Thursday, December 07, 2006
A.L.L. for children (Cure Rate Goes Up Again)
ALL cure rate for children has just been raised again to 94% by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. When I was four it was 4%. When my son was diagnosed four years ago it was 80%. Now it is 94%!!!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
New Concern With Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart asks for, and receives, permission to join homosexual marriage group
(This was sent to me by a friend. It is verified on snopes.com)
Read "Wal-Mart Partners With Gay and Lesbian Group"
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has asked for and received permission to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is a leading promoter of homosexual marriage.
Although Wal-Mart has never excluded homosexuals from being employees, customers, or suppliers, the company wanted to be more closely identified with promoting the homosexual agenda. Wal-Mart is now a "corporate member" of the NGLCC, putting their approval on the NGLCC's efforts to abolish the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A Wal-Mart vice president will serve as an advisor to the NGLCC, helping them promote homosexual marriage.
Wal-Mart agreed to give $25,000 to the NGLCC and to pay for two conferences scheduled by NGLCC. Also, Wal-Mart will give homosexual-owned businesses special treatment when making purchases. Companies not owned by homosexuals will be moved down the list.
NGLCC called Wal-Mart's action "part of the company's ongoing commitment to advancing diversity (homosexuality) among all of its associate, supplier and customer bases."
Wal-Mart is offering the same kind of support for homosexual marriage which Ford Motor Company has been giving to homosexual groups for years.
TAKE ACTION
1. Send your email to Wal-Mart.
2. Wal-Mart often blocks our emails. To make sure your voice is heard, please call Wal-Mart's home office headquarters and ask for Chairman Rob Walton at 479-273-4000. Also, call your local Wal-Mart manager and express your concerns. Please, be polite when you call!
3. Print out and distribute our specially produced Pass Along Sheet.
Send Your Letter Now!
(This was sent to me by a friend. It is verified on snopes.com)
Read "Wal-Mart Partners With Gay and Lesbian Group"
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has asked for and received permission to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is a leading promoter of homosexual marriage.
Although Wal-Mart has never excluded homosexuals from being employees, customers, or suppliers, the company wanted to be more closely identified with promoting the homosexual agenda. Wal-Mart is now a "corporate member" of the NGLCC, putting their approval on the NGLCC's efforts to abolish the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A Wal-Mart vice president will serve as an advisor to the NGLCC, helping them promote homosexual marriage.
Wal-Mart agreed to give $25,000 to the NGLCC and to pay for two conferences scheduled by NGLCC. Also, Wal-Mart will give homosexual-owned businesses special treatment when making purchases. Companies not owned by homosexuals will be moved down the list.
NGLCC called Wal-Mart's action "part of the company's ongoing commitment to advancing diversity (homosexuality) among all of its associate, supplier and customer bases."
Wal-Mart is offering the same kind of support for homosexual marriage which Ford Motor Company has been giving to homosexual groups for years.
TAKE ACTION
1. Send your email to Wal-Mart.
2. Wal-Mart often blocks our emails. To make sure your voice is heard, please call Wal-Mart's home office headquarters and ask for Chairman Rob Walton at 479-273-4000. Also, call your local Wal-Mart manager and express your concerns. Please, be polite when you call!
3. Print out and distribute our specially produced Pass Along Sheet.
Send Your Letter Now!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
My Favorite Cardinal Player
I think this guy is my favorite player, if for no other reason than the way he leaves the field after every inning. He doesn't have to run as fast as he does inbetween plays, but he is so full of energy! He really deserved to win the 2006 World Series Most Valuable Player Trophy and Corvette. A job very well done. He did make the difference between a victory and perhaps a long drawn out victory or even a possible defeat. Thank you David Eckstein for all you have done for the 'world class' St. Louis Cardinals team. (photo from www.mlb.com today)
Sunday, June 25, 2006
St. Jude Researchers Amazing Medical Breakthrough
For those who have survived chemotherapy and have beaten leukemia or other cancers, the idea of a relapse is normally in the back of our minds. Now, that is all changing with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's new genetically modified natural killer cells.
