 beauty for ashes. And we're so glad that you're joining us for hope today. And we love to spend these 30 minutes with you to uplift, to encourage and to inspire you. I'm here with Tom Hollis. Amanda's not here with us today. She is off today. And Tom, tell us about our guests because they're going to be sharing about their story and what God is doing in their life. Well, encourage and inspire is what we're going to find out about because Tracy, Scott and her daughter, Alicia McConnell will be with us and they have powerful story of miracles. You're going to want to see it. You're going to want to believe that there's a God who does miracles right now in the present day. And I love that. I love that. He's the God who said he's the God of I am, not I was. So it's not that he used to do miracles and we'd say talk about those. He's the God that does miracles today. He's truly doing miracles all around us. And you know, I've just been in a season where I've just seen God just moving mightily in the hearts and the lives of people. I was like recently at a gathering speaking of miracles. I mean, I saw blind eyes open, deaf ears. I mean, excuse blind eyes open, deaf ears open, you know, tumors disappearing. Just so many things that God is moving in the midst of his people. So we are truly in a move of God and maybe today that you are in need of a miracle. We just want to let you know that we are always here for you 24 seven with our prayer line at 888-665-4483. So God is moving mightily. I know something, Tom, you want to bring up is this the way God is moving in a particular TV show about American Idol. You know, American Idol is such a phenomenon and Gina and I like to watch it because we like to hear that them do well and we like to hear their stories. They're tremendous to tell in the stories, but the final two Megan Danielle and I am Tongi who is a Hawaiian. He actually won, but Megan Danielle, she had this gravelly voice. It was so great, but she said that she wanted to sing the word of God and bring the word of God and Jean did a little research and found out that she was challenged by someone in her life that she needed to sing for God and she, she did. I mean, and she, she gave testimony to the Lord all the way through. You see this young girl with this gravelly kind of Bonnie Ray style voice. It was, it was great, great to see that and she got to sing with Lauren Daigle last night, which was one of her, her heroes in Christian music. I just love, you know, God is moving in the midst when it comes to music and entertainment. It just reminds me of an event I went to this weekend. So she was on the voice such as a young woman. Her name is Mia Z and there was that like at Petra. They had, it was called the freedom experience. It was all generation Z just like sharing their testimony, sharing what God's in their lives were singing. There was just different things and I just love hearing what God does in the midst of our brokenness in the midst of our pain in the midst of no matter what our circumstances were moving going through. So that's just really encouraging to see. I just know that God is truly moving in arts and entertainment. He's doing a thing. So don't get discouraged if you're out there with like parents and grandparents. You're like, what's happening with this generation? Listen, God is in the midst and he is doing something miraculous. He is doing something wonderful. And I think it's important for us to remember that God does have a different ways that he moves in different generations and he is moving in young people today and we're excited to hear about that. We're going to hear about how he moved in Tracy and Alicia's lives after we come back from this break. Cornerstone Television exists to spread the good news through Bible based programs and a fully staffed prayer line. Through CTVN lies are saved. Hearts, minds and bodies are healed and Jesus is lifted high. We can't do this work without you. Would you consider sending a gift this month to keep the gospel moving forward with power? When you give we'll send you listen, love, repeat, which presents scriptural examples of those who lived alert including Jesus who noticed those who least expected to be seen. Gives creative ideas for showing love to friends and family. Suggest practical ways to reach out to the lonely marginalized outcast helps you comfort the grieving and so much more. Ask for your copy of listen, love, repeat when you give today. Call 888-665-4483 or go to ctvn.org slash donate. Thank you for your generosity. Hope happens here. Well, hope does happen here and hope happens in our God and our God is the God of miracles. The Bible is filled with all kinds of powerful works of God. For some of us, though, we still wonder if God performs miracles nowadays. The short answer is yes. Yes, he does. And our next guest, Tracy Scott and Alicia McConnell are proof that God performs miracles each and every day. Tracy and Alicia, welcome to hope today. Thank you so much for having us. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here with you. Well, let's let's start. I heard you guys speak and I was I was just touched with your stories. You came to our church and you shared and I was so touched and I thought we've got to hear these stories. We've got to hear your stories from from both of your perspectives on on corner stones. So Tracy, tell me a little bit about, you know, your story. How'd you grow up and where did you meet God? So I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home and I've always believed in God, always trusted him, but there was a lot of religion mixed in with that. So unfortunately, I had a very distant relationship with God. I didn't have the best childhood. There was some abuse cases and different things and it made my perspective of God twisted, you know, as a father and but he was still good to me and I still loved him. But I'll jump ahead to where I met my husband and I fell in love with him. We got married pretty quickly. But before we got married, because of the way I had been abused, I really felt my worth came from my body. You know, and so I made a lot of mistakes and I got pregnant before I got married and we were scared. We were very, very scared. We didn't know what we were going to do and we decided to have an abortion and so I went to the clinic and it's not like what you think. They don't talk to you at all. You're just kind of in and out and I remember seconds after it was over, I thought I just made the biggest mistake of my life and I felt very unworthy and unloved from that point forward. It left such a scar on my heart. I can't even explain. I didn't think it would ever heal. But God was gracious to me. I still got married and he gave me three beautiful children. I didn't feel I deserved them and it was a secret that only my husband and I knew. So sometimes those secret sins destroy you from the inside out. But God was still very good to us. Like I said, we got married. I had three beautiful children. We had our ups and downs but life was generally good. But then when my son turned three years old, he started limping really bad. We didn't think a whole lot of it because he's a kid. You know, boys will be boys. We took him to doctors. He had a spring ankle, took him back a couple weeks later because it wasn't going to be any better. Same thing. He just has a spring ankle. Try to keep him from moving very much. Well, that's impossible to keep a three year old boy from moving very much. So the third time we took him back, they said, well, he has a couple bruises. How long do you think they've been there? And I said, I don't know, maybe a week or so. And they started running some blood tests and they said, you need to get him to Children's Hospital right away. And I said, why is it his hip is something wrong? And they said, we think he has leukemia. Instantly like my world is thought and instantly my sense of the past said, you deserve this, you know, because that's what religion does and that's what the enemy does. He tries to convince you you're not worthy of God's love. And so even though you had had three beautiful children and you you still had this from the past, this like weight on you from the past that that the devil just jumped right on when as soon as you had a problem. Yes, give him a little inch and he'll take you. And it was really hard because the whole ride to hospital. That's all I thought was like, this is my payback. I'm finally paying for what I did. And I was begging God, I said, don't do this to my son. Put it on me. And it was so hard. So we got him to Children's and they said he's really bad. He may not make it, you know, might not even make the night. And I was like, oh, my word. And so we finally got to a room, but they put him in an isolation room and my husband went home because we had two daughters. And I remember just being up all night just sitting there talking to God. I'm like, Lord, I know we don't know each other well. At least I didn't know him very well. But I just can't understand why a good God will put this on this child. And I just poured my heart out to him and I said, Lord, I love him so much. I would die for him. And that was the first time I've ever heard the Holy Spirit speak to me. Said, I love him so much. I did die for him. And that just started such a love relationship with me and Jesus because one, I never really heard him speak to my my spirit before and to think that he loved him more than I did. And it started to crack my heart from that point forward. And he said to me, if you trust me and believe me over everything else, you're going to see a miracle here and you're going to take this to the nations. Well, I didn't see how or understand any of that, especially because I was very shy at that point. Didn't like to talk to anyone, but he did. And you know, I just started seeing miracles after miracles. You know, one night they said he's not going to make the night. His heart will stop. They brought the crash cards in. And here he is three years old. And I just started praying and declaring the word. I saw scriptures like I'd never seen them before, you know, like by Jesus stripes, he is healed. God sent forth his word and he healed him. And I'm like, wow, Lord, you really care about the entire being. And so we just saw miracle after miracle after miracle. But it was the doctor said he's going to go through a three and a half year chemo treatment plan. That's a long time. And they said he's going to get more than 10 times the adult dosage of chemo. He's going to be really sick. He won't be able to move much. You know, he's going to have a lot of bad side effects. God was teaching me and I was hungry and so I just started taking God's word. I put a little sign on the door, please. No negative words past this door. God's working a miracle inside and people honored that. And so my son never heard anything negative and he was never upset. He never refused to go to treatments and God just met us where we were. I will say about six months later, it was Mother's Day. He couldn't move. He couldn't feed himself and I was concerned because he had never been to this degree. You know, he had lost his hair by this time and the doctor said he should have been like this the whole time. It's finally caught up to him and my heart just broke and I remember my daughters. We had just read the story about Joshua. I'm pretty sure we saw veggie tales to be honest with Larry the Pickle and marching around that wall of Jerica and they said won't we lay him on the floor and march around him and seven times and just sing and praise and I'm like, okay, thankfully nobody threw slushies at us. So we did. We