Tuesday, November 30, 2010

4 Days to the BIG DAY!

In four more days over 14,000 people will be all suited up, bib numbers pinned on, shoe laces tied up, smiles across their faces just waiting to hear the gunshot sounding the beginning of the ST JUDE MEMPHIS MARATHON! If you have never experienced this event either as a race participant or just a cheering supporter.... you are truly missing an amazing event. There is absolutely no possible way to describe the feelings, emotions, and thrill of this day unless you are a part of it in some way. I read where Mal's mom had made a comment about the feeling when so many thousand people come together at the finish line in the baseball stadium all for one cause, to support this wonderful hospital. She is so correct! Just watching all of the people come in, some with smiles, some in tears, some in lot's of pain, some like they just took an early morning stroll across the beach.... but all for a reason, to support St Jude and the children and families treated there. Very little has touched my heart like this weekend of events does.

I have a letter that I received in the mail yesterday. It was the second such letter that I have received from the same sweet, selfless, giving CHILD! This little boy can teach all of us a BIG lesson on the giving heart. The bible tells us to give from a willing heart, just read his note. He sent me a note with $1.50 in it a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I received the note that I have posted in a photo for all to see. Enclosed with this note was a $5.00 bill. If you go to my personal goal page
www.mystjudeheroes.org/mardecia
you can see where I have proudly deposited that money, a total of $6.50, into the St Jude account. That $6.50 is just as important to St Jude and to God as any $650.00 or more! He gave from his heart and his desire to help others. I will say, this little boy from Oklahoma has certainly been raised in a great home with the love for others and the desire to help being a daily example in his life. His mom, is a team member of Team Believe. She was not going to be able to come this year, but because of another sweet and giving angel, she will be here with us! This event brings out so much more than just the love and heart for St Jude, it extends to so many other acts of random kindness that touch so many lives. I ask each of you today, look around you, do just ONE act of random kindness today toward a perfect stranger or to someone you know needs some help in some way. It is not necessary that it be some huge expensive thing, just a simple act that makes a difference to someone. A simple $6.50 from a giving heart has already touch so many people.





I got to visit with Preston yesterday. Please keep him in your prayers. He is still running a fever. They will be doing several procedures today to try to determine the origin of these fevers. They have already been running a battery of test, with no luck finding the source yet. Please pray that they will be able to determine the cause and get it under control. Pray for him to get out of isolation and out of the hospital before the holidays.

Your prayers worked, (any surprise here?) Leah's ANC went up, she was able to go home for Thanksgiving! Keep her in your prayers, she will begin the next phase of her treatment which will wipe out her ANC again. Let's pray for her to do well and be able to be home for Christmas too!

Ok... I have a very busy week but it's a busy I truly enjoy! I will be checking my list, checking it twice and getting ready for the first plane to arrive bringing in some of our TEAM BELIEVE members! Thursday, the fun begins... we have a group that will be here to help me get set up for our big dinner. Friday, the rest will come pouring in and Friday night we will all be together and enjoying hugs and tears of happiness. Please keep everyone traveling in your travel mercy prayers. Please pray for the success of this weekend. Please keep Molly's family in your prayers. She is the young lady that collapsed at the finish line and passed away last year. Her mother and other family members and friends will be here to participate in the race this year in her memory. It was important to Molly to run the St Jude run, her family will carry on for her. Pray for them, this will certainly be a tough day for them. Pray for all of the families who will be returning without their child to run in memory of their precious child. This is such a difficult thing for them to face, but so inspirational to us to see them do this to support and give back to the hospital for what the hospital gave to them. It's one way to keep the memories alive and in our hearts. I can't wait to see many of our "adopted" families and get me some big hugs!

Heather is here this week for her yearly check-up and battery of test and scans. She had her MRI yesterday. Please be in prayer for her results to be NED... No Evidence of Disease! She looks great, she is doing very well. Thank you St Jude!

HAVE A GREAT DAY! Look into your heart and see what you can do to help us out. We are just a little under $4,000.00 away from reaching our team goal of 20,000.00 I know we can hit this mark! I just know, with God's hand on our efforts, we can do this!
CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE IN THE TOP OF THIS BLOG PAGE TO DONATE NOW- EVEN $5.00 WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Keep our efforts in your prayers, please.

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to the best group of prayer warriors in the world! I hope and pray that each of you have safe travel and enjoy your time with your families and friends during this grateful holiday. I give thanks for each one of you!