See sources at the bottom of this article:
St Jude lab studies shows that new genetic modification and culture techniques produce NK cells with significantly enhanced ability to eradicate leukemia cells -
Natural killer (NK) immune system cells can be genetically modified to brandish a powerful "on-switch" that prompts them to aggressively attack and kill leukemic cells. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, suggests a way to improve the outcome of children who receive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or other blood cancers.
Results of the St. Jude study are published in the current online issue of Blood.
The researchers demonstrated how to overcome significant technical hurdles that have until now slowed development of NK-based therapies for ALL, according to Dario Campana, M.D., Ph.D., a member of St. Jude Hematology-Oncology and Pathology, and senior author of the Blood report. Progress in adapting NK cells to the treatment of ALL had been significantly hampered because researchers were not able to grow large numbers of these immune cells in the laboratory, and because NK cells normally have only weak anti-leukemic activity.
The key breakthroughs made by the St. Jude team were the development of a laboratory technique for rapidly producing a large, pure population of NK cells from a small sample of blood; and developing a technique for genetically modifying NK cells so that they would become potent killers when they encountered leukemic cells.
In order to grow large populations of NK cells, the team started with samples of blood containing a variety of different immune system cells. They placed this sample into a dish containing a type of human leukemia cell called K562. Campana's team genetically modified the K562 cells so they carried on their surfaces many copies of two different proteins, 4-1BBL and IL-15. The genetically modified K562 cells quickly stimulated the expansion of the NK cell population to more than10,000 times their original number. The technique triggered growth of NK cells specifically, which greatly simplified the ability of the researchers to collect a pure population of these immune cells.
The researchers then genetically modified the growing NK cells so they carried on their surface an artificial receptor that made them particularly aggressive and effective killers that attacked only leukemic cells. A receptor is a protein that binds to a specific target molecule. The artificial receptor on the NK molecule was designed to recognize a protein called CD19, which is found on the surface of leukemic cells. When the receptor bound to CD19 on leukemic cells, it set off a reaction that super-charged the killing activity of the NK cell.
"By developing a technique for cultivating large numbers of NK cells from a small blood sample, we made it practical to consider them a potential treatment against many different types of cancer," Campana said. "By genetically modifying NK cells so they expressed the CD19 receptor, we made them specifically effective against ALL cells."
A potential clinical application for the technology developed in this study is in leukemia patients who are treated with hematopoietic (blood cell-forming) cell transplantation. In this case, NK cells will be derived from the transplant donor, expanded and genetically modified. These modified NK cells will then be infused into the patient after the transplant in order to eliminate residual leukemic cells. In another application, NK cells could be obtained from a patient while in remission and then reinfused after genetic modification if the patient suffers a resurgence of the leukemia.
"We look forward to seeing this strategy being added to the management of children with ALL," said Chihaya Imai, M.D., the postdoctoral student who did most of the work on this project.
The other author of this study is Shotaro Iwamoto, M.D., of St. Jude.
This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. For more information, please visit http://www.stjude.org.
Contact: Bonnie Cameron
bonnie.cameron@stjude.org
901-495-4815
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
http://www.stjude.org
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=21818
See sources at the bottom of this article:
St Jude lab studies shows that new genetic modification and culture techniques produce NK cells with significantly enhanced ability to eradicate leukemia cells -
Natural killer (NK) immune system cells can be genetically modified to brandish a powerful "on-switch" that prompts them to aggressively attack and kill leukemic cells. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, suggests a way to improve the outcome of children who receive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or other blood cancers.
Results of the St. Jude study are published in the current online issue of Blood.
The researchers demonstrated how to overcome significant technical hurdles that have until now slowed development of NK-based therapies for ALL, according to Dario Campana, M.D., Ph.D., a member of St. Jude Hematology-Oncology and Pathology, and senior author of the Blood report. Progress in adapting NK cells to the treatment of ALL had been significantly hampered because researchers were not able to grow large numbers of these immune cells in the laboratory, and because NK cells normally have only weak anti-leukemic activity.
