Todd was shot at age eight by his cousin Mike. They were playing with a .22 bolt-action rifle. The bullet severed his spinal cord.
Campus Crusade for Christ’s spring event drew about 100 people to 150 Columbia on Wednesday evening. The group invited Todd Stabelfeldt, 28, to speak about his faith and experiences as a quadriplegic.
Because of his faith, Stabelfedt said, “I get back up. I can’t stay down.”
The CCC leadership team asked Stabelfedt to speak on campus after he shared his story at one of their meetings, said CCC’s full-time staff intern Justin Devine. They felt his experience was relevant to students and community members in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings.
“We were hooked on his message,” Devine said. “Todd’s message speaks for itself, I just tried to create as much noise as I could to get people to hear Todd.”
“I am broken on the outside, but not broken on the inside,” Stabelfedt said. “The only reason I have not eaten myself to death is because of my faith in Christ.”
Stabelfedt shared stories of hospital visits, complications and discrimination. He described his daily routine and even recounted his dating history, including one incident that went horribly wrong when the driver ran over his catheter. Stabelfedt is the self-proclaimed “king of first dates.”
He asked the audience members to consider their own futures and goals. Stabelfedt sees sharing his faith and his life experiences through this speech and others like it as a final step in reaching his life goals.
Audience members Richard Nile and Jeff Porter both came to the event because of their connection to Campus Crusade for Christ. Devine estimated that the audience consisted of about 50 percent Campus Crusade for Christ members.
Stabelfedt ended his presentation by reminding women to focus on their inner beauty, adding, “You are to be cherished.”
To the guys, Stabelfedt said that if they ever felt nervous about asking someone out, “Think about Todd, who asked a girl out, wearing a diaper.”