St. Jude gala

Good afternoon! I am going to try my very hardest to put this into words. Saturday night was such a spectacular night and an experience that I will cherish for a lifetime. I had the privilege of taking part in the St. Jude 50th Anniversary gala. The program consisted of powerful words from Danny's family, stories from former patients, and wonderful musical performances. This gala was so beautiful because it showed the long journey and everything it took to make St. Jude what it is today. For everyone who does not know the story of St. Jude I am going to share this link with you guys Story of St. Jude. Danny Thomas is the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and he had a dream to create a hospital where no one would ever have to pay for their treatment and made sure that he staffed it with the best doctors in the world to all work together to cure childhood cancer. I heard such wonderful stories about Danny from his family members and close friends. In 1991 he passed away but left a hospital to the people he loved the most and they are still continuing his mission to make sure that no child dies in the dawn of life. There was a huge screen where videos of Danny and pictures of patients were projected. This screen was breathtaking and it was so neat to see how the hospital has grown and changed over the years. On this wonderful screen there were also videos of the journey of patients. There was one patient to represent each decade and after their beautiful testimony was shared they came up and gave a speech. Back when the hospital first opened the survival rate for leukemia was 4% and I cannot even begin to explain the emotion that filled the room after each patient shared their story. All of these survivors were so thankful for Danny's dream because of his dream they were given a second chance at life. Everyone stood up and cheered for these angels after they told their story and it was like everyone in that room was a family and we were all cheering together and celebrating our relative's miracle of life. At the beginning of this post I said that I am going to try my very best to put this in words when in reality no words can be used to explain the greatness of the unity everybody felt that night. The room was filled with Thomas family members, new board members, old board members, patients, survivors, and people who just wanted to come and support St. Jude. We were all strangers but we were all united because of our passion and love for St. Jude. After these intimate stories were shared  there were wonderful performances by Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith, Luis Fonsi, and Randy Owens. Billy Rivers and his choir sang such a wonderful song that really touched me. I have no idea what it is called but I wish I did. The lyrics said "hold on, the best is yet to come". Wow so true! I had chills when this extremely talented choir sang those words. Luis Fonsi performed after Billy Rivers and wow this guy was so talented as well! He is a Spanish singer so I had no earthy idea what he was singing haha but he was very gifted and you could tell that St. Jude held a special place in his heart. He got everyone on their feet and everyone had such a great time jammin out to his music! After Luis Fonsi sang Randy Owens came on. Just like Luis Fonsi you could really tell how much St. Jude meant to him. He wrote a song specially for the kids of St. Jude called "Angles Among Us". When he performed the song all of the patients came up on stage with him and sang! It was so incredible! There were new patients, old patients, and survivors all together on the stage like a huge family. I am so grateful that I had this wonderful opportunity to come and be a part of this wonderful celebration. Please continue to keep me and all of the patients of St. Jude in your daily prayers. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing." Have a blessed day!