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Philadelphia - Lower Bucks County

Country: United States
State or province: Pennsylvania

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Nancy Hoyt
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• Street Evangelization at Frankford Hospital on Saturday, November 26, 2022

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• Campbell Park, Port Richmond, Philadelphia on Saturday, 21 May 2022

March 11th 2018 – Philadelphia Hospital Area

September 19, 2019

(NH)

You made my day.
You made my day.
You made my day.

God’s goodness in bringing sweet souls that he thirsts for to meet little us trying to serve Him is frankly overwhelming sometimes. The message above is repeated because it was stated so many times, in exactly those words, by people we encountered doing St. Paul Street Evangelization in the Philly hospital area last Sunday. In our attempt to help lift the burdens of many by speaking of Our loving God at work in life we are met with compassion and consolation from those we desire to serve. Scroll down past these notes, to the list below of prayer intentions, and get a feel for the people we met and a sense of how our mission felt so great that day.

In the two hour afternoon outing the encounters were many and deeply moving. All were notable but for the sake of getting some sleep tonight, a few will be mentioned. It was interesting that men outnumbered women at least 2:1, of whom were open to have conversations with us this day. Blessed St. Patrick medals and prayer cards were very handy to have with his feastday less than a week away.

A young man named Steve came by to talk. His wife was in premature labor and delivery of their first born at 30 weeks gestation was imminent. He was racked with worry. He was pleased to receive a St. Patrick medal and prayer card. We prayed with him for a safe and healthy delivery of baby (i.e., they did not know the sex of the baby yet, love that!) and excellent recovery of mom. We talked to him about how hard it must be as a first time dad to suffer through this worrisome delivery this way. We assured Steve of our continued prayers in the upcoming months for his baby and little family.

We met a middle aged man named Brent who was racked with grief and worry over his father-in-law Emilio who suffered a serious heart attack and whose condition was unknown. We prayed with Brent for God to bless Emilio’s doctors with good decision making for treatment and to bless Emilio and his family with many more days of life and health together. Brent mentioned that his wife was Catholic. We gave him a Resisting Happiness book and Jesus Shock book to share with her, as well as blessed medals and a rosary. He asked how long we would be there, in the hope that his wife would be able to come down and pray with us too before leaving, but we did not see him again. God-willing it was because they were in receiving good news on Emilio’s condition.

A man named John was sitting on the planter ledge and looked tired and sad. He told us of his sweet baby Sebastian who is 15 months old, in Children’s Hospital, who has never had a day out of the hospital since he was born. The baby was recently transferred to CHOP, having been at two other hospitals prior. Fortunately for John and his wife, CHOP was a good move because they live in southern NJ. Their sweet baby was born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia CDH and has never stabilized to the point of being able to go home. Baby Sebastian is retaining fluid now and had a recent procedure at CHOP for this and they are praying for good outcome. John proudly showed many pictures of Sebastian, an adorable baby with a crop of blondish hair and a beautiful cherub face. We prayed with John for his baby and wife and self. We spoke with John about his faith life. He said he was baptized but he didn’t really know how to have faith or how to talk to God. He grew up with no talk of God or Jesus in his home and said he knew little of it. His wife is Catholic but they have not practiced the faith. Deacon Mark told John about how he could use the rosary we gave him to ponder Christ on the cross and why did He die for our sinfulness, out of love? We also gave him a Resisting Happiness book, explaining it to be a nice book for reading about how to make choices daily to grow closer to God. We recommended he find an open church in the area to sit in and talk to God, and perhaps read some, and mentioned the chapel on the first level in CHOP. He was happy to accept it and gave us his wife’s facebook site name to keep updatted with how things are going with Sebastian. We plan to keep in touch.

