Prayer Request

Many of you have seen the Harris family on KAIT. Teresa Harris (the mother) is a Region 8 Weather Watcher. I always show the entire family when I show her reports because she said the "weather watching" could be used as a project for her home-schooled children.

A couple of weeks ago, I got some bad news regarding a member of the Harris family. I got an email from a family-friend stating that Kelsey Harris (15 years old) had a brain tumor. I instantly contacted Teresa to check on their family. She stated that "Kelsey has what is called a diffuse pontine glioma, which is an aggressive brain tumor. It is in her brain stem, which is a really bad place since all the messages from the spinal cord runs through it to get to the brain. She had surgery and they were able to remove a lot, however this is the type of tumor that grows "fingers" and that is why it is so hard to remove and treat. She is undergoing radiation and an experimental chemo at this time."

Please keep the Harris family in your prayers. They will be dealing with treatment over the next few weeks and will be doing a lot of travelling.

Below is a poem written by Kelsey. Her mother emailed it to me last week. I asked her for permission to share this poem and story, and she gladly said yes...

I like to be by myself, but I can't stand being alone.

I love the dark, but I hate not being able to see

I enjoy meeting new people, but I hate being with strangers,

I want my voice to be heard, but I despise talking loud.

I want to be in a hall of fame, but I don't like being the center of attention.

I want to have my most complicated problems solved, but I don't want complicated answers.

I want to always be healthy, but not have to take medicine.

The answer: GOD!

With God, I can be away from the world, by myself, but not be alone, for He is with me.

With God, I can be in the dark, be blind, but see more than people of this world can.

With God, I can meet new people, but they won't be strangers, because they are children of God, just like me.

With God, my voice can be heard even when I whisper.

With God, I can enter His hall of fame, but not deal with the pressure of earthly fame.

With God, I can have even my most complicated problems solved with a simple answer.

With God, I can have an incurable disease, yet be healthy in what matters most.

WITHOUT GOD, I will be with the world, and be totally alone.

Without God, I will walk around with my eyes wide open, but not see as much as the Christian blind man sees.

Without God, I will meet all the people in the world, but they will always be strangers.

Without God, I will have to raise my voice as loud as I can to be heard, but still not be heard when it matters most.

Without God, I will have work extremely hard to get into a worldly hall of fame, but not get into the highest one.

Without God, my most complicated problems, can't be solved, and the attempts will be so complicated, I won't understand them.

Without God, I will have to take pill after pill, but will always be incurably sick.

With God, I can achieve anything.

Without God, I will achieve nothing.

What's your choice?

©Kelsey Harris 2008

I'll try to give you updates on Kelsey as I hear from their family. I would have shared this earlier, but I did not want it to get lost within all of the weather posts...

Ryan