Say a prayer for Hannah
Last month, many of you joined in sending Christmas wishes to little Hannah Garman, the beautiful 4-year-old girl diagnosed with a rare, incurable brain tumor in October. Hannah’s mother died of cancer two years ago. Her community in Ephrata, Pa., spread word of Hannah’s wish to receive as many Christmas cards as possible. The nation responded with an outpouring of love.
Reader Greg, a firefighter in Lancaster, forwarded me an update from Hannah’s aunt, Michelle Reiff. Your prayers are needed again:
My name is Michelle Reiff, but to Hannah Garman, my little 5 year old niece, it is Aunt Shelly. I am writing this email hoping it gets mass emailed as quick as the benefit emails and all the other emails did….so I am asking all of you to please forward on to all your contacts, friends , family, anyone and everyone. You have all proved how amazing you are at coming together for a good cause and I thank each one of you from the bottom of my heart. I am asking just one more simple thing and the most important.
Today, we received news that the doctors said there is nothing more they can do for Hannah, that she hasn’t responded to chemo or radiation at all. The tumors have actually grown. They told her dad to just enjoy every day we have with her and that this brain cancer is so aggressive that they’re not even sure how long we may have with Hannah.
…I am asking for you to pray for the manifestation of the miracle of healing we have all been praying for to now begin to show itself to us. I believe that the power of prayer is huge, and God said if we ask, we will receive, but the biggest part, is we have to believe it has already been done. So now, we must claim her healing and watch for its manifestation in Hannah’s little body. No matter what signs I see, I will trust that God is still healing her. He has the attention of so many people all around the world right now with little Hannah and I know good things will continue to come from this.
I know the only way God doesn’t answer prayers like this the way we have come to him and asked is if he already knows there is something he doesn’t want Hannah to either go through or has already gone through and chooses for her to come home to him and be with her Mom in Heaven.
But he tells us to stand and pray without ceasing. And he will do the rest. But if you don’t ask, he can’t give. So, please , I’m asking all of you to stand with me as we all ask God to now show us that he is the ultimate healer and ultimately it is his choice but in us asking, he is wanting to give us what we ask for but we also have to believe he has already given to us.
Hannah’s CaringBridge site is here. Hannah’s dad, Darin, has a journal entry this morning:
I had a very good visit with Hannah today. We just took it easy & watched Dora movies all afternoon. I had to make a McDonalds run shortly after I got there. Hoping for a good nights sleep for her & my parents tonight.
Darin
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Trackbacks
- Sma' Talk Wi' T
- Say a prayer for Hannah — But As For Me
- Say a prayer for Hannah — But As For Me
- Prayers for Hannah | Jeffrey A. Setaro
- Michelle Malkin » Hannah Garman, 2004-2009, R.I.P.
- Hannah Garman, R.I.P. | BitsBlog
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My prayers are with you, Hannah.
Prayers sent from Florida for Hannah, her Daddy, and her family.
May the Lord reveal Himself mightily for Hannah’s sake, my thoughts and prayers are for her and her family.
A prayer from California as well.
God Speed Hannah.
My prayers are with Hannah and her family.
Hanna may you find rest and comfort in Jesus’ loving embrace, for He is a gift his Father gave us, just for little ones like you.
Almighty and Eternal God, the everlasting health of those who believe; hear us for Thy sick servant Hannah Garman for whom we implore the aid of Thy tender mercy, that, being restored to bodily health, she may give thanks to Thee in Thy Church. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
may God hold you in his arms. tears….
Heartfelt prayers coming from South Florida.
Zorro: Amen indeed; And to precious Hanna, we will continue to lift you up in our thoughts and prayers!
May the healing power of God be on Hanna. May He surround her and her family, and friends with His tender mercies.
Things like this continue to test my faith in God. How can he allow things like this? A precious little girl. Innocent. Loving. trusting. First her mother – than her.
I just don’t understand.
I am sad at this moment, but am confident that God, in his infinite wisdom and love, will provide Hannah with the peace and love she so deserves. I just came back from Mass, but will return to be sure that she is prayed for, and thought of lovingly. May God’s comfort and blessing be with you Darin and may you come to know the joy that Hannah has given and will abide with you for your remaining days.
I hope Hannah enjoyed all of the cards!
God bless the entire Harman family. Little precious Hannah, you’re held tightly in the arms of family members who love you very much. That love is so much greater in Jesus. I pray that He comforts you and that His will be done.
Please heal her Jesus.
Whoops, Garman family. Little typo.
