How God Used Jeff Foxworthy’s Game Show to Provide For This Family

Published: July 29, 2025

prayer, faith — Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

By Gavin Boyle

Hope Heals founder Katherine Wolf recalled how her appearance on ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER became an unspeakable blessing following her unexpected stroke.

“@realjefffoxworthy did stand-up at @hopeheals.camp this Summer, but we first met nearly 20 years ago when I appeared on #AreYouSmarterThanAFifthGrader while very pregnant with my first baby,” Wolf shared on Instagram. “Crazily, I won $50,000, but even crazier, the show would not air until a few weeks before my stroke and I would literally get the check in the mail while I was on life-support in the ICU.”

“The money allowed [my husband] Jay to be my full-time advocate and caregiver during those horrible early years and paved the way for our new story to begin.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Katherine & Jay Wolf (@hopeheals)

Wolf was only 26 when she suffered a stroke due to a congenital birth defect. As she has faced extreme difficulties in the following 16 years, relearning how to eat, speak and walk, she has remained rooted in Christ.

“It’s been a really difficult 16 years, and it’s also been an amazing 16 years,” Wolf told Sadie Robertson Huff. “Even in those nightmare situations, Jesus sustained me and carried me…we have a stunning capacity because of Jesus in our story to do incredibly hard things because he will supply every need. His divine power has given us everything that we need.”

She has also used her experience to care for others who live with life-altering disabilities, helping them find hope in Christ through her Hope Heals foundation. Her foundation runs a yearly summer camp where she encourages everyone who attends that they are valuable despite what the world may tell them.

“If you’re living with disabilities or a chronic illness or the heavy load of grief, you might feel like too much and too little,” Wolf previously said. “Maybe you consider yourself a burden to the people you love. Maybe you’re believing a quiet, hateful voice that says you are not worthy of care.”

Wolf continued, “Friend, if you are on this earth with breath in your lungs, you are deeply worthy of receiving care. God has called you to this specific intersection of time and space. That means he sees you as worthy of taking up time and space.”

Katherine and Jay’s story has also been turned into a movie to share with an even wider audience how the Lord can redeem any situation and bring peace and healing to the most hopeless situations. It is amazing how the Lord uses situations like Wolf’s to make His glory known and bring dignity and respect to the downtrodden.

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.