Random yet providential

I got a random request the other day. My dad, who is a pastor in Southeast Texas, called me on Wednesday night and said a lady (Lucy) in his church requested prayer for a little baby who was in the hospital. The baby is the grandson of Lucy's friend. His name is Dillon, and his parents live in Ft. Worth. Lucy asked my dad if he could find someone in Ft. Worth to visit them in the hospital and pray with them. My dad called me and asked if I could find someone to go. He didn't have much information for me other than the names of the parents, grandparents and child.

At first, I was thrown off a bit. I didn't want to show up at the hospital as some weird, random guy. What if they told me to go away? Nonetheless, the Lord really pressed on my heart that I needed to go, so Amy and I got some neighbors to watch the boys and we went to the hospital after work on Thursday. My dad had called earlier in the day and told me that Dillon, who is only 8 week old, had meningitis and was in ICU.

When we arrived, we got the room number, and went to see the family. I introduced us and explained how we found out about them being in the hospital. They were very receptive to our visit and told us how everything was going. Dillon had started running fever on Monday (St. Patrick's Day) so they took him to the doctor. After running some tests, they found out he had bacterial meningitis caused from the E.coli bacteria. If you don't know, if not caught quickly and treated quickly, this can be fatal. Providentially, the parents, Derrick and Destin, had caught it early and the doctors were able to treat Dillon and rid his body of the E.coli. They had even moved him out of the ICU because he was doing better. Then, as he was sleeping in his mother's arms, he seized up and became stiff. They readmitted him into the ICU and checked to see if he had had a seizure, which fortunately he had not. When we arrived, he was still heavily sedated because they had done an MRI, and he had an IV running through the top of his head and a breathing tube in his mouth. As a father of two, seeing that precious little baby on that bed was humbling. They said that when he woke up, they would be removing the breathing tube, and it sounds like things are turning up for him. They were also going to check to see if there was any damage to the brain tissue by him seizing up. After visiting with the family for a while, we had prayer with them.

I'd like to ask you to say a prayer for Dillon, Derrick, and Destin. Please pray for continued healing and a strong recovery for Dillon. Pray for Derrick and Destin as they walk through all of this. When I talked with them, it doesn't seem like they have a church family to walk through this with them, so please pray that they will find one of those too. I really appreciate this, and I know they do too.