicic said. “It’s all about God. What is (his) will for my life and (will he) help me to live every day in humility, in holiness and righteousness, knowing that none of us are perfect, but we must hunger and strive for it?”
Since launching his ministry efforts, Vujicic has preached to more than 733 million people and aims to reach one billion by 2028.
Through his efforts, Vujicic said he has helped convert more than a million individuals to Christianity.
“It’s humbling,” he said. “More than words can say it feels like a completely separate lifetime. I’m 39 and I’ve got maybe a good 20 plus years left in me to do what we’re doing.”
Beginning in 2022, Vujicic has a new initiative that aims to support particular disaffected groups in need. Dubbed “Champions for the Brokenhearted,” the project focuses on a different group each month, including veterans, widows, trafficking victims and prisoners.
Vujicic plans on aiding these populations through advocacy through his new show “Never Chained,” which features experts in the particular field that given month.
“I hope to use some technology that we have and partners that actually can help us digitally reach geo-fenced and specific translated materials straight to those continents without me having to travel on the plane, and so we’re really excited,” Vujicic said.
Vujicic said next month’s focus is the unborn.
“In February we’re going to be uploading interviews with Lila Rose and Stephanie Gray Connor about the value of all unborn life,” he said.
It’s not just ministering that Vujicic has pursued throughout his career, though. He also happens to be a very stout pro-life advocate and includes mention of these beliefs in his ministering and social media posts.
On Facebook he shared, “Abortion is one of the many sins of America and she must repent. The church can’t talk about pro-life without talking about human trafficking, without talking about the crippled foster and adoption system, without talking about the border catastrophe.”
After an incident where Vujicic was kicked out of his bank — which he said is because of his outward expression of pro-life views — he conceived the idea for what is currently called ProLifeBank, which seeks to give anti-abortion Christians a place to save their money given that many big name banks are known to have donated and contributed to the pro-choice movement.
2ndVote, a conservative non-profit that aims to inform its readers of the political activities and donations of well-known companies, has published a list of organizations that have donated directly to Planned Parenthood, which includes the Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo.
“I also learned my bank gave to organizations that terminate innocent life which does not align with my Christian values. After a long process, I went all-in with co-founder Betsy Gray to create ProLifeBank,” Vujicic stated on the bank’s website.
On Jan. 20, Vujicic shared the keynote message for the March for Life at the capitol steps in Salt Lake City.
“I hope that everyone of all ages, of all religions and belief systems come under the common denominator that all life has value and, with faith, we can all come together as a community and support each other and see God’s purpose even revealed in the most difficult circumstances of life that life throws at you,” Vujicic said.
Vujicic continues to minister and preach as well as build up the pro-life movement through speaking engagements. More information about his work can be found at his website, nickvujicic.com.
-Michael.Popa@usu.edu