Just a bit of history.  Mary is the main mom at Agape Orphanage.  When we go to Myanmar we come like grandparents.  You know what I mean?  We bring presents and candy.  We don’t discipline, we just play.  We make sure that for one week the kids have fun.  But Mary is mom to 100 plus kids.  She loves and disciplines and prays and models the love of Christ.  Mary is the main mom at Agape Orphanage.  She is a mom whose heart has been softened and expanded by God through good times and hard.

She started Agape Orphanage with her husband.  Not long after they started the orphanage — about 11 years ago — he died from malaria.  He got sick on Sunday, was in the hospital by Monday night and Tuesday morning he died.  That was in June.  In July her 11 month old son got pneumonia and within a month he had died.  She was left with a daughter and an orphanage.  I’m not saying she didn’t struggle or that she doesn’t grieve.  In fact even today when she talks about it there are tears.  But she didn’t quit following God’s call to serve kids.  In fact, in many ways I see her as the heart of Agape Orphanage.

This time when we were there Mary was sick.  She has been sick for some time.  She was in the hospital for surgery in July, but since then her recovery has been slow.  While we were there she was rarely with the children, and you could tell the the slightest efforts tired her and brought pain.  Sometimes in our country we have the mistaken assumption that we can handle our physical difficulties without God — we have incredible medical options available.  In Myanmar, if you are sick, you are fairly certain that you need God’s intervention.

So I would simply ask that you would join with Mary friends, families and all the kids at Agape to pray for Mary.