Photo courtesy of Rachel Shaneyfelt.
Rachel Shaneyfelt (center) with friends at an event for the God is Bigger Movement she founded.
From a type of cancer with an inevitable death sentence to a movement with nearly 8,000 followers, Rachel Shaneyfelt has turned her cancer diagnosis into something much bigger.
Shaneyfelt was in her first year of clinical rotations for nurse practitioner school when she started experiencing shortness of breath. Shaneyfelt soon found out she had mesothelioma, a rare, asbestos-related cancer that forms on the thin protective tissue that covers the lungs and abdomen. An estimated 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed annually in the United States, the majority of which are formed from job-related exposure to asbestos.
“It can lie dormant for 10 to 40 years before it raises its ugly head, and it only takes a small particle,” Shaneyfelt said. “You don’t have to be engulfed with asbestos to get mesothelioma. I don’t know where I actually got it.”
Shaneyfelt, who is the founder of the God is Bigger Movement, said diagnosis to death is only nine months; however, Shaneyfelt has survived the disease for six years.
The God is Bigger Movement was born after Shaneyfelt became a medical anomaly. She had one biopsy after a lesion was found in her chest, and when doctors wanted to do a second because they didn’t trust the results of the first, they found the lesion had shrunk by 70 percent.
“I told the doctor, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but my lesion has shrunk by 70 percent, praise God,’” Shaneyfelt said. “He said, ‘That’s great, get yourself a T-shirt.’ I did exactly that. If he was going to be a smart butt, I was going to be one back.”
Shaneyfelt went into the hospital and counted the nurses, aides and other hospital personnel, and she had 130 T-shirts printed.
“He didn’t know what he triggered, but that’s how the movement began,” Shaneyfelt said.
While the movement started out with T-shirts, it really took off in the form of gray silicon bracelets. Shaneyfelt developed a challenge for her small group after ordering the first batch of 1,000 bracelets, asking members to give them away to a stranger. Within one week, they were gone. Now, she orders 50,000 bracelets at a time. People have been gifted bracelets all over the world, including locations such as Croatia and Romania.
The movement was founded to give hope to others who might not know the Christian message, but also to draw attention to a solution and a cure, rather than a problem. Most God is Bigger apparel is made in neutral colors so attention is not drawn to the problem. However, Shaneyfelt said the colors chosen represent messages such as healing, spiritual purity and power.
“We’re very thoughtful and conscientious about what we put on the shirts,” Shaneyfelt said. “I don’t want people to see the color and say, ‘Oh, she’s got breast cancer,’ before they know her salvation.”
Shaneyfelt has received an email from a man in Croatia who saw a God is Bigger bracelet in a sauna in a hotel, and after watching the bracelet for two hours waiting for its owner to come back, took it for himself, knowing it was for him. Bracelets have also been given to orphan children in Romania. The movement has been painted on a racecar, and many have gotten tattoos.
Although the God is Bigger Movement has gone global, Shaneyfelt has used a great deal of her personal savings to continue giving the bracelets away instead of selling them for profit. That’s where the God is Bigger Movement Thankful Run comes in.
The third annual God is Bigger Thankful Run was Nov. 19 with the sole purpose of raising money for more merchandise to continue to spread the movement globally.
“We do it right before Thanksgiving, so we can say what we’re thankful for every year,” Shaneyfelt said. “The purpose of the run is to give people a platform to say they’re running for the Lord, but also to raise money to purchase more product, because we give away more product than we sell.”
Shaneyfelt said she doesn’t think anyone has ever said they’re thankful for cancer, but with this movement, she is.
“It’s totally amazing to me what me and the Lord have been through,” Shaneyfelt said. “Everywhere in the Bible I’ve read there’s action behind your faith. That’s why we do the 5K.”