Perhaps I am on a roll of writing to strangers with devestating conditions, but if I am, I think it is a good roll.

I heard of a mother with a 13 and 9 year old who is in stage 4 cancer. I pray fro all concerned in this issue, but in particular, for the mother and the children.

"Dear Lord, as humans, we know without understanding the whys, that your will is not always to heal on this earth. We seek in our minds different things than that of your will. We ask for wisdom to move past our thoughts and pray for the mother who must not only deal with her illness and ALL it involves, but for the children she will be leaving without a mother to help them through the years before adult-hood. I pray Lord that your hand be with her at all times, that she may know you sit beside her bed and hold her hand, and that you will be her protector and companion as she finishes her journey to Heaven. We ask that her children see her strength and take it as their own, that they too will turn to you for help, for wisdom and for strength. Help others to step into the role of giving care as like a mothers love the best they can, and be a help and guidance to these children, to get them through all the days ahead. We ask this in thy precious name. AMEN"

again, I turn to my keyboard to type out a prayer for a stranger. I haven't felt top notch for the past 11 days, not excercised or not a whole lot of anything but perhaps cut out dresses for the dolls I make for kids with cancer and other devestating illnesses. The dolls are always free. Since I have neglected my dailey recordings of thoughts and prayers for a straner, I have decided that today I will pray for each child. Only one do I know personal information about, for I was given the gift of a phone call from her mother to approve the gift of the doll and learn what had happened to her little girl. The child is now 3 and survived getting 3 transplants at age 3 months. Now she can eat solid food and talk. She had done well. She takes over a dozen pills a day to stay alive and keep her young body from rejecting the transplants. The othe suffer from various forms of cancer. It is for these stranger children I pray...I hope I never forget that little children, strangers or not, need my prayers.

"Dear Lord,
It is with a humble heart I come to thank you for the fact that even though I have my share of problems, I am so much better off than many others. I reach out to you today with a prayer for each child who receives one of my dolls (and of course those that don't are included) I pray they may feel your love and presence in their life, as I pray the same for their family and friends. Grace them with your peace when the night comes and the pace of their life changes, bless them with the comfort of thw doll they can talk too about their troubles when the night grows silent. You are the great physician and I pray that these little ones my be healed fully and go on to live a good life, hopefully in your light and in their love and service to you. May they know as they hug their doll, that while you are not seen, you hug them as well. Sit beside their bed Lord, I ask, and protect them. Be with the light that greets them each morning as they wake. Guide their caregivers in all ways. This I ask in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. I thank you for my many blessings. Your child, Vickey Stamps

Praying for Strangers February 2-4-2012

A woman named River Jordon (an author who uses the penname River because of her river baptism) impresed me with an article written about her in a guideposts magazine.

She became worried, letting it have control over her life, because her military son had been deployed overseas,. Finally she decided surely others were praying for her son, and if they could pray for him as a stranger to them, she could pray for strangers herself. She did this and recorded it all for 365 days. She decided if she could get others to do the same thing, many strangers would have been prayed for that otherwise would not have been prayed for.

I accepted the challenge and have asked other ladies in my church to do the same. So far it has been only 28 days (I missed one day) but I plan to keep on keeping on.

River Jordon said it lifted her up after doing that praying for strangers, and I cannot doubt that it will do that for me. It certainly won't bring me harm. What I am wondering is this.

I thought I might share my prayer blogging with you, if you would like to read a few now and then. I challenge you to record your own bloggings about praying for strangers, and share what if anything ... happens because of it. River Jordons book is titled Praying For Strangers.

Please let me know.

If I get a response about it, I will continue.

For today, i pick a stranger of the mind. This is a child with cancer. She is young and having a hard time going through all the treatments. She doesn't completely understand it. It is for her, I pray this day. I know somewhere ...several somewheres....a child like this exists. Sometimes my strangers are someone I see when I am out and about.
Sometimes they are plucked out of the air because I know it is true of someone somewhere, and i know when we pray, God wants us to be specific.

Vickey Stamps

Dear Lord, I know the medical people have far more than their share of busyiness with such children as this child, but I ask that you touch their hearts with enough compassion to let them have and extra portion of patence and caring for this child. Help them take time to comfort this child, and her parents. let them find the right words, and the right treatment to bring a healing. Let them smile when they might want to cry. Let them be brave for her. We ask a total and complete healling for this child in your precious name. AMEN