Date Published: August 11, 2026
Publisher: Clay Bridges Press Publishing
Our hope is that these stories encourage you to persistently seek God through prayer. His grace is unending.
As we sat outside the hospital, we got to know some of the staff in many ways. We got to know some of their families and life situations; some shared about their past and their faith; others just shared how they are feeling in the moment. The following are a couple of their stories.
Stephanie: Stephanie is a young student nurse that we saw going in and out of the hospital with the other student nurses. However, as the numbers of COVID-19 cases surged, the hospital reached capacity and the number of deaths climbed to two to six a day, Stephanie lagged behind the other nurses. Finally, one day she was way behind the other students, and she stopped where were sitting. It was obvious that Stephanie had been crying. She stood before us with her shoulders slumping, her head hung low, and her eyes red. We asked her if she was OK, and she began to sob uncontrollably. She lifted her head wiping her tears and simply said, “I don’t know if I can do this. I didn’t become a nurse to watch people die every day. I wanted to try to help them get better, to help heal them. It seems all I do is try to make them comfortable and hold their hands because their families cannot come in before they die. I don’t know if I can do this.” At this point we asked her name, and she said Stephanie. We asked if she would like to pray with us and she said, “Yes . . . please.” We took out our three-strand prayer cords and explained that because we couldn’t hold hands, we were using the cords so we could have some kind of connection. We explained the idea of the three strands comes from Ecclesiastes 4:12, with says that three strands can’t be easily broken. The three strands had a meaning: one strand for her, one for us praying for her, and one for our Lord to whom we were praying. Stephanie smiled and cried softly. Stephanie took one end of the cord, and we took the other and began to pray. We prayed for her peace of mind and heart and for her strength to face this horrible disease. We prayed that she would lean into the Lord and accept the comfort the Lord has for each of us. We said amen, and she thanked us. We told her, “No, thank you for doing so much more than us.” We hoped the prayer helped and that Stephanie would find some comfort.
We continue to go to the hospitals to pray, and we continue to look for Stephanie each time we are there. We watch the student nurses as they walk in and walk out of the hospital. Since that time, many groups of student nurses have come and gone, but no Stephanie. We have prayed for Stephanie often, praying she found peace and the strength to flourish no matter what she chooses to do. We pray that she leans into the Lord and follows His will. We ask ourselves whether Stephanie finished her nursing degree; we don’t know. It doesn’t seem like she finished with the group we saw her with originally, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t finish. Her finishing is not the important thing but rather her finding her place in this world through our Lord. Stephanie gave all she could just as the Lord gives to us.
Hot dog man. While sitting outside a hospital, we don’t always get someone’s name. Sometimes, the staff passes quickly, and sometimes it just never comes up as strange as that may seem. When we don’t find out their names, we give them nicknames as a way of remembering them. “Hot dog man” got his name when we talked with him at the end of one of his shifts; he told us all he wanted was a good Chicago-style hot dog and thus the nickname. If you don’t like that nickname, please know it was much better than his original nickname, which was “angry man.” We called him “angry man” because the first time we met him, he stopped and said, “Why don’t people (expletive) just stay home and wear masks!” He was so angry at people for not doing what they were guided to do and getting sick and making their jobs so hard. We found out later that he was a respiratory therapist, so he encountered the disease up close every day. However as time passed, we became friendly, and he shared the difficulty of seeing so many sick and dying. We would see him at least once a week, but then, he was gone. We were left not knowing what happened to him or whether he was all right. That was the hard part of what we did; sometimes, people would just be gone.
Blessed with creative talents, Tom turned a simple woodburning hobby into a small business and embraced the role of “Mr. Mom” to his three sons, finding purpose and joy in the rhythms of family life.
Though he often sensed a calling to do God’s work, Tom pushed it aside for many years. That changed in 2020. As the pandemic altered daily life and stirred deep questions of faith, he found himself in honest, raw conversations with Christ—dialogues that became a spiritual lifeline. Those reflections and personal experiences evolved into writing, eventually forming the foundation of his first book.
Today, Tom continues to use his creativity and vulnerability to encourage others, sharing stories that point to God’s presence in every season, especially the difficult ones.