The key breakthroughs made by the St. Jude team were the development of a laboratory technique for rapidly producing a large, pure population of NK cells from a small sample of blood; and developing a technique for genetically modifying NK cells so that they would become potent killers when they encountered leukemic cells.
In order to grow large populations of NK cells, the team started with samples of blood containing a variety of different immune system cells. They placed this sample into a dish containing a type of human leukemia cell called K562. Campana's team genetically modified the K562 cells so they carried on their surfaces many copies of two different proteins, 4-1BBL and IL-15. The genetically modified K562 cells quickly stimulated the expansion of the NK cell population to more than10,000 times their original number. The technique triggered growth of NK cells specifically, which greatly simplified the ability of the researchers to collect a pure population of these immune cells.
The researchers then genetically modified the growing NK cells so they carried on their surface an artificial receptor that made them particularly aggressive and effective killers that attacked only leukemic cells. A receptor is a protein that binds to a specific target molecule. The artificial receptor on the NK molecule was designed to recognize a protein called CD19, which is found on the surface of leukemic cells. When the receptor bound to CD19 on leukemic cells, it set off a reaction that super-charged the killing activity of the NK cell.
"By developing a technique for cultivating large numbers of NK cells from a small blood sample, we made it practical to consider them a potential treatment against many different types of cancer," Campana said. "By genetically modifying NK cells so they expressed the CD19 receptor, we made them specifically effective against ALL cells."
A potential clinical application for the technology developed in this study is in leukemia patients who are treated with hematopoietic (blood cell-forming) cell transplantation. In this case, NK cells will be derived from the transplant donor, expanded and genetically modified. These modified NK cells will then be infused into the patient after the transplant in order to eliminate residual leukemic cells. In another application, NK cells could be obtained from a patient while in remission and then reinfused after genetic modification if the patient suffers a resurgence of the leukemia.
"We look forward to seeing this strategy being added to the management of children with ALL," said Chihaya Imai, M.D., the postdoctoral student who did most of the work on this project.
The other author of this study is Shotaro Iwamoto, M.D., of St. Jude.
This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. For more information, please visit http://www.stjude.org.
Contact: Bonnie Cameron
bonnie.cameron@stjude.org
901-495-4815
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
http://www.stjude.org
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=21818
Monday, May 01, 2006
Fuel Price Help
I have a couple of ideas for the gasoline price problem that if implemented might spur our legislators to do something concrete. What if we had a deal where if the price of gasoline rose above $3 on average that the tax collected by the State of Illinois would be cut by 1/3 or 1/2. The tax is about 19 cents per gallon right now. If they cut it in half the State would still get money, but not as much. This would encourage the State to more aggressively find a solution to this problem. We could do the same thing with the Feds.
What if we the people started a gas tax amendment that did something like this?
What if we took the power to tax us more than is reasonable right out of the hands of the legislators?
I think something like that would be a spur in the sides of the governing officials to push them to find a working solution to these problems.
What do you think?
What if we the people started a gas tax amendment that did something like this?
What if we took the power to tax us more than is reasonable right out of the hands of the legislators?
I think something like that would be a spur in the sides of the governing officials to push them to find a working solution to these problems.
What do you think?
Friday, March 31, 2006
You are invited
Do you know how I got into the Vineyard movement? My pastor in the late 1980’s, Mike Bickle, asked a group of leaders in our fellowship to pray about going to a conference at the Anaheim Vineyard with him. Amy and I prayed one time and said…’Lord if you want us to go…you will have to provide the money’.
Soon a few people were giving me money to go to that conference. They didn’t know we had prayed about it…they just felt led to support our going. That event gave me a personal connection with the Vineyard movement that the Lord brought me back to eventually.