Tears and prayers…
Beautiful little girl. May God bless and her family.
Dear Lord, please send Hannah’s angel to comfort her in her illness. God please give her family comfort in dealing with her illness.
Amen.
L
Bruce:
God has a plan for us all, and though we don’t understand, there is a purpose in everything he does. Through this child, God has brought thousands of people together in prayer and unity. This may be Hannah’s work here on earth.
My dear Hannah, may your journey be one of peace and love until you are again embraced in the presence of the lord. Whether it be many years from now as we would all prefer, or in a short time, your message of love will be carried with me for ever.
May God bless you and your family in these times of pain and sorrow. Amen.
The girl is safe. If and when she departs this veil of tears, God will enfold her in His loving arms.
He is doing this so that He can teach us compassion, and strengthen our faith.
Praying for you, Hannah. You too Darin. Every book has a back cover. Some books are thicker than others, but by design. We don’t always know the Author’s mind.
I’m concerned not only for Hannah, but also for Aunt Shelly. The passage she is referring to is James 1:6-8.
Recently, my dad was in real bad shape. He was getting worse, and the doctors told me that he would likely pass soon. I doubled down on my praying, removed all doubt from my mind, and prayed with complete confidence he would be healed. Then he died.
I was bitter towards God; I felt God had tricked me, cheated me. I know better than this, but that was my thought process at the time. God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want Him to, just as He did not answer Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane the way Jesus wanted.
But it is through faith that I know God always gives the best possible answer to every request.
Hannah is Hebrew for stooping low, as in: for someone of high station to stoop low and bestow a gift on those below, like how God stooped low, came down from Heaven to bestow His blessing upon us. Hannah means unmerited favor, grace.
I don’t believe that every last bad or good thing can be attributed to a single act of God. God doesn’t go and make lists of people who he is going to smite with natural disasters or illnesses. Rather they are a natural side effect of the imperfect universe he has created for us. Our world is a test for us, and the test would be woefully inadequate if we did not have to deal with the sometimes senseless misfortunes that strike seemingly undeserving people. If everything that happened were perfectly just on a cosmic scale, the world would never challenge faith, and people would never have to ask the hard questions that define the human experience.
First, I want to say that our hearts go out to the Garman family. I can’t begin to imagine what life is like for them. We are praying for God’s perfect will for Hannah and you.
To the people who don’t understand, I won’t pretend to understand Hannah’s situation either. However, I do know that our knowledge as human beings is limited and we are unable to see the larger picture. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Sometimes things just happen and we can’t understand why.
The good news is, for those who believe, separation is not permanent.
As soon as I clicked the Submit button on my previous comment God said, “What are you doing? Is that how you would pray if Hannah were your child?”
I have been duly reprimanded and I apologize for my lack of empathy.
I am praying that God will do what is best for Hannah but we desperately want her to be completely healed. We want her to grow up and have a full, wonderful life. That is what we ask for and we leave her in God’s capable and loving hands.
Christ not only taught us how to pray but provided an example before His own death. His prayer was only this: “Thy will be done.” We pray for God’s will to be done with little Hannah as He is her creator and truly loves her with a love unfathonable to those of us whom He also created. We pray if possible, let her live and heal her, but above all may God’s will be done and have mercy on us.
Prayers from here also.
I’m sure that each of us here has had our share of tragedies that have led us to ask how and why God would allow such things. I know I have. And I’ve been bitter and angry about them. After years of turmoil, pain, anger, and every manner of ill-thought I finally – and just recently – realized, it simply isn’t ours to understand. Our job is to accept – as impossible as that is sometimes – life and the world as we experience them and trust that God has each of us in his care.
I just finished reading The Shack, and I’m certain that God is whispering in this little girl’s ear “Hannah, I’m especially fond of you.” I hope she hears that voice; I hope her dad is hearing it, too.
May God’s unknowable will be done, in this and in all things.
You believe aGod llows an innocent 5 year old girl to suffer unimaginable physical and psychological pain, and cut her life inconceivably short, just to teach us some lesson?
That to me seems the height of hubris to think that God would be so concerned your development as a Christian that he is willing to allow the suffering and ultimately sacrifice and of a poor, innocent girl.
If anyone can explain this to me in a way that does not use either the word “mysterious” or “ways” I would be happy to listen.
All right…this time in proper english:
You believe God allows an innocent 5 year old girl to suffer unimaginable physical and psychological pain, and cut her life inconceivably short, just to teach us some lesson?
That to me seems the height of hubris to think that God would be so concerned with your development as a Christian that he is willing to allow the suffering and ultimately sacrifice a poor, innocent girl.
