Urgent request for prayers for three-year-old Mikko

Mikko with his mother Gee-Gee

Please pray for three-year old Miguel 'Mikko' Torres Dimayuga who has been suffering from pneumonia for the last week and has been in intensive care for the last four days, a place where he has frequently been, including last Christmas, since he was born with a number of serious disabilities on 22 May 2007.

His mother, Mary Geraldine, ‘Gee-Gee’, is the former assistant editor of Misyon, is from Bacolod City and his father Miguel, ‘Miggy’ or ‘Mike’, from Manila. I visited the family in Atlanta for a weekend just over a month ago while on a visit to Canada. I gave Miggy and Gee-Gee a short retreat some years ago at the end of which Miggy formally proposed marriage to Gee-Gee. In 2006 I officiated at their wedding in Manila.

Their second child, Milagros Catalina 'Mica', named after both grandmothers, was born 14 June 2008.

The driving licenses of both have expired and they can’t renew them until they do the necessary paperwork to renew their visas in the USA. However, Filipino friends are very kindly offering their services as drivers during these difficult days.

Mikko, Miggy, Gee-Gee and Mica

Miggy wrote in an email: It is distressing to see Mikko not recovering as fast as he did during his first pneumonia three months ago. In that episode, we only stayed in the ICU three or four days before ‘graduating’ to the regular floor in preparation for discharge.


It’s been a particularly stressful week. It is a terrible feeling for me to see Mikko sick. As a father, I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and make everything better. If I could trade all that I have to ensure his full recovery, I would do it without even blinking. Then I am comforted by the fact that if a simple man like me can love like that, God surely can and does love Mikko infinitely more.

Mikko with his mother Gee-Gee