There’s another Vineyard conference happening this year not in Anaheim, but at Wheaton College.
http://www.thevineyardchurch.us/regconference/index.htm
I would like you to pray about either going or donating towards someone else in our fellowship going.
This will be a great conference with sessions by Steve Nicholson on power healing…Dan Paxton (my favorite) on building effective teams, Jeff Heidkamp on sharing the gospel….Tom Severson on prayer….Dianne Leman on the Kingdom of God…Don Williams on how to help addicts…Happy Leman on ‘Building the Church”
And lots of great worship and ministry time.
Bert Waggoner (Houston TX) will speak also…along with Eloise McKitric (Children’s Pastor of Evanston Vineyard).
There will be a lot on kids ministry ideas and things related to this.
If you can only do one conference this year, please pray hard about this one!
It’s my hope that we will have at least 10 adults and 10 children from our fellowship go to this event. Are you one of those twenty?
The childrens conference sessions are limited to only 200 kids.
Is there someone in our fellowship that you feel should attend this event? Are you willing to go but don’t have the funds? Just pray and let the Lord answer your prayer. If He wants you there, He can provide.
Thanks!
David Bielby
Soon a few people were giving me money to go to that conference. They didn’t know we had prayed about it…they just felt led to support our going. That event gave me a personal connection with the Vineyard movement that the Lord brought me back to eventually.
There’s another Vineyard conference happening this year not in Anaheim, but at Wheaton College.
http://www.thevineyardchurch.us/regconference/index.htm
I would like you to pray about either going or donating towards someone else in our fellowship going.
This will be a great conference with sessions by Steve Nicholson on power healing…Dan Paxton (my favorite) on building effective teams, Jeff Heidkamp on sharing the gospel….Tom Severson on prayer….Dianne Leman on the Kingdom of God…Don Williams on how to help addicts…Happy Leman on ‘Building the Church”
And lots of great worship and ministry time.
Bert Waggoner (Houston TX) will speak also…along with Eloise McKitric (Children’s Pastor of Evanston Vineyard).
There will be a lot on kids ministry ideas and things related to this.
If you can only do one conference this year, please pray hard about this one!
It’s my hope that we will have at least 10 adults and 10 children from our fellowship go to this event. Are you one of those twenty?
The childrens conference sessions are limited to only 200 kids.
Is there someone in our fellowship that you feel should attend this event? Are you willing to go but don’t have the funds? Just pray and let the Lord answer your prayer. If He wants you there, He can provide.
Thanks!
David Bielby
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Exegetical Fallacies by D.A. Carson
I write reviews on Amazon.com
Here is my latest review I've written. This one is about a book by D.A. Carson called Exegetical Fallacies. If you've ever heard someone teach that Agape is one kind of love in Greek...Phileo is another kind...and that Agape is God's unconditional love...and that Phileo is brotherly love...then you need to read this review...and Dr. Carson's book.
Here it is.
I've been pastoring for about 10 yrs...do sermon prep in the Greek text and try to bring the text in a relevant way to my congregation. This book has a ton of great error checkers for those who work with any Greek at all.
For example, the Root Word fallacy section...Carson deals with issues that have bothered me for a long time. One of the most famous is the AGAPE is a special kind of God's love...that is different from PHILEO. Think with me on this for a minute...if the devil could get pastors to miss the biblical definition on the most important virtue in the bible...then he has shifted their entire ministry off base to a degree. That is what has happened in America today with so many bible teachers/preachers appealing to the Greek meaning of Agape as different from Phileo...
Carson calls the approach a root fallacy...in other words the root meaning of the word reveals the true meaning of the word.
One of his illustrations is "Good-bye" which originally was 'God be with ye'. He points out that no one is thinking today 'God be with ye' when they are saying Good-bye....it is a similar thing to probe for the root meaning of the Greek word and then try to bring a revelation out that 'changes' the translation to something deeper, more spiritual. It's really a twisting of the text into a wrong definition.