If anyone can explain this to me in a way that does not use either the word “mysterious” or “ways”, I would be happy to listen.
Chap – it would be so hard to help you understand. God in all His mercy is in pain when he sees us suffer. He no more wants it than we do. The bottom line is not for Him to stop suffering, because that’s not the most important thing. We have such a limited view of what’s important, especially those of us who live in the most blessed country in the world. This country is so full of arrogance that faith is completely out of the question and this situation is everything to do with faith in a loving God. It’s not about us never suffering. The human race suffers because of our sin but it has never been God’s desire. When He created man, His desire was that we would live with him, choose to live with Him in peace for eternity but in man’s nature to be arrogant, man chose to “do his own thing” outside of God’s will and walla – pain, suffering, illness and death was the end result. It’s not about deserving or not, it’s about how things, the nature of things have been created – however, still eternity exsists, regardless of our sins because still God found a way to allow us to live with Him for eternity regardless of our self destructive nature and that was through the life and death of Jesus Christ. Hannah’s suffering and possible death, my death – your death is not the end or even the worst thing that can happen…people who cannot accept this nor have faith in a loving God can never accept what appears to them to be the end, but in truth it is not the end, but a beginning.
Misscheryl,
I say this in all sincerity.
I have no problem with people learning great lessons from the suffering they encounter in life. It may very well lead one to perfect their own sense of spirituality.
However, that is an entirely different thing from saying that God put a child on this earth specifically to suffer horribly and die just so that we may learn some cosmic lesson.
Now I don’t know if you believe that personally, but that is what I take from someone who says “He is doing this so that He can teach us compassion, and strengthen our faith.”
I understand the desire to see some sort of plan or reason to something so tragic, but to turn that tragedy around and somehow make it about oneself seems awfully self-aggrandizing.
Anyway. I am not going to post any more on this, as I do not wan to sully with debate the otherwise very sincere well wishes and prayers for this girl.
Chap – He didn’t create her to teach us a lesson…he created her because he loves her – it was and is because of the self serving nature of mankind that death and suffering exists.
No man is an island..and therefore, it is because of the nature of mankind that we suffer – it is that simple – it was never God’s desire. It is cause and effect because of the nature of things that we all will suffer and that we all will die. Arrogance keeps us from faith and seperates us from God. It’s what keeps us outside the house in which He lives and the benefits of living with Him. Make no mistake God doesn’t create anything or anyone to teach us a lesson. Christ was the only sacrificial lamb sacrificed to teach us..not Hannah.
Guns sends out his prayers for little Hanna and prays a special blessing on her father and auntie.
GSP [on bended knee}
“This is Sparta!”
Thanks for the heads-up Michelle! Mrs. Boomer and I will use what pull we have with the Lord in asking him for the recovery, continued survival, and hopefully long life of this darling little girl. Where there is life there is always hope.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE (mo-lone lah-veh) Translation: “Come and Take Them!”
Chap, this isn’t the time or place.
Praying through tear filled eyes tonight and every night.
Thy Will Be Done.
chapoutier said:
God sent His one and only Son to earth, to suffer horribly and to die, to show us love and to save us from our sins.
Now about Hannah, only God knows. God didn’t answer Job’s questions, He told him to trust Him. God doesn’t take away our suffering in this life; He gives our suffering meaning.
My prayers are with this family. I think right now, the focus is on giving this family peace. God be with them.
Speaking from personal experience, pain and pleasure are both the same. As humans we seek pleasure and attempt to avoid pain. If we accept them both, without resistance, suffering becomes an option and so does pleasure.
God bless little Hannah and the totality of her life.
Chap: I understand your point but, to a point; We are already mourning the loss of an innocent life. Too many innocents die every year and to not grieve, would be the greater tragedy. This is what separates humanity from beasts.
Dear God please give strength & healing to Hannah.
I’m holding her & her family in my heart & will be praying for them.
God Bless
tears in Texas
I hate to see stories like this! I can stand a lot of things but a suffering child pushes me to the edge.
I have said a prayer for this little girl and her dad and her aunt. And then I said a prayer thanking God for my own healthy family.
I look forward to meeting her and her Mom when I get to the other side.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
John 14:2
Hang in there, Hannah.
Cancer is such an indiscriminant killer, it must be the work of Satan.
My heart and my prayers go out to Hannah and her family.
God bless little Hannah and her poor father.
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10
With prayers for Hannah’s healing,
The Bryant family of Clemson SC