Holly's daughter and her husband, Brad and Michelle Holt, set up a prayer beeper and internet site to allow family and friends to keep up with Holly's condition. Sunday school classes all over the country prayed for Holly. The prayer beeper was a source of continued inspiration and comfort for Holly as each time it beeped Holly knew that people near or from far away locations all over the country were praying for her and she was not alone or forgotten during her struggle.

Joe William was diagnosed around Christmas with cancer in his lymph nodes. His family's church, First Baptist of Tifton, has a prayer beeper program in which people can call a toll-free number and enter a code when they pray for someone on the church's prayer list.

The prayer beeper Schroeter uses works like this: Her church, the Most Pure Heart of Mary in Topeka, leases about 50 pagers and gives them to people who need prayer.

Anybody — friends, relatives, strangers — can pray for the ill person. After praying, they dial up the patient's pager and leave a code number, 888, which means heaven has been invoked on their behalf.