Brennah McCague

Brennah’s Story – Walking with Jesus in the Valley

A Childhood Dream

“Do you remember those childhood dreams of who we wanted to be when we grew up? I wanted to be a SWAT medic. Since I was a little girl, I just wanted to help people.”

Her dream was clear, but her path was anything but easy. At thirteen, a sudden and severe onset of food sensitivities nearly ended her life. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Many assumed she was anorexic. Only God knew the real battle she was fighting, and only He could hold her in the years of pain, fear, and confusion that followed.

One day, after a hypoglycemic collapse, she met a nurse in the ER who gave her a word of hope and a way forward. “God used that nurse to give me a second chance,” Brennah says. Through high school she recovered and became more determined than ever: she would help others as a paramedic.

She threw herself into that goal, graduating at the top of her EMT class with some of the highest scores the school had ever seen. “I was told I was made for this,” she remembers. But in the field, the male-dominated culture saw only stereotypes, not her calling. When the doors closed, she tried another way, entering law enforcement to become a SWAT medic from that side. There she discovered that the people skills required didn’t come naturally to her. Still, she pushed on.

When the Body Gives Out

Then her body gave out. Years after her teenage health battle, she was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, an autoimmune disease that brings inflammatory arthritis, chronic pain, brain fog, and exhaustion.

“So here I was, 22 years old, with a brand-new medical job that I had to resign from. And I had no Plan B.”

Her dreams crumbled.

“I thought I was supposed to be the strong one, helping the sick. Now I was the sick one. I was unemployed, out of school, with no idea what was next. I collapsed at Jesus’ feet crying, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it. Why, God? How can I, when I can’t?!’”

A New Kind of Strength

In that dark place, she says, “I’m pretty sure our Lord knelt down beside me and whispered, ‘I know you can’t. You were never meant to do this alone. Let Me be God.’ And little by little, I realized He was right.”

That realization has reshaped her life. Brennah now sees herself, as she says, “a weak and broken sheep, and yet held by a Good Shepherd.” She still struggles with pain and fatigue every day. But her story has turned from self-reliance to a deeper reliance on Christ.

“I don’t know what my future will bring, but I do know this: my Redeemer lives. And if He is with me, then take your best shot, world, because I know how this story ends… He wins.”

Walking With Others

Out of that deep confidence has grown a new desire in Brennah’s heart: to serve God and to touch other people’s lives with the very Gospel that strengthens her in her weakness.

She began talking and praying with her mom, her pastors, and her church family about what that might look like. She wasn’t sure how or where God would lead her, but she knew she wanted her life, even with its limitations, to be an instrument of encouragement and hope to others.

Brennah’s pastor invited the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego to walk alongside her as she discerned how God might be calling her to serve. Surrounded by a family of missionaries and encouragers, she began discovering that ministry isn’t only for those who are strong and capable. It is also for those who know they need Jesus.

Soon after that, she was invited to participate in the LWML Convention as a young woman representative. That experience ignited in her a new dream: to pour into the lives of others, especially those who, like her, know what it is to struggle, to hurt, or to wonder what God can possibly do through their limitations.

And then came Easter Lillie.

Brennah found the five-month-old Samoyed puppy the day before Easter. After a conversation with the breeder, she sat in church on Easter morning surrounded by white lilies. Jesus’ words came to mind: “Consider the lilies of the field.” If God cared for the lilies, she thought, He would certainly care for her.

That Easter Sunday, she adopted Easter Lillie.

Easter Lillie became Brennah’s companion and service dog, checking on her when she was not doing well and bringing comfort during difficult days. Brennah had spent much of her life dreaming about caring for people. Now, in one of the weakest seasons of her own life, she experienced what it meant to receive care herself.

And somewhere in that relationship, another dream began to take shape.

Today, Brennah is developing Sammies of the Savior, a ministry born directly out of her own journey. Together with Easter Lillie, she hopes to bring Christian presence, compassion, and encouragement to people experiencing illness, disability, grief, loneliness, trauma, or isolation.

Easter Lillie may open the door with a smile or a gentle presence, but Brennah knows where true hope comes from. The heart of the ministry is Jesus, the same Jesus who met her in her own suffering and taught her that weakness does not make a life useless.

In a beautiful way, Brennah’s story has come full circle.

As a little girl, she dreamed of becoming a SWAT medic because she wanted to help people. She imagined herself running toward people in their moments of pain and vulnerability and bringing care.

That dream did not happen the way she planned.

Instead, Brennah became the one who was sick. The one who needed help. The one who had to learn that she could not do everything herself. The one who discovered what it means to be carried by Christ and comforted by others.

And perhaps that is exactly what prepared her to walk with people now.

She does not come to them as someone who has conquered suffering. She comes as someone who knows suffering. She knows the loneliness of illness, the frustration of a body that will not cooperate, the questions that have no easy answers, and the fear that perhaps you no longer have anything meaningful to give.

But she also knows the Good Shepherd.

Her story isn’t one of perfect strength. It’s a story of God’s strength made perfect in weakness.

The little girl who wanted to help people is still there. Only now, she understands her calling differently. She doesn’t need to rescue anyone. She can simply walk beside them, listen to their story, share the comfort she herself has received, and point them to Jesus.

The same Jesus who met Brennah in the valley is now using her valley to help her walk with others through theirs.

Her scars are becoming bridges. Her pain is becoming compassion. Her weakness is becoming a place where Christ’s strength can be seen.

And sometimes, walking beside her, there will be a fluffy white Samoyed named Easter Lillie, sharing a little comfort and a Sammie smile along the way.