You know from the very beginning we have always said... BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS. Well, I just wanted to share another testimony showing that prayer really does work. I ask for each of you join in and pray for Leah for her counts to recover so she can go home for Thanksgiving. Well PRAYER WORKED! Leah and Heather WILL BE GOING HOME FOR THANKSGIVING to spend the time with their family. Praise our almighty Father for His answer to this prayer. I hope that this will be the best Thanksgiving ever for Leah and her family.

I will be going to have Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow with my mom, my brother and his family and all of my family. I'm very grateful to be able to be together with them. Later tomorrow afternoon my family and I will be traveling on to Florida to spend the rest of the weekend with the Dunfords. I am so excited to see DJ, Michelle, Andrew and Charlie. The boys have grown so much, they are just young teens now. I can't wait to get to spend some beach time with them! Please include us in your prayers for safe travel. Thank you. We plan to return home on Sunday evening. So unless there is some major happening, you will not hear from me until after we return.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Team Believe is now over $13,000.00 and still climbing! It's not to late.... Help us reach our $20,000.00 goal. Thank you.

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~

Monday, November 22, 2010

Team Believe - Night Before, Dinner Information

BELIEVE it or not... only 2 more weeks! Plans for the weekend are going well, a few more things to do, but it's all coming together. The yummy cake has been ordered, food lined up, let the weekend festivities begin!! Plan to arrive for the dinner at 6:30. Colletta's will be cooking for us this year. They will be serving: Spaghetti, Chicken Pasta Primavera, Mac & Cheese, Italian Spinach, Salad and Bread! The cost of the meal will remain the same $10.00 per person. Please bring cash or check. We do not have a credit card machine. I MUST HAVE all RSVP's by this coming Friday, November 26, 2010. For those of you coming straight in and to the dinner, below is the address for the church building where the dinner is held:
Great Oaks Church of Christ
3355 Brunswick Road
Memphis, TN 38133-4121
(901) 372-4449
I hope that each of you have a wonderful and grateful Thanksgiving with your families. Watch the stuffing.... you gotta a marathon to do the next weekend!

GO TEAM BELIEVE!

It's not to late to donate to help support St Jude!

"Be thankful the healthy children in your life and GIVE to those who are not" ~ Marlo Thomas

To Donate: Simply go to stjudeheroes.org
click on sponsor a participant, then click on Find Team
Type in Team Believe
You can donate to the team as a whole or if you want to donate on a particular team members goal page just click on their name and it will take you directly to their personal goal page where you can make a secure online donation to help the children and St Jude. Thank You so much!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Are You Ready To Do Some Praying? Part II

Part II

We need to add Preston to our list. I got a message this morning from Renee that he had spiked a fever this morning of 103.3. I have been at the soccer field all day with my brother and his family for my nieces soccer tournament, so I have not talked to Renee but I would imagine that he is now safely checked into the Penthouse Suite on the BMT floor. Please pray for the fever to go away and for it to not be coming from anything serious.

Also, I would like to ask you to please lift up the Pettit family in your prayers. They are from my hometown, I've known them all my life. I graduated with the parents. Their daughter (a senior in high school) came home on Friday afternoon to find one of her brothers (age 23) had committed suicide in their home. Please keep them in your prayers, it's going to be a very tough road ahead of them. I just don't know how a family copes with such a tragedy... through God I would think would be the only way. Here is another family who will be without a child during the holidays. My heart is just breaking for them.
___________________________




Part I

Calling on all of the Team Believe Prayer Warriors to lift up little Leah in your prayers. Leah is going through a pretty heavy chemo protocol right now and her ANC is at 0. It's been there for quite awhile and they have been waiting for it to come up. The holiday are coming up, she only lives a little over an hour from Memphis, but she can't go home for Thanksgiving for their family to be together unless her ANC is at least at 500. We all know that prayer works... could you join me in waging a prayer campaign lifting Leah up in prayer for her ANC to come up so she can be with her family for Thanksgiving! Thank you!

Let's not forget to lift up all of our St Jude kiddo's and their families in prayer during the holidays. It's so hard for all of them!

Thank you, I always know I can count on you guys!

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS!!!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Look Back....

Thought for the day....

When was the last time you had a spiritual checkup? When was the last time you read the instruction manual? Just like in our physical lives, exercise, work, proper diet, and self-control are essential to keeping ourselves physically fit. The same concepts also apply to our Spiritual lives. Taking a daily spiritual checkup and following a few key instructions from God's Word will help us maintain our spiritual health.

Our Father in heaven, I honor and glorify Your name. I thank You for the power of prayer and I am comforted to know that You hear me when I pray. I thank You that my physical health allows me to enjoy the beauty of Your creation. I thank You for the Holy Spirit that comforts us and Your sacred word that guides us. May we always be spiritually fit and ready to defend he truth in any of life's circumstances. In Jesus Name, Amen.