marched around him seven times. He couldn't move. So he just laid there and we really just declared the word and just shouted and victory and it's easy to get excited when kids are. I'm like, nobody thinks I'm foolish. But you know what? The next morning he woke up perfectly fine, ran out of bed. We went and got his treatments. The doctor said, I thought he couldn't move. I said, yeah, well, God stood a miracle. I didn't really tell them how. We fully understood at that point. You were still believing God and receiving the treatments and kind of going down. I ended her 20s with three kids. I was 26 at the time. And you know, but God met me where I was. You know, I really didn't have a lot of knowledge of his word. But I will say the one scripture that really stood out to me and anybody that is going through chemo or anything. Leukemia I found out was a cancer that goes into the deepest part of your being. It's goes into your bone marrow. And so they obviously can't take that out. But what was amazing to me, God showed me in Hebrews 412 that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword penetrating to bone and marrow. And that clicked because that's all I was here in marrow, marrow, marrow. And he said, I not only care about the spirit, I care about the body. And my word gets into the deepest part of your physical body and will change it. And it was just so incredible. And so after all this time, after the three and a half years were finally up, they said, you know what, they did a bone marrow test. He would have to take 60 pills every day at home. Then he would get intervenes three to five times a week. I mean, it was a very intense treatment plan. But at the end, I was so excited and we threw the biggest party imaginable. But they're like, it takes 10 years before he's considered healed. There's a very good chance this will reoccur. But from day one, I said, no, he's healed. And they kind of thought I was losing. But it was so incredible because a year later, they had to run all these tests on him. They said he would have reflex problems, learning problems. They would probably have to do some type of heart surgery, just all these things. And you know what? We just declared the word over him and the Lord showed me about the one that came back. You know, he said, you know, all 10 were healed, but the one that came back didn't have any side effects or problems. He was completely whole. So we just declared that. We said, we will always be the one that comes back. So when they did the testing, they did come in and they said, he's in the 0.01% that has not one bad side effect from all that treatment. I mean, God did it. You know, no, he didn't heal him, but he restored him and he, he taught us how to stand on the word. And so 25 years ago was August of this past summer that Sean was diagnosed. So we had another huge party and we got to share the story all over again. It's been 25 years. I think the biggest thing to me was when he was first in the hospital, he was connected all kinds of machines and he said, can we dance mama? So I picked him up and we swayed and the enemy said to me, enjoy it now because you'll never enjoy it when he gets to be an adult. And you know, and the Lord said, you have a choice, believe that or me, speak what you want. So I said, okay. I said, Sean, I can't wait to be an adult and we get to dance together. And you know, in August on his 25 year anniversary, we danced to the same exact song. It was so incredible. And I said, you are watching a 25 year prophecy fulfilled today. What we spoke 25 years ago. God, God brought forth. It just excites me so much, but it was so incredible because God does the show. You don't dig up the seeds you plant in faith. Don't let doubt dig up those seeds because 25 years later, we all got to witness that miracle. And another incredible thing was, you know, life went on. And but my oldest daughter, about six, seven years later, was diagnosed with cancer. And I was like, oh, wow. Can cancer really hit the same place or can lightning hit the same place twice? But the Lord said, you know how to stand now. It's up to you how you want to fight this battle. So we just spoke over her. We took her to Children's and the same day she was diagnosed. She was healed and was sent home. And I was like, you're sick. But the Lord told me, it's up to you. You can fight this any way you want. And I'll back you. And I said, let's do this quick. Let's just speak this word and get this up. And he and he back those words. It was so incredible. And even though I've seen all these miracles and financially, God was just doing incredible things. I mean, we went from the pit to staining on the mountaintop. And it was just incredible, but my heart was never healed. You know, I was still broken inside and I still felt unworthy. I knew he loved my children. And I felt like he loved me to a degree because he has to. He's God, but I remember one time of I mean, I apologize for the abortion. I had probably a million times, but one time I was driving down the road and I was apologizing again. I'm like, Lord, I'm just so sorry. I'm just so sorry. And he finally he started speaking to me again. He said, were the nails not big enough that went into Jesus's hands? I was I had no idea where he was going with this. I said, no, they were Lord. He said, did he need to take more stripes on his back? And I said, no. And he said, what about the thorns? Should they have been longer? And I'm like, no, Lord, it was enough. He said, that's right. It was enough. Let it go. You are forgiven. And I forget it until you keep bringing it back up. And he said, your children are in heaven because I also had a miscarriage. Excited to see you. They love you. They're excited to see you. And it just was so freeing because at that moment I realized what Jesus went through