Colosse Baptist Church Sponsors Muscular Dystrophy Carnival

We found out in April that Blake, my three year old grandson, has Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. Our family was devastated. This little fellow is a beautiful child with so much energy, and such a zest for life. He wears his mom out with his romping and getting into things. To learn that he is sick is hard to believe. Duchennes is the most common, and one of the most aggressive forms of MD. It is a genetic disorder that effects one in every 3,500 little boys. It is passed by the mother and effects the male children. Our family had no idea since, for the last three generations, there were only female children. Thus we were unaware that MD was in our family. I suppose years ago it was there but our forefathers did not know what it was, and just thought a child was weak and died young.

The life span for children with Duchennes is between 18 and 25 years. In the past it would have much less, since they had no way to help the children when the heart became weak, and breathing became difficult.

On August 17th at Colosse we held our first MDA carnival, and at this point raised a little over $11,000. We are still receiving donations, so I am unsure of a final total. We had games, a petting zoo, good food, Christian music, a silent auction, face painting by our youth, pony rides, a produce stand, an antique car show, a rock wall from the National Guard, and two moon bounces for the children. The ladies of our church, and a few other churches in the area, baked us all kinds of goodies to sell. It was truly a community love event because we had several churches in the area represented: St. Stephens, Buelah, and Epworth helped in so many ways. A car club from Mechanicsville brought their antique cars down for folks to enjoy. We had fire trucks, rescue squads, a police car for the kids to pretend they were driving. James River Equipment lent us a brand new tractor for children to climb into!! They loved it!

Many local business made donations to help our cause. The amount of love shown to our family was amazing, and our Colosse church family worked so hard to help bring this carnival together. Volunteers help build games before the carnival, and on the day of the carnival we had approximately 75 workers. There were approximately 500 people who came out to support the carnival. God reached down and touched us that day. God blessed the hearts of so many. There was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth it in order to raise money to help MDA find a cure for this disease that effects so many little boys--not only our Blake.

We titled the carnival, "Help Blake fight for a cure," and the community did just that. Blake was born 6 weeks too early, and came into the world fighting to breathe, fighting to live. God made him a survivor and a fighter from the beginning. I believe the Lord was preparing Blake for what was to come so he would learn quickly to never give up. Blake is a determined little guy, and it will serve him well in the years to come. It is our family's mission to help the MDA to find a cure. We intend to have more carnivals, and fund raisers to help MDA research.

Everything happens for a reason. God has a plan, and I feel that we have been given an opportunity to work toward finding a cure, and feel like we are suppose to raise public awareness about Muscular Dystrophy.

Blake lives with his mom and dad, Leanne and Calvin Semones, and his little 10 month old brother Hunter Ray in King and Queen County. He loves to play with his dog Annie, watch Scooby-Doo, and go riding with his daddy in his truck. His brother will need to be tested soon to make sure he does not have this disease. Please keep my daughter, and her family, in your prayers.

I am so proud of my church family who came together in unity to help my grandson. We had so many people stay after church to help put everything in place, and to run the games, the bake sale, etc. Our Deacons cooked the food, and our WMU helped serve. Our youth worked games, they did face paintings, and made balloon hats for the children. Our sanctuary choir, and our youth choir performed. Several of our members sang, and a several of our teens performed ballet to several inspirational songs. One particularly moving dance was performed by Kendal and Rachael Lipscomb, who danced to Martina McBride's song, "God's Will," there was not a dry eye in the area.

Blake's family is so grateful to all who came out, and helped us with their muscle, talents, time, donations, prayers, and their love. Blake had such a good day.

My daughter Leanne, and a family friend named Mary Demary, will present MDA the check on Sept. 1 at 9:30 on channel 8 during the local coverage of Jerry's Kids MDA telethon. Mary helped get the carnival going. Mary loves Blake very much and is regarded as an Aunt.

Steve, our pastor, has been very supportive through all of this. We are so thankful that he is in our lives. Our church family at Colosse have been wonderful as well. Everyone that we have come in contact with throughout our community has been so giving, and so gracious in helping Blake. Jesus is our lifeline, anchor, and we are trusting Him to heal Blake.

Thank you,
Nancy Embrey (Blake's granny)