March is MS Awareness Month
Find out more about this awareness month at https://mymsaa.org/ms-information/symptoms/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8OjjBRB4EiwAMZe6y-UNizNaFv2yqwAYGEqN6ql_iE_V64oiqsD89MqD3Zg2SYkCFOfiJBoCPN0QAvD_BwE

What is MS? https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

Stories of MS

Actress Selma Blair interview with Robin Roberts on her fight against MS …
https://www.boston.com/news/celebs/2019/02/26/video-selma-blair-ms-diagnosis-gma-good-morning-america-interview

Audio Stories from PMM’s Passages from those living with MS …

Carol is a nurse and wonders what is wrong? Listen her story on discovering her having MS.

Carol knows that nothing can take the place of family and friends when dealing with MS. Listen to Carol’s reflection on her husband helping care for her …

The struggle with MS in a family can cause all kinds of hardships. To get help is the first step in healing relationships and to get to a better place. Listen to Randy who is recovering from drugs tell his family story.

Dorothy tells of her wondering, if her husband Dick, has a serious illness. Dick is finally diagnosed with MS.

Dick tells about his wife helping him deal with MS. Dorothy talks about staying married in the midst of struggling with Dick having MS.

We pray for all those people who are victims of MS!

“The members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”  1 Corinthians 12:22 (NRSV)

Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and remembering what it was created to stand for is as important today as when it was first recognized by our nation on January 1986, the first national Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday was observed in January 1986.

Listen to “All God’s Children” a reflection on the man and highlights of his life on Passages by clicking on the link below.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.)[1] is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King’s birthday, January 15. The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

The idea of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday was promoted by labor unions in contract negotiations.[2] After King’s death, U.S. Representative John Conyers (a Democrat from Michigan) and U.S. Senator Edward Brooke (a Republican from Massachusetts) introduced a bill in Congress to make King’s birthday a national holiday. The bill first came to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number needed for passage.[3] Two of the main arguments mentioned by opponents were that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive, and that a holiday to honor a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition (King had never held public office).[3] Only two other figures have national holidays in the U.S. honoring them: George Washington and Christopher Columbus.

Soon after, the King Center turned to support from the corporate community and the general public. The success of this strategy was cemented when musician Stevie Wonder released the single “Happy Birthday” to popularize the campaign in 1980 and hosted the Rally for Peace Press Conference in 1981. Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law, termed by a 2006 article in The Nation as “the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history.”[2]

Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East (both North Carolina Republicans) led opposition to the holiday and questioned whether King was important enough to receive such an honor. Helms criticized King’s opposition to the Vietnam War and accused him of espousing “action-oriented Marxism”.[4] Helms led a filibuster against the bill and on October 3, 1983, submitted a 300-page document to the Senate alleging that King had associations with communists. New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared the document a “packet of filth”, threw it on the Senate floor and stomped on it.[5][6]

President Ronald Reagan originally opposed the holiday, citing cost concerns. When asked to comment on Helms’ accusations that King was a communist, the president said “We’ll know in thirty-five years, won’t we?”, in reference to the eventual release of FBI surveillance tapes that had previously been sealed.[7] But on November 2, 1983, Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King.[8][9] The bill had passed the House of Representatives by a count of 338 to 90, a veto-proof margin.[4] The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.

The bill also established the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday, and the late Coretta Scott King, King’s wife, was made a member of this commission for life by President George H. W. Bush in May 1989.[10][11]

Celebrating the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.!

An interview with Achol a peace builder from South Sudan shares a hope for peace at Christmas time from a country in the midst of famine and strife on Passages.

Click on the tab below for half-hour audio special from your friends at the Presbyterian Media Mission. It will be airing on the Passages network of 200 stations next weekend for Christmas!  Achol talks about the hope for peace in South Sudan.

Passages Lite version of Achol interview for the Internet by clicking on the audio button here …

Music featured in full length from Passages Prince of Peace Special below by clicking on the audio buttons ,,,

“Let There Be Peace on Earth” by B. E. Taylor

“A Good Place” by Voice of the Homeless

“Love” by Sixpence

“Mad About You” by Sting

We pray for peace in our families, in our communities, in our country, and in our world for 2018 and beyond!

Have a  Blessed and Merry Christmas from the PMM Leadership Team

Jane is a cancer survivor who tells about what her and her husband’s feelings are regarding a world of hope despite her being diagnosed with breast cancer.  Jane’s Passages stories of hope during Breast Cancer Awareness month!

Click on the audio file below to listen to Jane’s Story Part One

Advances in screening and treatment have improved survival rates dramatically since 1989. There are around 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in the United States (U.S.). The chance of any woman dying from breast cancer is around 1 in 37, or 2.7 percent.

Jane talks about hearing the Big “C” word and what do you do when cancer becomes part of your life?  Jane’s Story Part Two

In 2017, around 252, 710 new diagnoses of breast cancer are expected in women, and around 40,610 women are likely to die from the disease.

How can God allow so much to happen in Jane’s life for her and her family to deal with?  A father struggles and his wife rises above the challenges to see the “good” despite her needing to deal with cancer.  Jane’s Story Part Three on Passages

Awareness of the symptoms and the need for screening are important ways of reducing the risk of breast cancer and other cancers too.

We pray for all those facing the challenges of life and focus on those women and men who are dealing with breast cancer.