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~


First I want to ask for a special prayer request for the Lutrell family. Rachel Lutrell was a freshman (age 14) at Bolton High School where my youngest son, Garrett, is a student. Tuesday afternoon after school, Rachel and 3 other teens were involved in a vehicle accident about a mile from the school on their way home from school. No parent expects to send their child out the door in the morning and not have them make it back home. However, Rachel did not make it to her earthly home on Tuesday, but she did reach her heavenly home. The other three teens are fighting for life at The Med. Please keep these families in your prayers. No family is prepared for this, just as no parent expects to take a child to the doctor and hear the words "cancer". Life is hard, and we just never know what tomorrow brings. Also, I ask that you lift up the staff and students at Bolton HS. It has been very difficult for the students to cope with this tragedy.

Preston is still inpatient. Please pray for his healing. She keeps his CB page updated.


Ok, I have posted some more pictures from the past... LOOK BACK and enjoy. Be a part of this years events!

Time is running out, but you can still make a donation. Go to the link at the top of this page (to the left) and click on the team page. If you would like to make a donation on a particular team members page, you can do so by simply clicking on their name from our team page and it will take you directly to their goal page and you can make a secure donation directly online. Even a $5.00 donation makes a hugh difference. Prayerfully, please consider any amount that you can do to help support St Jude.

Look back and enjoy....







I can't wait to make more pictures and more memories from this years events!

Team Believe is looking forward to joining "Henderson Helping St Jude in Memory of Mallerie", "Alex's Warriors", "Remembering Reagan", "Team Trevor" and Sully's Scuttlers" this year to raise the roof on the fundraising for St Jude!!! Good luck to each of the teams, I personally can't wait for them all to get here so we can all have a HUGE REUNION!! It's going to be a wonderful weekend! COME AND BE A PART OF IT!

Take care, say a prayer for all of our efforts.

GO TEAM BELIEVE

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

BELIEVE

"And Jesus said to him, 'If You Can? All things are possible to him who believes.; Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe; help my unbelief.'" - Mark 9:23-24

Let us not settle for mediocre faith. Let us decide today, that with God's help we are going to build a stronger faith in ourselves and in God.

God, I believe, but help my unbelief. Don't let me settle for who I am today, but show me who I should be and give me the courage to desire and pursue that goal. I pray that You will build in me a faith that can move mountains for You, a faith that will overflow into those around me. In Jesus Name. Amen

BELIEVE IN PRAYER~

I trust that everyone's week has gotten off to a great start. Those of you getting ready for the trip to Memphis, I trust you are as excited about the big weekend as I am.

This past weekend I had the honor of hosting a family/friend gathering for Joseph. He has really been fighting, at times his prognosis has not been what the family wanted to hear. They have continued to have faith that God has a different plan for Joseph. Yesterday, they got a report from the doctor that the secondary cancer "lymphoma" was no longer detected! Wow! The power of prayer!!! Please continue to pray for Joseph, pray for his healing. Pray for his family. We did one smile from him at his party. He is a big Ole Miss fan, a friend of mine at ALSAC was able to get a baseball signed by some of the baseball players at Ole Miss for Joseph. That brought a big smile! I must also tell you, that was one fun day for me, I got to be surrounded by loving Ole Miss fans! Keep the prayers going up for Joseph.




Big Trevor will be traveling today to come for his check up. Let's lift Pam and Trevor up in prayer for safe travel to Memphis and also for great reports.

Ariel was here last Thursday and Friday. She had good reports. Bless her heart, it was probably not one of her more fun trips, she had to get the flu shot and take the ACT test! She was feeling great, but by Sunday she began to feel a little puny, most likely from the flu shot. Pray that she is feeling much better soon. She really showed her spirit and drive to raise money for Team Believe this past weekend! They took a set of tickets for the IPad fundraiser back to Hattiesburg with them Friday night. Ariel took them out to a fall festival on Saturday morning and completely sold out of all her tickets by lunch time!!! She may have a future in sales! We are so proud of Ariel. She and her family are members of Team Believe this year, they will be with us at our team dinner. I look forward to everyone getting to meet this wonderful family. Beware.... there will be two sets of St Jude twins with us!!!!

Ok, since we are back to the topic of marathon weekend... I thought I would maybe begin to post a few pics to start that walk down memory lane to get everyone really geared up and ready for this years BIG WEEKEND! I went back and picked a few pictures to post. If you have not realized yet, IT'S ALMOST HERE!!! YEA!!!!




