TCG Spotlight

Lacey Pate is a sweet, seventeen year-old, red-headed girl, who enjoys seeing her friends at church conferences and dreams of attending Indiana Bible College and becoming a Preacher’s wife. 

Lacey loves to read and has an incredible memory.  She always has a smile on her face and encourages everyone around her with her social media posts and positive attitude. 

Lacey may seem like your average Apostolic girl, but Lacey is far from average and faces daily physical challenges that many people would find difficult to keep a good attitude through.  

Before Lacey was born, her parents, Tim and Tammy Pate, were told that there was something wrong with their baby girl and that the pregnancy might end in a miscarriage or that it was possible that she might not be able to survive outside of the womb.

Tim and Tammy Pate had no idea what was going on with their baby but they prayed and believed in the Lord and Lacey was born on July 24^th, 1999 in Winter Haven, Florida.  Shortly after her birth, she was flown to a
hospital in Tampa, Florida and was diagnosed with King Syndrome.

King Syndrome is an extremely rare syndrome that only has twelve known cases in the world and three of those have come from the United States.  King Syndrome causes several medical conditions such as webbing of the neck, significant bilateral hearing loss, arthrogryposis, failure to thrive (the need for a feeding tube), club foot, vertical tailus, malignant hyperthermia, chronic respiratory problems, hypoglycemia, scoliosis, and bad veins that call for the need of a more permanent port in her veins. 

All of these conditions have been the cause of fifty surgeries so far.  Lacey has also been near death several times and has been put on life support.

There have been many trying moments that the Pate family has faced along the way with Lacey’s medical condition but they always believed that God was in control. 

A few years after Lacey was born, she was taken up to be prayed for at a Holy Ghost rally in St. Pete, Florida.  Bro. Jack Cunningham was preaching that night and as he prayed over Lacey, he told her parents that he felt like their daughter might not receive her miracle immediately but that she would live and thrive more and more throughout her life.  This was such and wonderful encouragement for Lacey and her family that helped them to continue to put their faith in God. 

As Lacey grew up she developed her own relationship and love for the the Lord and Apostolic truth.  She was filled with the Holy Ghost at a Back to School Rally at the Florida campgrounds in Ocala, Florida in August of 2010. 

Lacey’s medical conditions have left simple things such as getting dressed, doing her hair, or getting in and out of the car challenging for her to do on her own. 

She has a hard time hearing and is not able to speak very loudly.  She is small and short for her age and does her school work from home.  In spite of all of these things Lacey still believes that God will always work things out and tries to see the positive side of every situation. 

Lacey has many friends who all feel very privileged to know her.  She has been such an inspiration to them.  She continues each day to thrive and believes that God is going to do great things with her life and will give her the desires of her heart.  We cannot wait to see what God has in store for this lovely young lady’s life!