You may remember my brother Kevin. I wrote a birthday post about him this year. Last night Kevin called and mentioned that he wrote to Ivan, the child he sponsors through Compassion International, and told him about Carmen. Ivan is an eleven year old boy from Guatemala. Kevin said that he told Ivan that he has a niece from Guatemala who is terminally ill. He said that Ivan wrote back and said that he will be praying for Carmen.
Ivan doesn’t have much but, like all of us, he can pray. This meant a lot to me.
This picture isn’t Ivan. In fact, this little boy isn’t even from Guatemala. Dave took this picture when he went to Peru a few years ago to work in an orphanage. But, something about Kevin’s story reminded me of this picture so I looked through our files and found it.
Hi Lana, I wish I could say I remember your brother but I don’t but he must be just as kind and generous as you. Your picture reminds me of a picture I have from when I was in the Marines in Lebanon in 1983. I just went through my pictures and saw it a day or so ago. It is a little girl who I went past every day on patrol (I think you call it patrol) We went through the town looking for bad guys, any how she stood at the same spot and watched me (I was always point man) but that is another story, kind of funny, but any how again… one day I took her picture and smiled, she never smiled back she just looked at me with the same sad look. I often wonder about her. Thats it, thought I would share. Hope you all are well. God bless. In Christ, Joe
Hi Lana!
Just wanted you to know G & J have included Carmen in their prayers. G started asking about her after we took the picture with Carmen’s name. One of the the little girls from the picture we sent asked me about Carmen this weekend. Praying in North Carolina! Stephanie
PS Congratulations on finding out about your daughter. How exciting!!
Speaking of prayers from a child, when Lana was about 4 years old she found out about a woman named Alice who had cancer. Lana prayed for her every night before she went to bed. Alice’s greatest wish was that she would live until her little girl started kindergarten so Lana prayed for that. We bought Alice a card and Lana dictated what she wanted to say. At the end she dictated, “I hope you have a good time in heaven.” We discussed it and decided not to say that.
We were shopping one day and met Alice. We were waiting in line next to this lady and began a conversation with her and then discovered that it was Alice. Alice passed away shortly after her daughter entered kindergarten.