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SATURDAY , OCTOBER 3 , 2015
NEWSOK.COM | OKLAHOMAN.COM
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BOOKS
Retelling Eve’s story William Paul Young, author of “The Shack,” discusses his new fiction book“Eve” and its retelling of the Garden of Eden story in Genesis.
SPIRITUALLIFE
ARTIST WILLGIVE SHOW
NORMAN — DebbyKaspari will be at TheDepot Gallery, 200 SJones Ave., from 2 to4 p.m. Sunday to givea painting demon-stration in conjunc-tion with her “News
from the Woods”exhibit. Refresh-ments will be served.She also will be atThe Depot from 6 to9 p.m. Friday as partof the Second FridayCircuit of Art event.During that event,Bob French and JohnArnold, joined byKaspari on banjo, willperform in concertfrom 7:30 to 9 p.m.The “News Fromthe Woods” exhibitwill continue at thegallery through Oct.30. Regular hours are
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mon-day through Friday.To learn more, go tonormandepot.org orcall 307-9320.
COLLECTORS’GROUP SETSMEETING
The OklahomaPaperweight Collec-tors Association willmeet from 1 to 4 p.m.Oct. 17 at the Mid-town Hilton GardenInn, 2809 NorthwestExpressway. Guestspeakers will include
glass appraiser AlanKaplan, of New YorkCity, who will speakabout his experi-ences on “AntiquesRoadshow,” andglass artist CathyRichardson, sharingher journey into thefield of lampworkpaperweights andsculptures. To learnmore, contact JanetCook at 202-5814 [email protected].
VENDORS ARESOUGHT FORBAZAAR
SHAWNEE — Wes-ley United MethodistWomen are seekingvendors for theirfall bazaar, set for 9a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov.6-7 at the church,302 E IndependenceSt. Booth rent forboth days is $35 fornew vendors and$30 for returningvendors. One-daybooth rental is $17for new vendors and$15 for returningvendors. Crafters andcommercial vendors
are welcome, butno garage sale-type items. Wesleymembers will offerbaked goods and astew and cornbreadlunch Nov. 6. For anapplication, contactMarjean Johnson at275-4961 or [email protected].
MENTALILLNESSAWARENESSWEEK MARKED
EDMOND — MentalIllness Awareness
Week in Edmondincluded a procla-mation by MayorCharles Lamb: “Everycitizen and com-munity can make adifference in helpingto end the silenceand the stigma thathas for too longsurrounded mentalillnesses.” Downtownbusiness own-ers showed supportby decorating theirfront doors with thegreen ribbon thatsymbolizes mentalhealth.
COMMUNITY
Sarah McLean felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit while on a beach vacation the summer of 2013.
It was time to tell her story of triumph over disease; time toshare about her true-life transformation from grief to grace.
It was time to reach out to other women battling breast can-cer; time to take them back to the days and months after she wasdiagnosed with the disease at age 26; time to tell them about thecancer’s return in 2011 and her second effort to beat it.
Most importantly, it was time to help them heal the hiddenscars of breast cancer, the wounds that McLean feels only theLord can mend completely.
McLean, 38, said her new book, “Pink Is the New Black” (Proj-ect 31 Press, paperback) is her answer to that prompting from theLord two years ago.
The book, subtitled “Healing the Hidden Scars of Breast Can-cer: A Journey From Grief to Grace,” comes in time for October asBreast Cancer Awareness Month.
McLean, who lives in Edmond with her husband, Steve, andtheir children Colin, 10, and Tatum, 9, said chronicling her jour-ney in the book made her feel vulnerable, “but something justclicked, and I knew it was time.”
“It’s definitely been a labor of love. I had to relive it all in orderfor it to be authentic,” she said about writing the book.
“In the end, it’s been redeeming and restoring and amazing towatch God heal those deep wounds that I didn’t even know werethere.”
Reaching out
McLean said she’s come a long way since she was diagnosedwith cancer in 2003. She said there wasn’t much awareness thenabout the chances of women younger than 40 getting the disease.
“I have learned this along the way: You have to be your ownadvocate,” she said.
In Congress and at a parish school, at theUnited Nations and a city jail, Pope Francisspent a whirlwind U.S. visit bridging the realmsof the disadvantaged and elite, trying to turnthe attention of the mightiest nation on earthaway from ideological battles and toward aworld he said desperately needs help.
From the start of his first U.S. appearance,he wove together issues that are rarely linked inAmerican public life.
