Couple of things. I just got this message from Beth Beikert about Susie Ebersole's husband.
Dear Friends,
This is an urgent request for prayer for John Briggs, the husband of Susan Ebersole, who is very ill and soon to be evacuated out of Lome, the capital of Togo in West Africa, where they have just begun their first term of service. John is a doctor at an ABWE mission hospital two hours north of Lome. Russ, a pediatrician (and the eldest of the eight Ebersole siblings) and his wife Melody are at the same hospital. Russ has been caring for John round the clock for several days.
John has recently been beset with a combination of malaria, cellulitis, and pneumonia, culminating in what Russ has diagnosed as acute respiratory stress syndrome. It is imperative that John soon get a level of help not provided at the hospital.
As I write John is about to be transported via truck over a rough road to the capital. From there, in about seven hours (I write this just past midnight in New Jersey on the 21st), John will be flown to Ann Arbor where expert care awaits him. There is no room on the flight, so Susan will be flying back to Michigan on a commercial airliner, arriving about a day after John, sometime on Sunday evening the 22nd.
All five of their children had just gathered in Togo for a much anticipated Christmas when John’s condition worsened. Ben, a senior at Taylor University; Bethany, a junior at Wheaton (who has taken off a semester from college to be with her family); and Bruce, a senior at the Black Forest Academy in Germany, have joined J.T., a sophomore in high school and Ryan, an eighth grader, for this two week window.
Please pray with us that God will spare John. Pray that He will grant him peace. Pray for Susie as she is very tired and in anguish. Pray for her as she will have to leave their children and fly home “parallel” yet so distant from John in a time of great uncertainty. Pray for the children as they will soon see their dad and mom depart under duress. This will be a difficult Christmas for them; pray that their time will be sweet as well as bitter.
We know that our Sovereign Lord is bringing about much good in all of this, and we pray that He will be magnified in ways we cannot now imagine. We are so dependent and thankful for His grace.
I will keep you posted as this all unfolds. Thank you for leaning in to this with us.
With love and gratitude,
Bruce
This is John and Susan’s e-mail address:
jbriggs@abwe.ccAlso....I'm on Facebook.....so if you happen to stumble upon that site and sign up....feel free to look me up......Ian Macleod...and the network I'm in is Calgary, AB
There are a "few" faith people there....
Ian