was enough. I never understood that before that. And I thought he did it to save us, but it was to save every part of us. You know, it was to save not just our bodies and our spirits, but our souls, the souls that are broken and weary and self-inflicted winds are the hardest to heal. Let's be honest. And he did it in a moment when I realized the cross was enough. And so for me, it just keeps getting better and better. God is really that good. And he has said to me freely, you know, you have received freely gift. So that is like one of my missions in life now is to see people set free, you know, physically in their soul and their spirit, because he's that good and he loves us that much. And I always like to go back and say, you know, he loves us more than we love ourselves. You know, he loves our children more than we do. And it as a parent, that's hard to understand, but it's real. It's true. You know, they're, Sid and I have seen this with people that have called in or people that we've talked to before. Sometimes those, even though we're Christians, there's that thing that just settles in our spirit. Like you not feeling worthy, right, Sid? I mean, not feeling worthy to be able to to receive from God. Right. But God sets you free. Totally and completely. And what he sets free is free indeed. I mean, for a while, it was hard for me to give that testimony because, you know, I felt like people would look at me differently. But I want them to look at me differently. I want them to say, look at what God can do and look at what He has done and what He'll do for me. He'll do for anybody because He does love us as a precious Father. And I've seen it even in my family. You know, we've experienced other things that, you know, I like to say, the level likes to sucker punch us here and there. But you know what? God says, you know, if you fall down seven times, get up eight. And that's what we do. And He always has our back. Absolutely. So let me ask you, so let's say there's somebody watching and they said, I haven't seen it. I haven't. I haven't seen that. That Saudi I've had just one set back after another or one thing after another. What would you say to that person? In fact, I'm going to have you look into the camera. Okay. And just what would you say to that person that wants to believe and wants to trust in God? Faith is complete and total trust in God. And it really is that simple. You just have to completely and totally trust him over doctors reports over what your family is saying, what the media is saying and even over sometimes what your church is saying, you have to go with the word of God because he can't lie and he will back his word. I like to say God has called us to be mountain movers not mountain climbers. You know, we have to speak it out and even with my son, it took 10 years for the doctors to agree with me that he was completely and totally healed. So in 10 years, I had a lot of times I could have went with what the doctors were saying or went with what some symptoms were saying. But when you choose to believe God above all else, he will honor that faith because faith moves the heart of God and he loves you so dearly. And when you understand the love of God, it's easy to receive from him because he just wants to shower you with everything that he's ever provided. And I just want to speak to those that are carrying soul wounds. Again, especially they're self-inflicted or a family member has put them on you. Sometimes it's very difficult to let those go. Sometimes you think you've deserved them or that it becomes who you are, but it's not. God says that you're beautiful and dearly loved. You are forgiven. He has great plans for you. Just because something bad has happened to you doesn't make that you. That was just an instant. Don't make it eternal. Who you are to God is eternal. And that's his precious child and he will deliver you from everything the enemy brings against you. He has defeated the curse and he has passed that on to you. Wow. And we want to just say that that is the word for you today. You know, again, this program is called Hope Today for a Reason. It's not hope in my strength or Sidney's strength or Tracy's strength or Alicia's strength. It's the strength of Christ. It's the strength of God, the hope of God that brings that strength to you. Alicia, we're going to share your story on tomorrow's show and I'm going to be excited to do that. But tell me, what was it like to go through this with your brother and to see your mother standing on the word of God and to march around your brother? I mean, what was it like for you to grow up in that? So children are resilient. And you know, I think that oftentimes we forget that they really are taking in their surroundings and I was fortunate that I inherited secondhand faith. My mother may have had her concerns and she may have had her moments of weakness, but in front of us there were colorful signs that said, you know, no negative word spoken here. God's working a miracle. I remember the one time a doctor did come in and say something to my brother to the extent, do you realize you could die? And his response was priceless. He's three. He was like, well, I'm just going to go to heaven. Heaven's on a consolation prize. We weren't raised to think that that was something that we needed to be afraid of. So there was absolutely this contagious joy and faith and hope anchors the soul. And so I was really fortunate to grow up in that setting. It was not uncommon to hear worship music in the background or veggie tales playing or to see a colorful Bible verse up somewhere. And all of those seeds were planted into my life. Just a brief part of my story. I laughed. My mom would always say, oh, I love so and so so much. I'd give them a kidney if they needed it. And then 25 years later when I got ready to donate, everybody