Prayer Bowl at Texas Children’s Hospital

By John Graham

April 19th, 2012

I recently visited with Mark Wallace, President/CEO to invite Texas Children’s Hospital to become a member of ISH’s Circle of Friends which he happily agreed to do.  He said he had something he wanted me to show me — a Prayer Bowl which was a gift to him from his staff when they opened the new Pavillion for Women.  In the large bowl was a hundred or more cards, each with a prayer for Mark Wallace.  He said, “Take one and read it.”  I did and was blessed.  He said every day he picks a card from his Prayer Bowl and is blessed to read one of the prayers that was prayed for him.

Next, I was taken to see the Chapel in Texas Children’s Hospital.  I was stunned by its beauty and the story is a young girl designed it.  The chapel is round and the ceiling is painted with a starry sky above.  When I arrived there were two nurses kneeling and praying.  My guide, Nancy Gordon, said they were probably praying for one or more of their patients.  I was blessed.

Mark Wallace told me that Texas Children’s Hospital is a place of prayer.  He says every time he walks down the corridors of the hospital, nurses will come up to him and say they are praying for him.  He said that TCH would not be the hospital it is without the contant prayer that bathes the place every day and every hour.

I left my visit with Mark Wallace renews and thrilled to hear a hospital administrator freely acknowledge the role of prayer in his life.