Tragedy struck close to home. My next door neighbor in our apartments is a single mother in her 30s, a seeker who recently has been going to church and studying the Bible, and doing the best she can to raise two boys, 15 and 5, on her own in the 'hood (I live in a very bad gang-ridden part of town). She has a third son who lives with relatives.

When I arrived home from work on April 1st I was told that her teen son, "Junior," had been playing with some other boys - with a gun - and the gun went off, striking him in the back. He was emergency airlifted to Los Angeles, 60 miles away, where his condition is currently unknown, and his grieving mother drove down there to be with him.

I am asking all of you to be in prayer for this boy and his brothers and mother. I know that God will be with "Junior", and perhaps this will scare him away from the path he has been travelling so far in his young life. But whatever way things go, I know God will work it for His good and glory.

Please pray for Junior (whos real name is Giordano) and his mother, Patty, that God will heal him, and that He will bring them closer together. And pray for her other sons, Brandon (11) and Joshua (5), who will undoubtedly be affected by this for a long time. I am told Junior was airlifted to one of the best pediatric hospitals in the state, so he is in the best of hands. Thank you all and I will update you with a follow-up as soon as I have more news. May God bless you all as you seek His face on their behalf.

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An update to the situation: Giordano was hit by a .357 hollow point at point blank range in the back. It is only by God's grace he survived at all. However, he lost most of his colon, and had to have major surgery to repair his intestines. I'm not sure what other organs were affected, but he survived the initial surgery.

If the bullet had impacted less than an inch over in one direction, it would have hit his spine and if not killed him outright, made him a paraplegic. However fragments of the bullet did damage his spine, causing partial paralysis on one side. They took him in for a second surgery to attempt to repair the damage to his spinal column and prevent total paralysis. Giordano is not out of the woods yet ... and even after all of this he faces months of recovery, both physically and psychologically.

If anyone wishes to send a personal note to Patty or Giordano, post it here or email me and I will pass it along. Put your city and state on the note so they can see where in the world its coming from. Thank you all.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2002

Answers

Dear Patty or Giordano,

There are probably no words that could possibly console you at this very tuff time in your lives. As missionary evangelists we have tasted tragedy too many times. One of our first members in the church in Ensenada, Mexico was a 17-year-old girl who was shot in the head by a drive-by shooting. Another young member died of diabetes. Just last July, my sister-in-law was killed in a freak car accident. We have learned to live with death as a very real part of our lives, and it has caused us to embrace life all the more. Jesus Christ is the only reason for our existence! Everything else is vanity. We will be praying for you as you go through these trials.

In Christ, Philip Watkinson missionary-evangelist

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2002