said, well, why would you do that? I'm like for 25 years, my mom said it like, I love so and so so much. I'd give them a kidney if they needed it. Well, that's a great tease for tomorrow's show. Let me tell you, you'll hear all about that story tomorrow. But yeah, you know that just that I love that legacy of faith, Tracy, that you are leaving. And you know, it's incredible God is the one that personally taught me. You know, I love church. Don't get me wrong. Church is amazing, but he actually got me out of church for a short period to undo some of the lies that had been planted in me. You know, and he did such a work. And I know this goes along with her story that you're going to hear tomorrow, but to kind of start it out, God had put a man on my heart who lived in Florida. I'd never met him, but I knew his family. He was in his fifties and he was diagnosed with the last stage as a cancer. And he said, I want you to go down and pray for him. And I hate cancer. So I love praying for people that I was Lord, I never leave Washington. I can't make it there. I will get lost to never return. And he said, no, I want you to go. And it took me three days of debating. And I just wasn't sure what to do about it. But we can share that with Alicia's story because it goes along with that. But God has freely given us everything. So we will freely give back. So we can't wait to share with you our first mother, daughter, trip to Florida. This is like extra tease for tomorrow's show. But we want to take this time to pray and to believe for you. We just have a few minutes and you've heard a tremendous story. What is God saying to you? What are two things? What does God want to heal in your life physically? We're glad for you to call the prayer partners and we'll pray for that. But what does God want to do to undo things that the devil has sown in your life? Or maybe Christians or maybe even well-meaning people have sown wrong things into your life. God wants to set you free. And you know, just as you were sharing your story and I just want to throw it out there too that we had an opportunity to talk with Tracy and your daughter Brittany about their God story like many years ago. And you can go on our YouTube page. I mean, it is phenomenal what God is doing in this family. And I know right now there are so many families that are hurting. There are so many families that are grieving. There are so many families maybe right now that you are standing and contending and believing for a miracle for your loved one. Well, can you take their story as a sign to you today that if God did it for them that he will surely do it for you too. God is no respecter of persons. And so we just know that in this season there's been so many prophetic words speaking about family revival and what God is going to do in the midst of families. And I just really feel like that so strongly in my spirit that God wants to move in your family like never before. Maybe it's not cancer. Maybe there's some division. There's a prodigal son or daughter. Whatever it may be, know that right now that God really wants to touch your family, touch your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren, whoever it may be your husbands, your wives and we're just going to believe and I just want to pray really quickly for all the families that are out there. So Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you that you are the God, a family Lord God. In the beginning you created a family with Adam and Eve and they had children and for generations and Father God. So we just declare and decree right now that every family that is walking through a hardship for every family that is going through division for every family that feels like they're facing the impossible God. We know that you are the God of the impossible and all things are possible through Christ to those who believe. So today Lord Jesus, we put our stake in the ground. We march around our own Jericho's in the same way that Sean was in the middle and they marched around that God we're doing that over our situations, over our families Lord God and we know that we are going to see victory in the mighty name of Jesus. And if that's you, give us a call at our prayer line at 888-665-4483 because here at Hope Today we're all about family. You're part of our family and we want you to let you know that you are loved, that we are with you and that we stand with you no matter what you're going through. Well, again, we tremendously want to see incredible things happen in your life like what Tracy saw. Guys, thank you so much Tracy for sharing your story today. I know there's more, well, lots more to it. Television keeps us to just a short time but tomorrow you have a chance to share some more and then Alicia will hear from you as well. I can't wait. It's a tremendous story. But God, you know, just one quick question. I need you to give me a 10 second answer here. What should they do if they're having trouble standing? Should I just declare the Word of God? Is that the best thing to do? When you feel like you can't stand, God will give you the strength to stand. Stay with the Word of God. Watch what you will let in your ears. Watch what comes out of your mouth because it's powerful. God says death and life are in the power of the tongue. If you can't stand, just lean into Him. That's a great word. Great word. So just today, like as you've been hearing the testimonies just standing on the Word of God and leaning into Him. And it reminds me of the scriptures. One of my favorites from Proverbs 3 verses 4 through 5. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Just like Alicia said, lean on Him no matter what the circumstance looks like because when we do, watch what He does in the midst of it. He has a miracle waiting for you. We love you. And join us tomorrow for Alicia's story.