TEAM OF ANGELS

Sunday, March 25, 2007

WHAT CAN GOD DO WITH A WOMAN LIKE ME?
I never thought that I would be wandering around cities at 11 pm passing out angel pins. But there I was, meeting people: junkies, a mother of a young woman arrested for prostitution twice in one day, and a lady who had been hit 50 times in the head. Even a man with a gun saying “No one will get hurt, I just need money for my baby.” That isn’t what I had in mind when I began my 7000-mile trek. I called my trip THE ANGELS ALONG THE WAY GOODWILL TOUR and had a sign company put those words and my web site address (www.teamofangels.com) on my van’s rear window.

Leaving from our Philadelphia suburb, I felt a great sense of anticipation and wondered what our immediate future held. My van was loaded with thousands of angel pins attached to a bookmark with a poem I had written. I wanted to reach out to others who were healing from hurts and disappointments and give them a little token of encouragement: my little gold team of angels pin. (photographs available)

I had the pins packed in hundreds of plastic bags, each containing a dozen or more pins. I planned to leave them in churches, hospitals, drug rehab clinics and shelters. As I stopped at Holiday Inns, Pizza Huts and Cracker Barrel restaurants, I left a bag in the ladies restrooms. I hoped that traveling people would find them and be encouraged.

The words of the poems were penned by me during a dark time in my life…. when I was placing all of my hope on the Good Shepherd. Before I placed a bag in a restroom, I prayed God, “please bless the person who finds this pin.” It didn’t take long until the black vehicle in front of me moved me to tears.

I would very much appreciate the opportunity to share ANGELS TO THE RESCUE with your ORGANIZATION or the readers of your publication. I welcome interviews and speaking engagements. If you would prefer that I be interviewed by one of your established contributors, that would be great. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Patricia C. Gallagher
215-272-1933

CANCER SURVIVORS, FREE BOOKMARKS, COMFORT, HOPE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Team of Angels Project
Box 561, Worcester, PA 19490
www.teamofangels.com
215-272-1933
yngsparro@aol.com

FREE BOOKMARKS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS, COMFORT AND HOPE

How has a little bookmark provided HOPE to cancer SURVIVORS AND THEIR FAMILIES worldwide? Ask Patricia Gallagher who began the SEND A TEAM OF ANGELS TO HELP MOVEMENT. She did not plan to bring a message of hope to those facing adversity, or to distribute 78,500 of her bookmarks. She did not expect to receive 30,000 letters from grateful recipients. When her father was diagnosed with throat cancer and she herself with skin cancer, she penned a poem to help him and herself.
A TEAM OF ANGELS FOR SERIOUS ILLNESS
Lord, please send celestial melodies
And healing whispers too
I need a Team of Angels
For what I’m going through.

I’ll trust them to surround me
To uplift, console, caress
And carry all my fears
On wings of tenderness.

Gallagher knew what anxious waiting in doctors’ offices and hospital waiting rooms was like. “Sometimes it is the little things that can make you feel better: the kind gesture of a stranger or a random acts of kindness.”
To receive a free bookmark bearing the poem for serious illness or another inspirational poem of encouragement, please send a long self-addressed stamped envelope with ONE STAMP to: Patricia Gallagher, Team of Angels, Box 561, Worcester, PA 19490.
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Patricia Gallagher, an author, has been a guest on the Oprah Show, the 700 Club, CNN and other shows. She welcomes spare change and any offering so that she can continue making the free bookmarks to pass out.

CANCER SURVIVORS, FREE BOOKMARK, COMFORT, HOPE

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

christian women's retreat, Christian speaker, inspirational speaker

Inspirational speaker:
Patricia Gallagher, author, 215-272-1933, www.teamofangels.com, yngsparro@aol.com

Topic for workshop: WHEN THINGS FELL APART
Introduction:
My life was going well. Four healthy children, husband with a good job, and we were about to buy a new house-five bedroom with a pool in a great neighborhood for raising a family. Tragedy intervened and my husband was seriously injured in an accident. He spent five weeks in the hospital and came home to an orthopedic hospital set up in our living room. It was very difficult for all of us. I had never been a caregiver before and I found it led me to moments of near despair. On many evenings, I sat in the backyard, gazed up at the stars and cried out to God, “ How am I going to do it?”
Today, I will share my testimony about why hitting my rock bottom has been a million dollar spiritual gift.

