by Deacon Peggy Hahn (she/her), Co-Director at LEAD

Jesus was known for healing people – as were his followers. Spending the month of April at Methodist Hospital with my daughter, watching the incredible health care providers from doctors and nurses to the people who manage nutrition or the transport patients from their room to the MRI, people are still healing with the power of the Holy Spirit. God uses people from every political persuasion, every ethnic or cultural or gender or sexual expression, every gift, to help humanity heal. Thanks be to God!

When I first sent out the call for prayer, I had no idea how this tragedy would unfold – only that it was too big for us to carry alone. It is a sobering thing to ask people who don’t even know us to hold us in prayer. The prayers came from across the world – El Salvador, Peru, Central African Republic, Europe, and the United States. So many of you prayed and asked your congregation to join us. We are grateful that Kristen gets to live her precious life, even if everything will be different. While this is indeed a miracle, we know that prayer is not a magic eraser that wipes away every loss. There are tragic stories everywhere to show us this truth.

For those of you that feel your prayers were not answered, I have no words to express the depth of my love for you and my own grief at your loss. There are tragic stories all around us that witness the end of beloved lives. It feels like we need to all offer a prayer together, for the grief, pain, and suffering among us. Maybe the miracle is for us that we keep the faith, allow others to pray for us, and to show up in the despair of life with sincere compassion for each other.

Life is fragile. We never know from this minute to the next how our bodies will surprise us. What we do know is that when we pray or when others pray for us, we are not alone in the crisis. Prayer changes us. It makes space for us to see the Holy Spirit’s connective tissue in the body of Christ holding us all.

“Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” by Ken Medema

Lord, listen to your children praying.
Lord, send your Spirit in this place.
Lord, listen to your children praying.
Send us love, send us power, send us grace.