Sunday, September 5, 2010

Not All About Us

What a glorious thing I was able to witness and participate in this weekend. Baby girl's cross country coach wanted to teach his team that everything in life is not all about them. Grand concept for teenagers to learn especially these days, right? Anyway he is a wonderful coach and teacher because he cares so much for these kids beyond his classroom doors and beyond what they do on the track. He is a fine christian man who loves the Lord. Any way he came up with this idea for a 24 hour Going the Distance run for St. Jude. His idea was that we would have someone on that track for a full 24 hours and possibly get donations to help support that. He and his good friend who is our girls basketball coach and also a fine christian man came up with the idea and organized the whole thing. TWO MEN ORGANIZED IT!!! Ha ha! Their goal was $4,000. The kids worked hard to raise money in the weeks prior to the event and that goal was met before the event even started. They started running at 7 on Friday evening while our first home football game was being played. We won by the way - Go Panthers!!! The Lord provided us with some incredible weather all day Saturday and the track was full.
On Saturday afternoon a young lady named Sarahbeth showed up. She is 16 and has cancer. Some long named kind  of cancer that I can't even spell much less fathom that my child would have. She is the epitome of grace, beauty, and God's glory. She came and helped work the event, visited with the kids and beamed the whole time so humbled by what our school was doing for a place that is life to her. At the end of the event our coaches were physically and emotionally exhausted. This is what they were able to show Sarahbeth we had raised:

I don't know if you can read it but it says, $20,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it? We are still just in shock. That precious little boy up there had Hodgkins disease but is in remission now. What just killed me was how both coaches undeniably gave God the credit for what happened yesterday. Couldn't have been anything else. What a lesson for these young people. Sarahbeth was so sweet to all of them and thankful for their efforts. I think she blew them away. They were so taken by her attitude. She is a beautiful girl and not ashamed of her hair being gone and I am crying now just thinking about her caring bridge page where she over and over said,"God chose me for this." And we think we teach them.
All the girls wanted their picture made with her:
We want Sarahbeth to run our starting lap next year at our second annual Going the Distance run. If these kids learn that everything is not about them and that they have the power within them through Christ to help others, what a change they can make in this world. That goes for all of us. Even when things look grim, our El Elyon- Sovereign God- has a plan. I don't want to miss out on it!
Blessings,
Michelle

3 comments:

  1. God is amazing isn't He? So glad that Savannah got to be a part of His workings yesterday. I don't know how they do it but they are so resilient and smart and amazing - these kids with any serious illness. It floors and humbles me when I see it. They always teach me more than I could ever imagine! What a wonderful thing those coaches did to organize that run. 20K!!!!! God is WONDERFUL - I don't want to miss out on a second of his plan!

    Enjoy this day! I hope it's as fall-like in Bossier as it is in Franklin :-)

    Hugs!

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  2. Michelle, I am always moved by your post. Our God Is... Awesome. I wanted to share with you that Savannah was on the channel 3 news today st that event. I taped it just in case you didn't know. Not sure how to get it to you but I have it. Blessings to you and the Cheney crew.

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  3. I still can't believe they raised over 20K!! God is so GOOD!!!

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