Aloha Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Aloha Friday!! This is a great new posting that I'm participating in, over at An Island Life. Go check her out, and all the rules about it, plus some great questions that other bloggers are posting!

My question this week is:

What is a favorite Halloween/Fall Festival memory that you have from your childhood(or present day, whatever)?!

Mine is, as a kid, my family always took me to our church, where they had the Fall Festival, costume contest, "fishing" for candy, bobbing for apples, needle in a haystack. ALL kinds of fun stuff! I think I was Mary every year! haha! My favorite, I think was the hay hunt, just something of seeing all that hay inside the church, I guess! Alright, what's your favorite?!

Fall Festival

Our church will be hosting a Fall Festival on October 26, 2007 at 6 pm. There are many fun things for the kids to be involved in, such as a cake walk, little games, bouncy inflatables, pumpkin patch, a hot dog dinner, and so much more!! We are already making plans to be there, and looking forward to the opportunity to reach out to the community! If you're reading this blog, and are in the neighborhood, go ahead and make plans to bring your kids too!!

Thank you God!

I HAD to post another update on my cousin, Rachel! I also wrote about her here and here. She is an amazing little girl, who is beginning a long journey that will take her on a stem cell transplant at Duke Hospital. She went in and was registered today, to start a blood transfusion and a variety of tests and procedures. She had a virus this past week or so, and that made some of the tests have to be rescheduled for a little later. My mother went and visited with her yesterday, and was just blessed by the sweet soul that she is, and her precious family. Okay, now with the update! Rachel's family, church, and friends had a yard sale this past Saturday, and raised $5,502.00!!! The grand total hasn't been calculated yet, as they still have a jug of change to take to the bank and deposit. Do you want to hear the kicker?! The newspaper ad advertising the yard sale, didn't get printed. All of the yard sale traffic was given and brought by God! How AWESOME is that?!! The money that it is going to cost for Rachel's transplant, and her family's expenses during this time, is quite large and daunting. Through God's faithfulness and the generousity of so many people, the fund raising effort is a miracle. There are more fundraisers planned, and I just know that God is overseeing all of this, I can hardly wait to see the outcomes. Please continue your prayers, as this is SO important! Also, if you have not been to her website, please visit it by clicking here. There are pictures, more information, and even a place where people can make donations if they'd like to. If you have any words of encouragement to offer to them, please sign their guestbook. I just know that they would appreciate it.

South Florence High School Homecoming

As I mentioned in this post, we are sponsoring our local football team players. What a GREAT experience! Our family was able to go to their homecoming game this past Friday night. The weather was threatening of a storm, and spirits seemed a little low, with the sprinkles and wet bleachers. But, God was FAITHFUL! The weather cleared up some, and the people started coming out! I wish I'd have taken my camera, so many people from our church showed up, sporting their team member's jersey number, and we all sat together, lookin' good in the stands! Showing that South Florence spirit!! Near the end of the game, we were able to see "our" player get out on the field, and show us some of his stuff, which I thought was incredible, since he is only in the 10th grade! After he came off of the field, we were standing at the bottom of the stands, and were able to call out to him. He heard his name, turned, and waved at my son. You would have thought my son had just seen the President or someone wave to him. He talked all the way home about how "his" player waved at him! It is really awesome how God is using this young man to make a difference in our boy's life. So often, "you" hear about how there are no good role models for children...who would've thought, "Hey, why don't we get the role models that are right here in our community?!" We had such a wonderful time out there this weekend, how's your weekend??