At the White House with President BarackObama, he upheld religious freedom whileseeking urgent action to ease climate change.
Addressing Congress, he sought mercy for refu-
gees, while proclaiming a duty “to defend humanlife at every stage of its development,” a challengeto abortion rights. Standing on altars before thenation’s Catholic bishops, he acknowledged thedifficulties of ministering amid “unprecedentedchanges taking place in contemporary society,” arecognition of gay marriage.
But he urged American Catholic leaders tocreate a church with the warmth of a “familyfire,” avoiding “harsh and divisive” languageand a “narrow” vision of Catholicism that hecalled a “perversion of faith.”
The statements amounted to a dramaticreframing of issues within the church and ahope for less polarization overall in the United
States.“Recalibration and reorientation are good
words to describe it,” said John Green, a spe-cialist in religion at the Bliss Institute of AppliedPolitics at the University of Akron in Ohio.
BY RACHEL ZOLLAssociated Press
Pope uses popularityto chart new direction
An unidentified child reaches out to touchPope Francis’ face during a parade on his wayto celebrate Mass Sunday on the BenjaminFranklin Parkway in Philadelphia. [AP PHOTO/PABLOMARTINEZ MONSIVAIS]
SEE POPE, PAGE 3D
SEE PINK, PAGE 3D
BY CARLA HINTONReligion Editor
FROM STAFF REPORTS
PAGE 2D
TWO-TIME BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR’S BOOK ANDNONPROFIT SHARE HER JOURNEY ‘FROM GRIEF TO GRACE’
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THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM SPIRITUAL LIFE SATURDAY , OCTOBER 3 , 2015 3D
DEAR DR. GRAHAM: Iknow the end of the year isstill several months away,but I’m already dreading itbecause every Decemberwe get a flood of mail from
organizations asking formoney. We want to be gen-erous, but we can’t supportall of them. How should wedecide?
BILLY GRAHAM
— H.L.
DEAR H.L.: I’m thankful youwant your gifts to be usedwisely — and I can assureyou that God wants them tobe used wisely also. After all,God’s work requires finances;even Jesus’ little band ofdisciples was supported bythe gifts of others (see Luke8:1-3).
How can you decide whereto give? Let me make threesuggestions. First, ask Godto guide you. Everything wehave came from Him, and Hewants to help us use it forHis glory. If you aren’t familiarwith an organization, seekadvice about it from others(such as your pastor or churchtreasurer). Study an organiza-tion’s literature also, includingits financial reports.
Then prayerfully set somepriorities — that is, decide ingeneral terms how you wantyour money to be used. Youmay have a special interestin ministries that serve yourcommunity, for example —but don’t overlook the needsof those who work in other
parts of the world. Don’tforget your church’s needsat year’s end also. You can’tdo everything, nor does Godexpect you to. Trust Him toraise up others to supportgroups you can’t.
Finally, as you give duringthe coming months, don’t for-get the greatest gift of all —the gift of God’s Son for oursalvation. Commit your lifeto Him, and let Him be yourexample. “For you know thegrace of our Lord Jesus Christ,that though he was rich, yetfor your sake he became poor,so that you through his pov-erty might become rich”
(2 Corinthians 8:9).
Send your queries to “My Answer,” c/oBilly Graham, Billy Graham EvangelisticAssociation, 1 Billy Graham Parkway,Charlotte, NC 28201; call (877)2-GRAHAM, or visit the website for theBilly Graham Evangelistic Association:www.billygraham.org.
TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
“The pope is very adept politically. Evenpeople who ended up disagreeing with him oncertain points find him a very attractive andpersuasive man.”
Tens of thousands of cheering, flag-wavingpeople lined the streets in Washington, NewYork and Philadelphia to greet Francis, somewaiting for hours to catch a glimpse of thewildly popular pope.
On a highly scripted, six-day visit thatended Sunday, and despite unprecedentedsecurity, Francis managed to inject sponta-neity — kissing babies, adding a last-minuteevent to honor Catholic-Jewish relations andgoing off text in Philadelphia for a heartfeltmeditation on family life.
“The atmosphere was electric,” said Aux-iliary Bishop John O’Hara, of New York, afterFrancis celebrated Mass for 18,000 people atMadison Square Garden.
Amid the official ceremonies and thecrowds, he made the deeply personal gesturesof compassion that have become emblematicof his papacy. He bowed in prayer over a dis-abled child as the sobbing father looked onin New York. He gave a bear hug to an inmateduring a visit to a Philadelphia jail.
