If you’re ever walking on Campbellsville University’s campus, you might see a guy with a big smile rolling at top speeds in a wheelchair. His name is Gavin Barrows, and his testimony is worthy of the spotlight.
Barrows was born with a condition called cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that mainly affects movement. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH), cerebral palsy is caused by damage to or abnormalities inside the developing brain that disrupt the brain’s ability to control movement and maintain posture and balance. Hence, why Barrows is in a wheelchair.
Throughout his life, Barrows has experienced serious health struggles, but his faith has never wavered.
“Everyone in our family believes in God,” Barrows said. “It’s how they were raised, how their parents were raised, and how their parents’ parents were raised.”
At the age of five, he was introduced to Upward, a church basketball league. There he met Bug Brown, the now Central Kentucky West FCA Area Director.
“I was a ref for the league,” Brown said. “I just wanted him to be treated right. So, I prayed, ‘Please, Lord, bless this baby to be able to score.’ When he scored, I jumped up and down, and it didn’t even matter I was a ref. It was like I had adopted him. He’s like a baby to me.”
At the age of eight, Barrows started becoming more invested in church. His mother got him into Vacation Bible School and eventually into Sunday school at the church they attended.
“I got used to it relatively quickly,” he said. “I made friends with almost everyone in my class, some of whom I still keep in contact with to this day. This ended up being my biggest helping hand throughout my time there, as I was clueless about where to start on something so broad as the Bible. Our amazing teacher, Mrs. Crystal, had us start with the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, since they chronicled the life of Jesus through his disciples.”
When Barrows turned nine, his life changed forever.
“I got sick, really sick,” he said. “It wasn’t like me at all. I went to sleep for a nap but woke up with the worst headache imaginable. I threw up, which is something I hadn’t done since I was a baby. The amount of pain I was in made my mom immediately take me to the UK hospital ER.”
It turned out his shunt was malfunctioning. This normally happens when someone’s skull is building up with fluid. The shunt system’s purpose is to reduce pressure in the brain. When this malfunctions, CSF can accumulate, which results in infections and hydrocephalus. Symptoms, in Barrows case, were sensitivity to light, headache and vomiting.
After brain surgery, the doctors reported that the problem was fixed. However, the symptoms remained. Barrows was still sensitive to light, had a headache and was vomiting. The only thing the Barrows family had to turn to in that moment was faith in Jesus.
“It was a Sunday morning when my mom reached out to Mrs. Crystal, begging for prayers,” Barrows said. “The preacher stopped the services, and the congregation began to pray for me. Within minutes, my symptoms subsided. We were at the hospital and didn’t know any of this was happening at our church, but we felt the Lord move.”
Throughout the whole process, Barrows realized he was not here by his own means but through God’s. That was clear to him when, in early 2021, he had yet another brain surgery. Another shunt malfunction, except this one was much more severe, as the shunt had become infected.
“There was always a certain risk of becoming infected with the shunt revisions, but thank God, it never happened until this point,” Barrows said. “The doctors removed the new shunt they had just placed, and I had to receive powerful antibiotics to keep the infection from spreading.”
This would require Barrows to stay in the hospital for about a month during COVID-19.
The doctors attempted a new solution, drilling a hole in the floor of Barrows’ brain. This would allow the fluid to drain more naturally. This was an experimental solution, as the usual cases for this were used for shunt prevention and not recovery.
“It was risky, but we had faith it would work,” said Barrows. “It’s an absolute miracle that an experimental surgery worked as well as it did, and to be honest, I think even the head neurosurgeon was surprised.”
Now at CU, Barrows is a sophomore studying ministry and music. Even with his past struggles, Barrows believes God has called him to do this, and that God always has a purpose for his life.
With all the surgeries and struggles, how does someone stay so positive?
“To be honest, I have a hard time pinpointing what keeps me so positive or joyful,” Barrows said. “The basic bare bones explanation that I can think of, because I don’t entirely know, is that I know for a fact that God has me and the Kingdom at large—throughout everything that can and will happen, so why should I be anything but joyful or happy because I know my future. That’s why I want to share it with others so that other people can join me in it.”
Bug Brown described Barrows in one simple word.
“Joyful,” Brown said.
Trent Creason, the university minister, sees Barrows day after day. He works in the Campus Ministry office and goes to just about every ministry opportunity on campus. Creason is impacted, much like other professors, by Barrow’s joy.
“Gavin is a person full of joy, bold and motivated to make an impact in the world,” he said “It’s obvious that Gavin loves the Lord. He is multi-talented and not afraid to learn. Gavin is a real dedicated person who sticks with demonstrating great endurance.”
Barrows is a man who demonstrates what the true meaning of joy looks like. Through his struggles, his ups and his downs, he has looked to Christ in all of it, and Christ has answered.
“Gavin is a blessing and a person that demonstrates who Christ is,” Creason said. “I encourage anyone to meet Gavin and hear his story.”
