Join Vestavia Hills Baptist Church after VBS on June 16th from 5-7 pm for a Family Fun Night complete with food trucks from all over the Birmingham area! Current line-up: Red Diamond Coffee & Tea Truck, Pazzo, Steel City Pops (more to be added!)
Family Fun Food Truck Extravaganza at VHBC
Featured – Youth and Kids
Join us at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church from 9 am – 12 pm each day for a Food Truck Party VBS at VHBC! We’re Giving Thanks for God’s Daily Bread. Rising 1st graders through Rising 6th grades welcome! Families are invited to stay after VBS each day for a lunch in the Fellowship Hall!
On April 30, 2022, in conjunction with St. Elias Lebanese Food Festival, the ‘9th Annual Cedar Run 5K & Cedar Shake Fun Run’ will take place. All proceeds from the run for three years will go to Just Keep Smiling. Consider signing up to participate, whether it is running or walking in the 5K or Fun Run, creating a team or securing a sponsorship with a wide range available. Invite your company to support the JKS mission. Details can be found at www.StEliasCedarRun.org.
Regardless whether running is for you, make plans to enjoy and support the St. Elias Lebanese Food and Cultural Festival on April 29-30. There are other opportunities for supporting Just Keep Smiling as well. Just Keep Smiling ‘Auction & Appetizers’ on Thursday, September 29 at Regions Field is a great night for a great cause. Visit www.justkeepsmiling.org for more on the 501(c)3 and these events.
First through Sixth Graders are encouraged to join us for this fun-filled day of activities, music, and lessons at First Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove. It’s like a week-long VBS packed into one day! We’ll have live worship music and a special guest speaker for the large group times. Children will have small group activities throughout the day. Cost includes t-shirt, 2 meals, snacks, crafts and activities. Church groups and individuals are invited to come. Learn more and register here or call Dan Williams at 205-790-3768.
Tentative Schedule:
Doors Open: 9:00 a.m.
Session 1: 9:30 a.m.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.
Session 2: 12 p.m.
Afternoon Activities: 2 p.m.
Supper: 5:30 p.m.
Session 3: 6 p.m.
Conclusion: 8 p.m.
Miracle Moments
Brought to you by: Molly Maid of Birmingham, www.mollymaid.com/birmingham
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you…” Isaiah 41:10
November 21, 2016 is a day the Franklin family of Jemison, Ala. will never forget. Then 11-year-old daughter, Briklyn Franklin had her first seizure. “She was in our garage with her dad Anthony and her brother Blayze washing out paintbrushes where they had been painting her room,” mom Kellie Franklin remembers, adding, “Blayze heard Briklyn call his name. About the time he looked up, she was stumbling backward, fell back and when she hit the ground, she started seizing.” Briklyn’s father ran toward her and cradled her head in his arms and told his son to call 911. He was with Briklyn as her body started stiffening and quickly jerking and the area around her eyes and mouth started turning blue. “At that moment, that was the most helpless he had ever felt,” Franklin explains. “He said he thought he was watching his baby girl die in his arms and there was nothing he could do.”
Kellie Franklin returned from work to EMTs in her driveway. “I rode with her in the ambulance as they transported her to the ER at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.” The Franklins learned from doctors that everyone gets one “free seizure,” so they diagnosed Briklyn with Convulsive Syncope. They were instructed to follow up with her pediatrician. After following up, Briklyn’s pediatrician scheduled her for an EEG on December 28. “The following day they called me and said that her EEG had revealed abnormal spikes and waves consistent with recent seizure activity and requested that we follow up with Pediatric Neurology.” Franklin shared with the doctors about an unusual occurrence where Briklyn was walking to her father’s shop in the backyard. “She remembered getting about halfway up the stairs but the next thing she recalled was being in the kitchen flipping the light switch on and off thinking she was opening the garage door.”
