9．
What do you bring back from vacation? I like to (1) __ my bags with sweets from whatever place I’ve visited. (2) , recently, I’ve started doing something else. If I see a church while on vacation, I go in and pray, for both the people I’m vacationing with and those back home.
For me, the idea was (3) by my mom’s best friend, Dale. They’re (4) than friends, really, more like sisters. They’re both short and funny! They talk non-stop and share the same crazy sense of (5) .
Back when I was 14 and (6) some pretty scary medical treatment, my mom asked all her friends to pray (7) hard for me. I had a tumor(肿瘤) in my brain that had to be (8) surgically. The operation was (9) for August—the same week that Dale would be on vacation with her husband. She offered to (10) the trip. My mom said, “Don’t be silly! Just keep Diana in your (11) .”
(12) the surgery was a success. A few months later, my mom was at Dale’s birthday party and ran into a(n) (13) —one of the friends on vacation with Dale. They started (14) . “You’ll never guess what Dale did on vacation,” the woman said. “ (15) we stopped in a city and passed a church, Dale would go inside to pray and light a (16) for Diana.” (17) , at one church in Italy, Dale waited two hours in line to light a candle.
Dale never told my mom what she did. But I have no (18) that her prayers helped work miracles in my life. As young as I was then, I could feel the (19) of the prayers from friends and family surrounding me during that (20) time, just like a force field of prayer protection.