The incredible story of US paralympic swimmer and Christian Jessica Long was shown to millions of viewers of the recent US Super Bowl in a one-minute advert for Toyota.
The short film charted her story from a double amputee given up by her Russian teenage parents to a Siberian orphanage to a 13-time Paralympic gold medallist after being adopted by a US family, demonstrating the hope and strength in all of us.
You can watch the original ad here, but there’s also a great testimony video at IAmSecond.com where Jessica talks about overcoming her anger growing up at the fact that God had made her the way she was, her determination to succeed as a top Paralympic swimmer and her discovery on giving her life to Jesus Christ that she is “enough” and the peace she finds as she competes, delighting in the experience “that it’s almost like God is racing alongside of me”.
The film also sees Jessica travel back to Russia with her younger sister to meet her birth parents, and sees her talk honestly about the challenges she continues to face with her prosthetic legs.
It’s a hugely powerful story of how a young woman born in the most unpromising of circumstances can fulfil her potential and discover peace and fulfilment, in the midst of the ongoing battles of daily life as paralympic athlete.
Jessica has had to overcome 25 surgeries in winning 23 Paralympic, receiving three ESPY awards and being named by Sports Illustrated in The World’s Best Female Athletes.
“It’s OK to have questions … since accepting Christ as my Saviour I know I don’t have to go to God and have it all together. He knows I don’t have it all together,” she says.
“I am constantly reminded that every day I need to give it to God. … I put on these two prosthetic legs, and they’re heavy, and they still cause me pain, it’s a beautiful reminder that I can’t do it on my own. I just can’t.”