Reading: The Serenity Prayer
Opening Song: Regina Belle – If I Could

The following spiritual seeds helped me to make changes in my life:
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Don’t dial up pain.
I can’t. God can. I need to let Him.
When the mother gets healthy, the family gets better.
Help someone: say YOUR prayers – BLESS THEM, HELP ME
You are very important. (Post on your mirror for daily reading.)
I am worth the changes that are good for me.
When one person over-functions, the other under-functions.
I want to have a joy-filled life. I want to be a strong, courageous adult woman.
I am doing this because I care about me.
NO is a complete sentence. Stop explaining yourself to others.
Mind your own business. (When helping too much hurts them. Let go and let God.)
The importance of wearing an I LOVE MYSELF BRACELET.

Mom, what do you need most?
To know I am normal.
Support.
To know that being a mother is important.
Someone to understand how I feel.
Time with God. Time alone.

What helps?
Prayer, affirmations, deep breathing, relaxation, reading self-help books, listening to self-help audiotapes, support groups, retreats, talking to friends, conferences for women
QUESTIONS AND ANSWER SESSION

inspirational story, inspirational speaker, women's retreat, Patricia Gallagher, team of angels, inpirational gift

ANGELS ON ALERT
Golden trio of angel pins at the core of personal ministry

I never thought that I would be wandering around cities at eleven o’clock at night passing out angel pins. But there I was, meeting people: junkies, a mother of a young woman arrested for prostitution twice in one day, a lady who had been hit 50 times in the head, even a man with a gun saying “No one will get hurt, I need money for my baby.” That isn’t what I had in mind this past summer when I began my 7000-mile trek. I called my trip THE ANGELS ALONG THE WAY GOODWILL TOUR and had a sign company put those words and my web site address (http://www.teamofangels.com/) on my van’s rear window.

These are indeed despairing times for Middle American families as the war in Iraq continues, gas prices soar and family budgets are strained. Mom and dad are working two or three jobs to just make ends meet. Serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, and cancer are on the rise, and unexpected natural disasters, such as Katrina, seem to be hitting more frequently and closer to home.

In answer to these troubles, I set out on a mission of hope to bring my Teams of Angels to Middle America to help these overwhelmed families and individuals. What I found and whom I met uplifted my hope and taught me valuable lessons about the strength of the human spirit.

My trek across Middle America has been featured in various press venues, including The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Montgomery County Times Herald, Catholic News Service, the nightly news in West Virginia and South Carolina, and a radio show in Georgia, among others.

I would like to share a spirit-lifting story!

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Patricia Gallagher
Team of Angels, 215-272-1933. Box 561, Worcester, PA 19490
http://www.teamofangels.com/

team of angels, Patricia Gallagher, inspirational story, Christian speaker, motivational speaker

Patricia Gallagher, 215-272-1933, www.teamofangels.com, yngpsparro@aol.com
(this was written when I almost gave up doing the team of angels, I was so down and discouraged, look who picked up my spirits!)

Larry, Norman and Harriet: My Personal Team of Angels

I looked down at the lime green pants suit I was wearing with the matching shoes. I bought last year for $9.99 at Ross. I was on my way to speak to a group of college students. I doubted that the outfit was presentable.
My attention was drawn outward as somebody was telling me I had a nearly flat tire. Great, more money! I thought.
I was so broke I was now relying on credit cards. It really seemed like a lot of the situations were beyond my control, such as medical expenses not covered, but this one was my fault. I decided to follow a dream – not impulsively but after a lot of praying for wisdom. Last year, I took the $30,000 in proceeds from the sale of my house, sold my van, and moved into a rental property so I could use the money to make 50,000 Angel Pins to give away.
I have heard family members say “How is she ever going to get rid of them?” The undercurrent was that I had wasted the family funds with my Angel Pin project. But to me they are a meaningful token of support. I ask people to pass the pin and poem along when they find someone who needs it more than they do. I have thousands of pins, boxes of letters from grateful recipients and lots of promises of prayers from strangers worldwide.
I began writing poems as a release and put them on pins featuring three gold colored Angels. I soon came to believe that there were many people with problems who could perhaps find my pins inspirational. The poem “For the Overwhelmed” began:

A TEAM OF ANGELS FOR THE OVERWHELMED
I need a Team of Angels, Lord
I don’t think one will do
Please send me all the help from high
For what I’m going through

Guardians to watch over me
And help my soul to cope
I’ll do the best I can to pray
And cherish gifts of faith and hope

