Prayers for Your Baby or Child in a Medical Crisis
Eric Schumacker
and Jessika Sanders
As a baby grows in the womb, we often hear, “I don’t care if it’s a boy or girl, as long as the baby is healthy.” Sadly, sometimes, frightened parents hear the words from their doctor, “I’m sorry, but your baby….” You fill in the blank. In this conversation with Jessika Sanders and Erik Schumacker, co-authors of In His Hands: Prayer for Your Child or Baby in a Medical Crisis, we talk about how a medical crisis can leave a parent or grandparent speechless, even to the point of not knowing how to pray except, “Lord, please…” Jessika is a mother who has experienced the frightening world of the NICU, and Eric is a dad who understands loss. They bring much wisdom and comfort to parents raising children with a medical crisis.
Eric M. Schumacher is an author, podcaster, and songwriter. He is the author of The Good Gift of Weakness: God’s Strength Made Perfect in the Story of Redemption, Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage, and the novella My Last Name. With Jessika Sanders, he co-authored In His Hands: Prayers for Your Child or Baby in a Medical Crisis. With Elyse Fitzpatrick, he co-authored Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women and Jesus & Gender: Living as Sisters and Brothers in Christ (Award of Merit, 2023 Christianity Today Book Awards). Eric interviews guests on the Nothing is Wasted podcast and hosts the Worthy podcast with Elyse Fitzpatrick. He is the Pastoral Ministry Director of the Baptist Convention of Iowa. He is a regular contributor to Common Good magazine.
Eric earned a degree in communications from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.Div. in Biblical and Theological Studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Individual Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Eric and his wife Jenny live in Iowa with their five children.
Jessika is a recovering wanderlust and world traveler who has found contentment and purpose in being a wife and mom of three. Dressed in comfy tees and in colorful Converse, the earthy-crunchy Vermonter is a lover of all things organic, especially large amounts of chocolate.
A former educator and cheerleader, Jessika has always found joy in helping and encouraging others. In fact, her son’s NICU experience in 2019 led to her founding of Praying Through Ministries, a nonprofit that serves families around the world as they navigate childhood illness, childhood hospitalizations, and or child loss. She currently serves as president and leads a team of 50+ volunteers.
Jessika's writing has been featured in Proverbs 31 Ministries’ Hope When Your Heart is Heavy devotional (2021), Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse Jr. magazine (2022), and Tyndale’s So God Made a Mother (2023). She is also the coauthor of The Good Book Company’s, In His Hands: Prayers for Your Child or Baby in a Medical Crisis (2024). Learn more on her website.