A handsome young man in his twenties was walking by and when asked if he would like a green rosary or St. Patrick’s medal, in celebration of his feastday, he told us he’d love to have a medal but had plenty of rosaries as he was a devout Catholic. When asked if he would like to pray, he said very much so, as he was alcoholic and recently had been drinking again. We praised God for bringing us to meet, asked the Holy Spirit to come upon us, and in Jesus’ name for David to be completely healed of his desire to drink alcohol. We prayed that David would never have a want or need to touch or drink alcohol again for the rest of his life. We thanked God for listening to our prayer. David was very thankful and we gave him a St. Paul Street Evangelization pamphlet with our email and requested him to keep in touch with us.

We also met a nice Jewish doctor on way to work who accepted a St. Patrick’s medal, in honor of the saint’s upcoming feastday, and he promised prayer for us and we promised prayers back. We saw Sue, grandmother of babies Sonny and Giovanni, who we met a few weeks back, and their bone marrow transplants are good so far ~ Please God make the babies healthy and ready to go home! We prayed again with Sue and she told us how God is so good holding her and her family up through this. A sweet young woman Kaelah was our last person to meet this afternoon. She was pleased to accept a green rosary and pamphlet reminder on how to pray it. She told us her parish in S. Philly was not providing the fellowship she was looking for. We told her of a few nearby active young Catholic adult groups in the city and gave her our SPSE pamphlet with email address and asked her to email us and we’d get her more details. Also, she was interested in possibly joining our SPSE team. We hope to hear from her.

Please keep the following in your intentions:

  • Son Chris asks for prayers for his 63 yo dad Mario being operated on due to stroke with 50% chance of survival. For Mario’s miraculous healing and recovery and for Chris to know Our Lord’s presence in his life.
  • Sue asks for prayers for baby grandson twins Giovanni and Sonny who had bone marrow transplants.  For babys’ full healing and recovery and for faith-filled Sue to feel and know Jesus’ presence with her always.
  • Rhonda asks for prayers for her sister Gloria who has bleeding on the brain.
  • Solomon asks for prayers for peace and to meet a nice woman.
  • Chris asks for prayers for his recovery and healing.
  • Zanoya asks for prayers for his work.
  • Gina beseeches Our Lord for healing from the grip of drug addiction.
  • Thiedo asks for prayers for his family and for good health for his loved ones.
  • Brent, Stephanie and Sue ask for great prayers for Emilio who has suffered a heart attack and needs full healing and recovery.
  • Daniela asks for prayers for daughter Evy’s complete healing and recovery from neuroblastoma and for all of the children in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and their families.
  • John asks for prayers for 4 year old grandson Ethan who needs a heart transplant.
  • Hassan asks for prayers for mom Vivian in HUP with heart condition and for newborn daughter “Legend”.
  • Marie – asks for prayers for healing from seizures.
  • Eric asks for prayers for Sasha, his girlfriend, for healing from her Epilepsy/seizures.
  • Prayers needed for Maria in hospital with complications following surgery.
  • Steve asks for prayers for Colleen, his wife, in premature labor with first-born, either Raybrook or Simon (depends on girl or boy), for safe healthy delivery and growth of sweet baby and for excellent recovery of mommy.
  • Sharon asks for prayers for 4 month old daughter Sakia’s healing and recovery.
  • Ian asks for prayers for his life and his work.
  • David asks for prayers for complete healing from alcoholism.
  • Chris asks for prayers for his 50 yo mom’s healing from seizures.
  • Prayers needed for 35 yo Karen with complications from flu.
  • Darlene asks for prayers for her children Cherice, Kermit, and Toni, that Our Lord Jesus Christ protect and guide them.
  • John and Christine ask for prayers for their 15 month old Sebastian who has never been well enough to leave hospital due to Congential Diaphragmatic Hernia (CHD).  Baby Sebastian just had another surgery and is having problems with retention of too much fluid.  Prayers needed for strength and knowledge of Christ in lives of John and Christine (dad and mom) and for sweet Sebastian to be given a miraculous break to finally go home and get strong and grow well into a little toddler.
  • Tracy asks for prayers for Mr. Smith who has bleeding from unknown source.
  • Kaelah asks for prayers for starting her new job on Monday.

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