Two young foster children in Tennessee were granted a “Christmas miracle” when a prayer sent into the sky this summer was answered.
Eva, 6, and Jasmine, 8, were taking part in Vacation Bible School at the church they attended in east Tennessee. The children were told to put a prayer request inside a balloon that would be inflated with helium and released into the air.
So the girls wrote a note asking God to allow them to be adopted by the foster parents who had been caring for them during the last two months. The balloon was released with 30 others.
None of the balloons were ever heard from again…except for Eva and Jasmine’s.
The balloon made its way to a trailer park in McHenry, Maryland. The people who found the balloon mailed it back to the girl’s foster parents, Lynn and Dennis.
Lynn told WBIR-TV and the Christian Post the balloon being found was a message from God that she and her husband should adopt the girls. They had been praying for God’s direction and felt the balloon was confirmation they were to follow their hearts.
On Tuesday, a judge legally made the girls the daughters of Lynn and Dennis.
Fifty-two teenage girls were celebrated in a mass baby shower for their decisions to have their children instead of killing them through abortion.
Texas-based Embrace Grace held the event last month after the girls attended a series of classes by the group that provides emotional, practical and spiritual support for girls experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
“Several of the girls in all of our classes are sometimes on the fence regarding abortion, but once they come to one of our classes and see the support that there is, that their immediate needs for the baby are covered and that they don’t have to walk this road alone, they usually change their mind and keep their baby,” Embrace Grace founder Amy Ford told the Christian Post.
Ford said that many of the girls who enter the Embrace Grace program are not church goers but give their lives to Christ after experiencing the blessings of strangers showing them unconditional love and support.
“We provide a curriculum and resources for the church to implement the program as well as offer sponsorship for the churches that may not be able to afford the expenses involved with helping young women with crisis pregnancies,” said Ford. “If the church, the body of Christ, would join together to support these girls that choose life, young moms will be more open to not abort their baby.”
“Oh, God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.”
Harrison Odjegba Okene repeated those words as he spent three days trapped under a capsized boat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A video of the man’s dramatic rescue went viral this week showing his amazing rescue.
A dive team working out of Lagos, Nigeria had been working to salvage a tugboat that capsized and sank. They had already pulled four bodies from the vessel when a diver noticed another hand on his video monitor. When he went to grab it, the hand grabbed him back.
“He was incredibly lucky. He was in an air pocket, but he would have had a limited time (before) … he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore,” Tony Walker of Dutch company DCN Diving told the Washington Post.
Okene says his life was saved only by divine intervention. He told reporters that he kept repeating a psalm that his wife had sent him via text message earlier in the day.
“I started calling on the name of God,” Okene said. “I started reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalms 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.”
Billy Graham returned home from a two-day stay at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.
Doctors say the 95-year-old Graham had been hospitalized for pulmonary-related issues and underwent tests. The two-day stay for observation was mostly precautionary.
“Mr. Graham was alert and in good spirits during his stay,” said William R. Hathaway, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Mission Hospital. “We are pleased with the results of Mr. Graham’s evaluation.”
Graham’s family thanked supporters for their prayers.
The social media site Twitter was deluged with statements from Graham’s supporters and admirers using the #PrayingForBillyGraham hashtag.
Billy Graham has been admitted to a hospital suffering from respiratory congestion.
A spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association said that Graham has been hospitalized for similar issues over the past few years and they expect him to return home in a few days.
Graham has curtailed his public appearances after suffering from macular degeneration and hearing loss related to his advanced age. The 95-year-old Graham made an appearance as a star-studded celebration of his birthday that also celebrated the release of his new book “The Reason for Hope: Salvation.”
The BGEA asked everyone to join them in prayer for Dr. Graham.
A day of sorrow turned to belated joy for a Colombian couple who thought they had lost their premature daughter during childbirth.
The baby was born in the state of Choco last week and declared dead by doctors just after birth. They sent the baby directly to the hospital’s morgue without a further examination.
Hours later, the baby’s father came to collect the body to be taken to a funeral home. When the morgue attendant retrieved the box, he discovered the baby moving and making soft crying sounds.
A medic rushed the baby to a special hospital in Bogota to receive treatment for her underdeveloped lungs and she is reported to be in good condition.
Her parents have announced they will be naming her Miracle.
In a day and age where most high school students spend their time focused on getting the latest iPhone or seeking out the latest party, a group of high schoolers in Lancaster, California are spending their time making a difference in the life of an American hero.
Jerral Hancock is an Iraq war veteran who lost an arm and suffered burns all over his paralyzed body after his vehicle in Baghdad hit with an IED on his 21st birthday. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his spine leaving him paralyzed below the waist so he couldn’t escape the burning truck. Hancock was scheduled to leave the service just a few months after his injury.
He had bought a mobile home for his himself, his wife and their two kids after he returned from the war. When he came back, the home was too small for him to take his wheelchair down the hallway. He also spent almost six months trapped at the house when his family’s truck broke down keeping him from being able to attend appointments at the nearest VA facility.
When students in the U.S. History classes of teacher Jamie Goodreau heard about Hancock’s plight, they resolved to make a difference in this American hero’s life. They began to hold fundraisers and charity events to buy land for building a new, wheelchair-accessible home for Hancock and his family.
In six months, the students raised enough to close escrow on a $264,000 piece of property where they will be breaking ground on a house next month.
“We had no doubt it could be done,” senior Joseph Mallyon told Fox News. “Older people, the people who have jobs, who go through life and know the harsh reality of things, those people doubt us. But we just accept it and say ‘watch what we can do!’”
Students who graduated and are attending colleges have continued to raise funds for the home in what they’re calling Operation All The Way Home.
Across the nation, Americans are commemorating Veterans Day with parades, wreath-laying ceremonies, monument dedications and other events.
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NEW YORK: WOMEN IN SERVICE
The U.S. military’s first female four-star general will be a grand marshal at New York City’s Veterans Day Parade.
Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody retired last year after a 37-year Army career.
Source: ABC News – ABC News: Veterans Day: Events and Ceremonies Around Nation
A Kentucky teenager who refused to wear the number 666 in a regional cross country meet lost her chance to continue to chase a state championship.
Codie Thacker took a stand for her Christian beliefs and refused to wear the number even when she was told that she would not be able to run.
“I just don’t believe that 666 should be a number that’s anywhere on your body and I did not want that number associated with me. It kind of made me sick,” Thacker told reporters.
A representative for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association spokesman said that officials were not told Thacker’s objection was for religious reasons or they would have accommodated her. However, both Thacker and her coach told reporters they explicitly told the KHSAA officials she was objecting because of her Christian faith.
“I wouldn’t have been more proud of her if she won the entire meet. She stood on her principles; she stood for what she believed in,” Thacker’s coach Gina Croley said.
Two Chicago women’s shelters who were facing closure because of more than $30,000 in overdue bills have received a reprieve from an anonymous donor who paid the bills.
The charity’s owner Clara Kirk told the Chicago Sun-Times she was struggling to pay the utility bills for a South Side shelter and another nearby facility. The 72-year-old Kirk said the financial problems arose because the group is having difficulty securing new grants.
The anonymous donor stepped up Thursday and said they would cover the bills for the West Englewood United Organization.
Kirk said that she’s learned people care more than she thought they cared.
Peoples Gas had turned off gas to one of the shelters on October 16th but turned it back on the day after the donor paid the bill.