In the days leading up to the Camp Meeting Leaders Conference I was spending a lot of time at one of the premier hospitals in the world, DuPont Children’s in Wilmington, Delaware. A six year old little girl named Brionna was there in the ICU, eventually succumbing to complications from heart surgery two weeks prior. The events were and still are devastating.
Thank you to Peggy and Paul at the Francis Asbury Society, Roy Lauter from World Gospel Mission and Gary Campbell from Camp Sychar for picking up the slack to allow me to stay with the family through the funeral on Wednesday and join them late that night in Wilmore.
As I walked the long halls in and out of the ICU to where about thirty family and friends gathered I walked past pictures painted by the young men and women treated at the unit. They really encourage art and the kids are amazing.
There is one picture I missed which was of a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. Had I been a resident there it would have been the picture I would have drawn. I love it, the little boy just had open heart surgery, I think the plaque said he was 10, and all he can think about is testing out the new ticker with copious amounts of beef, potato and dairy!
I don’t have much to write about my time with Bri and her family but the point is that these little ones, in the face of scarier things than I have ever known in my 38 years wanted people to know they had faith, they had hope and they saw the beauty around them.
This last one is a ceiling tile which Bri painted with her dad’s help and is an enduring message to me every time I think about those days.
