Sad News

About an hour ago I received a phone call from a friend of mine. Her first words were, "Michelle, I have some sad news for you." I was sure I knew what that news was. Something I'm kind of expecting to here at any time. You see, the woman who called me is from the church I went to in Philadelphia. Her husband is in his late 80's. They've been married for over 60 years. Over the past few years his health has been slowly, but steadily deteriorating. She recently told me that he was in the hospital with heart trouble and his memory was fading. So, when I heard those words out of her mouth, I was prepared to hear that Harry passed on. My heart broke when she said, "Lucas Santos died". WHAT!!?? Lucas? He's so young. Here's his story:

Lucas is the youngest of three children. He was going to have his 13th birthday shortly. I remember him as a rascally 2 year old running around church. I don't remember how old he was, but at a fairly young age he accepted Christ as his Savior. Shortly afterwards he wanted to be baptised and so he was. There was even a family at the meeting who left the assembly, because they thought he was too young to be baptised. In retrospect, I can see the Lord's hand in it. Fast forward to this week, he got in trouble a couple of times at his Christian school. His father told him to go to his bedroom and spend the weekend there. He told him that he loves him and that's why he had to punish him. Later his sister peeked in to see what he was doing and found him hanging from his top bunk with a belt around his neck. His father took him down and he was still breathing. He tried to revive him for 10 minutes. The doctors tried again later. He didn't make it. The woman who called me is very gracious, she's convinced that Lucas just wanted to see or wanted to scare his family, but that he didn't mean to take his own life. Please keep this family in your prayers, as you other parents may have a glimpse of how dreadful this must be.