The Argentine pope on his first visit to the
United States introduced himself as a fel-low American and quoted from the country’sfounding documents. He answered criticswho said he was overly focused on the poorto the exclusion of the middle class, andwrong on economics, given his critique of theexcesses of capitalism. In Congress, he praisedthe “thousands of men and women who striveeach day to do an honest day’s work” andnoted “how much has been done in these firstyears of the third millennium to raise peopleout of extreme poverty.”
Call to do better
But on every occasion he transformed thesecompliments into a call for the church and thecountry to do better.
His moral challenge could be seen in thecomplex heroes he held up in his speech toCongress: Abraham Lincoln; the Rev. Mar-tin Luther King Jr.; Thomas Merton, a Trap-pist monk who condemned war and advo-cated interfaith cooperation; and DorothyDay, founder of the pacifist Catholic Worker
Movement that helped and advocated for thehomeless.
“The history of this nation,” Francis saidat Independence Hall in Philadelphia, is “thetale of a constant effort, lasting to our own
day, to embody those lofty principles in socialand political life.”
As a Spanish-speaking son of Italian immi-grants to Argentina, Francis gave the growingLatino Catholic community a moment likeno other, putting them at the heart of the U.Schurch. He canonized the Franciscan mis-sionary Junipero Serra of Spain, who broughtCatholicism to the West Coast; spoke aboutimmigrants in nearly every public appearance;and told Latinos “do not be ashamed of whatis part of you.”
It’s unclear what lasting changes will comefrom the pope’s trip. He broke a barrier in theU.S.: He became the first pope to address Con-gress, an appearance that provided a robustendorsement for the role of faith in public lifeat a time when about a quarter of Americans
say they have no particular faith. Within thechurch, the impact of papal visits can only bemeasured after years or decades. Pope JohnPaul II, over his more than two-decade pontif-icate, visited the U.S. seven times, inspiring ageneration of American clergy who call them-selves “John Paul II priests.”
FROM PAGE 1D
Pope: U.S. visit included spontaneous moments
And, then, you trust in God,she added.
After battling breast cancer
the first time, McLean wanted toreach out to other women goingthrough a similar experience.
She and Jane Wilson, also a breast cancer survivor, createdthe faith-based nonprofit orga-nization Project 31, drawing fromProverbs 31:30.
The organization offers a sup-port group at Integris BaptistCancer Institute for women andtheir spouses. It plans to offeranother support group at Lake-side Women’s Hospital beginningOct. 10. Another Project 31 sup-port group will begin meeting inYukon in November, she said.
In addition to the support
groups, Project 31 helps pay forcounseling for women with breastcancer and their families. Also, theorganization is training breast can-cer survivors to become mentors toother women battling the disease.
McLean, who said she is nowcancer-free, said she feels the
Lord has led her to this outreach.“I feel like part of what He’s
called me to do is to breathe life intothose places of despair,” she said.
“I think God is using me tospeak life and to speak of Hisgoodness and mercy.”
McLean said breast can-
cer attacks a woman’s body —aspects of her femininity, such asher hair, the ways she expressesintimacy and, often, her ability tohave children.
She said her nonprofit’s nameis inspired by a verse in Proverbs31 that talks about how outward
beauty is fleeting. The cancer sur-vivor said she encourages womento focus on their inner beauty andall the places in their soul that thedisease can’t touch.
“I wanted us to focus onwhat’s inside that beauty, focuson being a daughter of the King,”
she said, referring to Jesus’ sover-eign role. “He can still bring themout of the miry clay.”
About the title
McLean said her book’s title,“Pink Is the New Black,” comesfrom the idea that pink, because
it’s associated with breast cancer, became the color for mourningand grief for some women andtheir families. But, like the con-trasting colors, she said her bookis about going from grief to grace,finding a new normal and a newpeace.
FROM PAGE 1D
Pink: ‘Breathe life into those places of despair’GOING ON
‘PAINT THE TOWN PINK’ GALA FUNDRAISER
When: 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 23.Where: Bricktown Chevy Events Center, 429 E California.Cost: $100 per person.Information: www.project31.us.
TO LEARN MORE
For more information about Sarah McLean’s Project 31, go towww.project31.us.
Author Sarah McLean poses inher Edmond home with her newbook, “Pink Is the New Black.”[PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHO-MAN]
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