The family’s idea of what a seizure is changed that day. “We learned quickly just how different seizures can look not only from one person to another but even within the same individual,” Franklin says. Because of these events, Briklyn was diagnosed with epilepsy. She was put on medication but had a seizure during the next two months and then was seizure free for six and a half months. “The stress of not knowing if or when there would be another seizure could have been enough to break a person whose hope is in anything other than the Lord, but we trusted that she would not have a single seizure that He wasn’t aware of beforehand.”
Briklyn’s seizures started back on September 2, 2017. Doctors increased her medication but by the end of March, she had six seizures in seven and a half months. “I immediately began researching neurosurgeons and began praying for a specific doctor,” Franklin says. After this, Briklyn went through several scans and procedures, and on November 10, 2020, she underwent a craniotomy. “The type of epilepsy that Briklyn has is not a type that she would be expected to outgrow,” Franklin says, adding, “We weren’t sure if we would ever actually see her make it seven months seizure free… right now she is almost 14 months seizure-free!”
The Franklin family sees God’s fingerprints all over Briklyn’s journey with epilepsy through people near and far praying for Briklyn, the doctors who treated her that the Franklins had specifically prayed would do the surgery and so much more. “For anyone who asks how Briklyn’s journey to seizure freedom is a miracle, I would have to ask, ‘How is it not?’”
After nearly 14 months of no seizures, Briklyn unfortunately had a seizure in November. “We are thankful for the miracle of how long she was seizure-free and pray that, if it is God’s will, she never has another one. However, we seek His perfect will above our selfish and limited wishes,” Kellie Franklin says, adding, “We trust that we will persevere through every circumstance we face knowing that the perseverance will make us mature and complete in our faith.”
-Melissa Armstrong
We need you to share your Miracle Moment! Email [email protected] Subject Line: Miracle Moments or call 205-408-7150.
Get your holiday shopping started, support local artisans, and help raise funds for some exceptional kids! Local artisans and crafters have a wide variety of beautiful works available & lots of free Fall Festival activities for the children to enjoy: balloon twisting, inflatables, games, & a crafting station. In addition, food & refreshments will be available for purchase—a Silent Auction & Door prizes throughout the day. All proceeds go to purchase canopy-enclosed safety beds and other equipment for two children with Autism in our community.
Booth space available Contact: [email protected]
MORE THAN 50 CARS with trunks open, creatively decorated, and filled with loads of great candy–that’s Trunk or Treat! You and your family are invited to be a part of it! Come in costume and prepare for a great time! Don’t forget your bags or buckets!
• A FREE, FAMILY EVENT OPEN TO ALL!
• HOT BEVERAGES, EXTRAS, LIVE MUSIC, LOTS OF FUN!
• COME AND GO AS YOU PLEASE
• RAIN OR SHINE!
Want to learn more about what Heritage Christian Academy has to offer and see the campus? Register today for our special “Come & See” even on Tuesday October 19, 2021! Space is limited so be sure to early to secure your spot!
Sozo Children International, a Birmingham, Alabama based nonprofit ministry dedicated to serving at-risk children in Uganda, will host its annual fundraising Gala at The Club on September 9, 2021. The “Evening of Dreams” will feature a silent auction from 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. with a dinner and live auction from 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Youth News
Fifty frayed and faded U.S. flags were recently properly retired thanks to the patriotism and partnership of two groups at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church (OLS) in Homewood. Boy Scouts of America Troop 237 with the help of Knights of Columbus conducted a retirement ceremony for the worn flags. Following the Pledge of Allegiance and the recounting of the symbolism of the stars and stripes and the dedication of past patriots, the scouts placed pieces of the flags into the fire. The preferred way to retire U.S. flags is cutting them, separating the stripes but keeping the blue field of stars intact and burning them. Flags cannot be buried or discarded.
In conjunction with the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama, Vulcan Park & Museum recently held a Flag Ceremony and Retirement. Girl Scouts from various troops in the Birmingham area participated in the program. Scouts recited facts about our nation’s flag and began a formal process to dispose of tattered flags. †