Mardecia, Marcella, Lisa & Brenda



Svetlana



Ben, Mardecia & Cindy



Nicole, Sandy, Natalie, Mardecia & Cindy



Susan, Brenda & Allison

Be watching... more blast from the past to come!

Things are going great! Plans are all coming together. Funds are beginning to come in. I want to send out a few "shout-outs".
Brenda and Lenzy had a successful Arkansas Angels Beauty Pageant this past weekend, with all proceeds going to St Jude for our team! Congratulations to you ladies for your success and thank you for your hard work.

Svetlana is rocking!!! She is our top fundraiser at this point! Way to go girl! Not sure what she is doing down there in Atlanta to raise all of that money, but we could take a lesson from her :) Keep it up!

We do have 3 team members who have each raised over 1,000.00!! Wow, just think, if all 50+ of us raised just half of that, we would exceed our goal! Here in the last few weeks, I ask each person to try to reach a personal goal of $500.00 to put our team over our team goal. We are a team, we can pull together and show our love to St Jude and the children being treated there.Send out your letters asking for support, post you team page on Facebook, give your friends a chance to support your efforts. Just try those two things and see what happens.

Please keep our silent auction in mind. This was a very fun way of raising some money for our team and some lucky people got to go home with some pretty cool goodies. Be creative, bring an item, or a themed basket, anything you want to donate will be WONDERFUL!

Ok, go out today and show your faith to those around you! Make today a day that brings a smile to you and to those around you.

GO TEAM BELIEVE!

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Good Morning!

Good morning. Did you start your day with a prayer for all your blessing this morning? I bet your friends said a prayer of thanks for the blessing that you are in their lives. Relationships and friends are some of our greatest blessings.

Everything is going well with the St Jude kiddo's. Preston is still inpatient, still struggling with that GVH rash, but hopefully getting it under control and getting to go out to Target House soon. Keep praying for him to clear of that rash.

The new guy I mentioned to you, has left the hospital and now at Ronald McDonald house. He seems to be doing well. Keep praying for his successful treatment.

Little Trevor was able to have his chemo treatment this week. He did see the kidney specialist, she was not to concerned at this point about his kidney functions, so they will continue on with his chemo treatments. They will be back on the 10th of November for his next visit and treatment. Keep him and his family in your prayers.

Big Trevor comes back on Friday for his check-up. Be praying for good reports for him, and safe travel. When Pam is driving, they need prayers! LOL




One year ago yesterday, our sweet precious prom queen traded in her crown for her wings. Mal is missed by so many people. She was a very special daughter, sister, niece, cousin and friend. She was so loved by all of her friends because she was a friend to them. I think Mal taught a lesson on how to be strong, how to fight and how to love. Please keep her family in your prayers at this time. Anniversaries are so hard. Prayers for Brad, Tina and Heath. We love you.

Welcome to Madeline Elizabeth Locke. ^Dax^ is a big brother now! Julie and Austin had their baby, a beautiful little girl with a very special name. They chose Elizabeth to honor sweet ^Elizabeth Dunford^. Prayers for this sweet family as they begin a new life with Madeline.

Please continue to pray for Ryan, pray for his miracle, pray for him to not suffer from all of this pain. Pray for peace. Prayers go out to Ryan and his family.

Time is getting closer for our big marathon weekend. Please pray for the success of this weekend for our team as well as the success of the entire St Jude Marathon. Many of our kiddo's families have teams who are working hard to raise money to help give back to St Jude for the time and treatment, love and care they received while at St Jude. Pray for each team. I am looking forward to seeing everyone as we all gather back in Memphis for this wonderful weekend. I am like a kid waiting for Christmas for all of TEAM BELIEVE to get here! I'm ready for some sweet and special hugs! This group of people are so special to me, they are a wonderful example of selfless people. I encourage each of you who have not been a part of this group and this experience to consider becoming involved with this team of wonderful prayer warriors and St Jude Heroes! I pray a prayer of praise for each one of you.

Last on my mind today... It's election day! Please choose to exercise your right to be a part in the process of selecting those people who will be representing you and making decisions that directly effect your life. As one friend of mine put it.... get out and go earn your right to complain if you are not happy with your government. If you are happy, then go out and cast your vote to keep things the way they are. I will be leaving when I close this post and going to cast my vote. I am truly excited about this privilege today. I have not really felt this way before, but I think it is going to feel so good to hit that CAST VOTE button.

I hope each of you have a wonderful day! Rain is in our forecast, but that will not keep us from enjoying our day.

GO TEAM BELIEVE

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS~