Emmanuel - God With Us

Last night was our Break the Grey Christmas Party. One of our families contacted me a few weeks ago requesting some help with Christmas. I let some of our volunteers know, and it culminated last night as we got together to finish up some Christmas shopping for our family and get everything organized.  Our volunteers went above and beyond what was asked and donated toys, gift cards, money, food, clothes, stockings, wrapping supplies, and time. It was the Kingdom of God - love and hope - personified. Christmas in action.

I've said it before, but Christmas is my favorite time of year. I just love the Advent season. Advent implies waiting for something expectantly and hopefully - our Emmanuel. God with us and for us. I just love that part of Christmas: that the boundless, limitless, timeless God who named the stars and knows them all by name considered our plight and climbed into time and space and human skin and lived with us and for us and then ultimately saved us. And that God - that Emmanuel - came to us last night. He was with us.

He was with us in the volunteers who took lists and money from my hands and fought traffic, cold, and rain to find the best gifts possible for this family.


He was with us in the generous amounts of gift cards and monetary donations that were given to help off-set the financial burden of a life-altering illness.

He was with us in one of our volunteers who, immediately after walking in the door, was sent back out again in the cold and rain on a hunt for candy for stockings - and did so with an eager spirit, a generous heart, and a smile on her face. [Then she wrote about it here - check it out!]

He was with us in the time we spent just hanging out, talking, snacking on hot chocolate and Christmas cookies, and simply loving each other with our words and our presence.

He was with us in the conversations about kidneys, medications, side effects, G-tubes, anesthesia, consultations, transplants, vomit, and lines.

He was with us in the mom who hugged my neck and cried.

He was with us as we loaded everything into their car - and packed it completely full.

God is here with us. He is love, hope, joy and peace, and He came for us. Hallelujah, we've been found!

Let hope rise. Let love be the difference.

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Christmas Party

As Christmas draws closer, I hope you are all soaking in the wonder of the Advent season. It is always one of my favorite times of year! This year, Break the Grey has the awesome opportunity to bring the love, hope, joy, and peace of Christ associated with this season to one of our families - and you can help!

Break the Grey is hosting a Christmas party on Thursday, December 22 from 5:30 - 8:00 pm in the Corner Room at Graceland Baptist Church. We are getting together to bless one of our families and help them with some needs for Christmas. As we serve, we will get the chance to just hang out, enjoy community together, and celebrate the season. There will be Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and music as we work.

If you can't make it to our party, please be in prayer for this family, as well as all of our other families. This time of year can be particularly tough, between expenses, new diagnoses, continuing with treatment as usual, making hard decisions, hoping for a better new year, or trying to celebrate the season without a much-loved child.

Please also be in prayer for our ministry. We are coming up on another busy season. Once Christmas is past, we will shift our focus to the upcoming annual parties in January and February at Kosair Children's Hospital and Riley Children's Hospital. Preparations are already underway for these parties and we are becoming excited!

As always, thanks for your support and I hope to see you at our Christmas party!

O come, o come, Emmanuel.

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Give Love

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and are now enjoying the Christmas season! Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year!

Since I last wrote about a week ago, I have been made aware of an opportunity that we [Break the Grey] have to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with one of our families in a very tangible way this Christmas.

I don't want to violate their privacy and give out too many details, but if you are interested in partnering with us to meet the needs of one of our families this Christmas, please e-mail me through the contact us page on our website here.

Don't forget about the other ways you can serve this Christmas season, listed in our last update! Please also continue to pray for all of our families, especially those who are facing the holidays without their child. As always, thanks for your support!

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've meant to write before now, but just haven't been able to find the time. First, some praise reports from some of our families over the past few weeks:

Michelle Schmitt had her kidney transplant on November 1! Her new kidney came from one of her best friends: a living, non-related donor. What a picture of the Gospel and Jesus' selfless love for us! Both Michelle and her donor, Crystal, are recovering well. Congratulations, guys! Happy Thanksgiving, indeed! Check out her story in the Southeast Outlook here.

Also congratulations to Adam Stoflet! He officially finished chemo, overcame another off-treatment hurdle/ICU stay, and is now, we hope and pray, on his way to a full recovery! His latest MRI a few days ago was No Evidence of Disease (NED - no cancer)! Please continue to pray for the Stoflet family.

Please continue to pray for all of our other families who are still in treatment or are dealing with chronic illness. Please pray specifically for a little guy named Kaden Book. Kaden will turn 5-years-old tomorrow and was diagnosed last Friday with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). His parents, Halie and Kevin, were youth leaders at my church when I was younger. Please pray for them as they begin this long cancer journey: for peace, strength, joy, hope, perseverance, and courage.

Second, besides praying for our families (which is always welcome and needed) you can help us partner with one of our families to bring the love and hope of Jesus Christ to families facing pediatric bone marrow transplants this holiday season! The Smith family's triplet son, Conner, underwent a bone marrow transplant at Cincinnati Children's Hospital four years ago - on August 17, 2007 - for a rare immune system disorder. Now, they collect gift cards every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas to donate to families in need during the holiday season. Conner's mom, Kristin, explains:

"Most of you know that our son Conner underwent a life saving bone marrow transplant four years ago. Even though we were there for months, we were lucky that he was hospitalized just a few hours from home. However, most BMT children must travel a great distance to a specialized transplant facility and are often hospitalized for many months. Unfortunately, many of these families don't have much support and most of these kids are separated from one of their parents and their siblings during the holiday season, which makes it even more unbearable. So, last year we decided to do a Gift Card Drive to collect gift cards to share with hospitalized BMT kids. The gift cards were used to help purchase Christmas gifts for the kids or help cover travel and lodging expenses to bring their families together for the holidays. Once again we've decided to collect gift cards for BMT families. If you are interested in helping these families and would like to send a donation or gift card please let me know or simply mail them to the address below.  No amount is too small, you can get gift cards in pretty much any denomination. Some suggestions might be cards for Target, Walmart, gas cards, Visa, American Express gift cards, etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions! 

Mail cards or donations to:
Kristin Smith
c/o Tecton
102 N. Third St, Suite 201
Lafayette, IN 47901

Thank you for your continued love, support and generosity over the years!"

 Conner with his siblings while undergoing a bone marrow transplant in 2007 - (L-R) Evan, Conner, Hayden, and Kelsey


There you have it! If you have any questions or have any other ideas as to how we can share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with families facing childhood cancer or other life-altering illnesses this holiday season, please contact us! We'd love to partner with you!

Take time to count your blessings and give thanks today and every day! Happy Thanksgiving!

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Congratulations!

Recently most of my posts have been asking you to pray or telling you about hard things that our families are facing. Tonight, though, I'm posting about good things that are happening! Congratulations to Noah and Adam!

Noah had his port removed today following over 3 years of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Congratulations, Noah!

Also, Adam was discharged from 7W this morning following his very last inpatient chemo treatment for brain cancer! Adam still has one more chemo treatment to go - an outpatient IV push - on Tuesday and then he will be finished with cancer treatment, hopefully forever!

Please take a minute to say a prayer of thanks on behalf of our families! Congratulations, guys!

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Far From Over

Today is September 30: the last day of childhood cancer awareness month. But for families of children with this disease - and those of us who are choosing to walk beside them - it is far from over. We are aware of childhood cancer 24/7 whether we like it or not.

So much has happened this September even just within in our Break the Grey family: so many families struggling. Childhood cancer is brutal and it is ugly. One morning this month I was walking to school and just thinking about and praying for our families. So many of them were weighing heavily on my heart. I did what I do so often to try and clear my head and express myself: I turned on music.

The song I was listening to was called "The Power of Your Name" by Lincoln Brewster. The lyrics described exactly what it is Break the Grey is about, and why we are working towards awareness; why we choose to walk this journey with our families; why we don't give up.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, we do what we do because we love Jesus. Our goal is to love Jesus by loving on families of kids with cancer or other life-altering illnesses, and to see His Kingdom come in our lives and in the dark places in which we walk. That's why the chorus resonates with me:

"And I will live
To carry Your compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
And I will give
With the life that I've been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your name"

That's what we're about. Loving hard. Ushering in a Kingdom. Glorifying Jesus.

Listen to the song here:

And please, please, please, don't let this be the end. Just because September will end in a few hours doesn't mean that childhood cancer does. Please continue to pray for our families. Please continue to pray about what you can do to love Jesus - whether it involves our ministry or not.

Because the fight - against childhood cancer, with and for our families, and for a Kingdom - is far from over.

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah

Evan

Please pray for Evan's family. I included Evan in my update last night. I just received word that at 6:40 this morning, Evan took his final breath here on this earth and the first in the presence of his Savior. Please pray for his family.

Childhood cancer stinks. [That classifies as the understatement of the year.]

Still hoping, still believing, and still never, ever giving up,

Sarah