Because I was following my heart, not my pocketbook, I took to the road this summer, my rented van cluttered with the new batch of 50,000 pins for hurricane and coal mine victims and others in hospitals, addiction centers, chapels and military installations as I drove up and down the East Coast and out to Ohio.
After my talk that afternoon, I went in to a coffee shop in Haverford. I sat on a comfortable chair and closed my eyes. It overlooked a parking lot filled with luxurious cars, beautiful women in expensive outfits, women with artfully applied makeup, designer sunglasses, professionally coiffed and looking so financially secure. They would never shop at Ross and certainly never be out of season with a lime green suit with a wrinkled satin bow. They probably didn’t have a care in the world.
A man came over and sat across from me, in a large orange chair. He had a gaily-colored cane, with a pattern like a rattlesnake, leaning against his leg. He had red clogs on his feet, a fishing hat, sunglasses, and a nice smile. He said, “I don’t want to interrupt your thoughts.”
And so I ignored him, closed my eyes again, clutched my hands together, listened to the music, and lost myself in self-pity.
I was conscious of my rudeness. It seemed like a long time when I finally asked What gets you through tough times? Not exactly a surface conversation starter with a stranger.
Friends, family, loved ones. When you are going through something, you need people to stay with you and offer encouragement. Some people think it is the big things that matter, but it is really the little things that mean the most. Like in this expensive zip code area especially, many people think it is the cars, fancy houses, prestige, jobs, saving accounts, investments… but material things don’t matter when you have had a brain tumor. I wear the sunglasses because the glare of the sun hurts my eyes, and the walking stick is for balance. I came over to you because that green suit fits with that chair so nicely and you radiate something.
I can’t believe what you are saying because I am sitting here thinking about a project that I am doing. In a minute, I gave him the short version of my current life.
He smiled. You are doing good for humanity. You are helping others. It doesn’t have to make sense when you follow your heart People here in Haverford, have the same problems as everybody else – heavy with cares, illness, bills, life problems. Don’t give up on this. Your pins are renewing people who feel defeated.
His friend Norman joined us; then his mother, Harriet. She said, “Your green suit is lovely.”
Harriet, Norman and Larry were the Team of Angels I needed to meet yesterday.

thank our troops, support our soldiers, support troops, support military, team of angels, Patricia Gallagher

Patricia Gallagher
www.teamofangels.com
484-932-8311

SOMETIMES ALL IT TAKES IS JUST ONE LITTLE ANGEL PIN TO BRIGHTEN A SOLDIER’S DAY!

What does a mother do when her two sons are involved in life-threatening battles, one as a soldier deployed to the Balkans and the other son battling leukemia here at home? My friend faced this tragic situation. I wrote a poem to cheer up our troops. I attached a little angel pin that I created, fashioned from craft products, to a bookmark bearing the poem A TEAM OF ANGELS TO THANK OUR UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. My four children and I sent 5000 overseas - three little angels holding hands, reaching out with a heartfelt “thank you”.
On September 22, in a crowd of 45,634 people at a Phillies vs. the Marlins game, I met two vets (unsung heroes) who had received my Team of Angels pin, one wearing it on his hat.
I’ve been clean and sober 79 days. I got this Angel Pin from a guy when I was sitting on a picnic table on a real sunny day. He said ‘ain’t gonna need this anymore’ and he gave it to me. I look at them angels every day.
My nephew gave one to me –yep, I love those three little angels.
In the middle of Ryan Howard’s home run, David Larsen, the former paratrooper called his nephew. You’re not going to believe who I am sitting with. The lady that makes those angel pins
I opened a desk drawer and looked at the letters from soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen as well as the Department of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Veterans of Foreign War.
I am not living on the streets because I am a bum. How does a soldier who fought for his country become homeless? Why have lots of my buddies ended up in jail for drugs and domestic abuse? I lost my wife, my house and my kids. My drinking and rage drove my family away.
Nobody understands what it’s like to have your body crushed, watch your friends blown up and every night still hear the sound of the artillery in your mind.
Your little angel pins make us feel like the heroes we want to be.
If you can make an old military man like me cry here in the desert, I can only imagine what this pin means to our young soldiers here in Iraq.
Having your teams of angels on my humvee makes me feel safe.
I read the letter from a former Vietnam prisoner of war. I pictured his battered face as he told me what my little pins must mean to servicemen and women fighting in Iraq.
A TEAM OF ANGELS TO THANK OUR UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES
You’re positive, uplifting
Brave, courageous, fun.
The angels bring with grateful joy
Our thanks for all you’ve done.

They bring strength from heaven’s garden
In bouquets of love and cheer
And prayers full of blessings
To protect our forces, far and near!

Why am I doing this? God, am I on the right track? My cell phone rang:
Hi,
I am a Sergeant First Class in the United States Army. While in Kosovo as part of the initial entry force, a soldier in my battery gave me a Team of Angels pin which I wore as part of my uniform, over my heart, under my left breast pocket flap everywhere I went. The pin has since broken. Could you please send me another pin?
Hang in. Don’t hang up. Don’t worry, Sergeant the pins are on their way!
Pins are available for purchase, www.teamofangels.com, 215-272-1933