Agape is frequently used to describe lots of feelings outside of God's love. The popular teaching that Agape is God's love...that it means unconditional love...whereas Phileo means brotherly love doesn't stand up if you do a basic word study in the bible of the two words. When I was first in the ministry I was stunned to find that word studies in the LXX & GNT did not back up this very popular teaching-that Agape is God's unconditional love...and Phileo is human love...of a lower grade. Almost everyone in my congregation had heard that popular teaching somewhere...either on Christian radio, books, magazines, or TV. But in fact, it seemed that the two words for love were used interchangeably a lot. Not only that...agape is used in one place to describe a rapists feelings for his victim!!!! How could that be God's unconditional love? Something is very wrong with the popular teachings on love today.
To my delight, Carson shows why this is so...and how to identify these sorts of errors. The book is a little hard to understand in some places because he packs so much into each paragraph, but if you find the issue you are working on and read his stuff slowly, it should alter the way you approach God's word (if your approach is flawed).
One really cannot get to a more important issue than dealing with a definition of love...can we?
Some of the criticism about negativity in this book is probably fair...but there is so much linguistic nonsense out there being taught in the name of spirituality, it's tough to deal with it all in a 'positive' way. I just think all pastors should read and more importantly learn to apply this book when doing exegesis for sermons.
Hope you get two copies and give an extra one to a pastor friend.
Here is my latest review I've written. This one is about a book by D.A. Carson called Exegetical Fallacies. If you've ever heard someone teach that Agape is one kind of love in Greek...Phileo is another kind...and that Agape is God's unconditional love...and that Phileo is brotherly love...then you need to read this review...and Dr. Carson's book.
Here it is.
I've been pastoring for about 10 yrs...do sermon prep in the Greek text and try to bring the text in a relevant way to my congregation. This book has a ton of great error checkers for those who work with any Greek at all.
For example, the Root Word fallacy section...Carson deals with issues that have bothered me for a long time. One of the most famous is the AGAPE is a special kind of God's love...that is different from PHILEO. Think with me on this for a minute...if the devil could get pastors to miss the biblical definition on the most important virtue in the bible...then he has shifted their entire ministry off base to a degree. That is what has happened in America today with so many bible teachers/preachers appealing to the Greek meaning of Agape as different from Phileo...
Carson calls the approach a root fallacy...in other words the root meaning of the word reveals the true meaning of the word.
One of his illustrations is "Good-bye" which originally was 'God be with ye'. He points out that no one is thinking today 'God be with ye' when they are saying Good-bye....it is a similar thing to probe for the root meaning of the Greek word and then try to bring a revelation out that 'changes' the translation to something deeper, more spiritual. It's really a twisting of the text into a wrong definition.
Agape is frequently used to describe lots of feelings outside of God's love. The popular teaching that Agape is God's love...that it means unconditional love...whereas Phileo means brotherly love doesn't stand up if you do a basic word study in the bible of the two words. When I was first in the ministry I was stunned to find that word studies in the LXX & GNT did not back up this very popular teaching-that Agape is God's unconditional love...and Phileo is human love...of a lower grade. Almost everyone in my congregation had heard that popular teaching somewhere...either on Christian radio, books, magazines, or TV. But in fact, it seemed that the two words for love were used interchangeably a lot. Not only that...agape is used in one place to describe a rapists feelings for his victim!!!! How could that be God's unconditional love? Something is very wrong with the popular teachings on love today.
To my delight, Carson shows why this is so...and how to identify these sorts of errors. The book is a little hard to understand in some places because he packs so much into each paragraph, but if you find the issue you are working on and read his stuff slowly, it should alter the way you approach God's word (if your approach is flawed).
One really cannot get to a more important issue than dealing with a definition of love...can we?
Some of the criticism about negativity in this book is probably fair...but there is so much linguistic nonsense out there being taught in the name of spirituality, it's tough to deal with it all in a 'positive' way. I just think all pastors should read and more importantly learn to apply this book when doing exegesis for sermons.
Hope you get two copies and give an extra one to a pastor friend.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Cure rate goes up!!!
The A.L.L. cure rate (the kind of cancer little David had), is going up to over 90%!
http://www.stjude.org/media/0,2561,453_2086_20340,00.html
So far David has no side effects. We're excited he's doing so well.
David Bielby
http://www.stjude.org/media/0,2561,453_2086_20340,00.html
So far David has no side effects. We're excited he's doing so well.
David Bielby
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Hannah Thorp Announcment
Distribution to the general public, friends & family of Derek & Laura Thorp.
Please pass this information on to members of the church/friends of the church whom you think may not receive email or who know the Thorps.
Hannah Thorp’s visitation time is now set for Friday February 24, 2006 from 4 to 6:30 PM.
Her funeral will be on Saturday February 25, 2006 at 10 AM.
Both the visitation and the funeral will be held at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship
located at 3501 Joshua Tree Rd. Bloomington, IL.
Please note that directions to the Vineyard on the internet mapping services is incorrect.
Please go to the info/directions page at the Vineyard website for an accurate map.
The direct link is: http://www.bloomingtonvineyard.org/info/info.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the map.
There will be a lunch provided after the graveside service. For those interested in assisting with the lunch, please contact Rebecca Hovar or the Church office. 309-827-8292.
Meals have been organized for the Thorps. Melissa Marko is the contact person for that.
Please keep the Thorp family in your prayers as they walk through this valley. Pray that they will be kept & comforted by the Lord Jesus Himself.
Thank you so much.
David Bielby
Please pass this information on to members of the church/friends of the church whom you think may not receive email or who know the Thorps.
Hannah Thorp’s visitation time is now set for Friday February 24, 2006 from 4 to 6:30 PM.
Her funeral will be on Saturday February 25, 2006 at 10 AM.
Both the visitation and the funeral will be held at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship
located at 3501 Joshua Tree Rd. Bloomington, IL.
Please note that directions to the Vineyard on the internet mapping services is incorrect.
Please go to the info/directions page at the Vineyard website for an accurate map.
The direct link is: http://www.bloomingtonvineyard.org/info/info.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the map.
There will be a lunch provided after the graveside service. For those interested in assisting with the lunch, please contact Rebecca Hovar or the Church office. 309-827-8292.
Meals have been organized for the Thorps. Melissa Marko is the contact person for that.
Please keep the Thorp family in your prayers as they walk through this valley. Pray that they will be kept & comforted by the Lord Jesus Himself.
Thank you so much.
David Bielby
Friday, January 06, 2006
Exercise, Supplements & Alcohol
This very interesting study http://www.stjude.org/act/0,2526,418_2045_19156,00.html
shows three things: Exercise builds bone health for post ALL patients. Nutritional supplements & alcohol may inhibit bone health.
Now I didn't expect that finding at all. I would have expected to see supplements aiding bone development.
I wonder why the opposite occured?
shows three things: Exercise builds bone health for post ALL patients. Nutritional supplements & alcohol may inhibit bone health.
Now I didn't expect that finding at all. I would have expected to see supplements aiding bone development.
I wonder why the opposite occured?
Little David Overcomes
Little David has overcome in his battle with leukemia. The Lord's hand has helped him make it through all the chemotherpay and procedures that were part of his treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. When he started they cure rate there was 80% for kids (70% nationwide). They have since raised the published cure rate to 85%. We were told yesterday by his attending physician that the new cure rate will be raised to 92 or 93% for ALL. That is based on the current feedback for kids in his protocol.
We are excited that this kind of progress has been made with the research group our son is part of. The things learned will help other cancer patients...especially kids with cancer...to find cures faster and with fewer side effects!!!
We are excited that this kind of progress has been made with the research group our son is part of. The things learned will help other cancer patients...especially kids with cancer...to find cures faster and with fewer side effects!!!
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