by Rachel
One week ago, Eric and I woke up to terrible news. Our area director, Jennifer Myhre, had been in a terrible bike accident. She was airlifted to a trauma center in West Virginia, unconscious, on a ventilator with bleeding in her brain. Many of you might have already seen this news either on facebook or because you too are friends with the Myhres, but in case you haven't we are asking for prayer. Jennifer has made tremendous strides this past week...she is off the ventilator, walking with assistance, cognitively intact but with periods of confusion throughout the day. She has come a long way, but there is a lot of healing still to go, and she is moving to inpatient rehab this week for at least 7-10 days.
Scott and Jennifer have been our area directors for East Africa since we joined up with Serge in 2011. I still remember meeting them for the first time. They had just been named area directors and were moving to Kijabe after many years of raising their family in Bundibugyo, Uganda. Despite the fact that we were not yet approved as Serge missionaries, they drove down to Tenwek Hospital, where we were living at the time, to meet us and encourage us. They showed up with literally two giant baskets of produce, a big treat as we were living hours from the nearest grocery store. I was thinking back on that occasion this past week, remembering special times with Jennifer...how two of the things that matter most to her, how she shows her love and support to us, are generosity and presence.
I don't know how to be a team leader without Scott and Jennifer. They have consistently had our backs over these past 10 years on the field. Always encouraging, always cheerleading, always praying for us. Scott has a special gift of incredible photography of the world around us, but it's Jennifer that puts into words the beauty and longing and struggle and mystery that we experience day after day in our lives. We needed their presence and their advice last February, so at great personal cost to themselves, they braved multiple rounds of covid tests, a long journey, and 7 days of mandatory hotel quarantine to physically be with us and support us at Kibuye. It was perhaps the most encouraging thing that happened to us during that year...good friends and mentors, laying down their lives for us, traveling to Burundi, loving us. Jennifer wrote this blog after leaving.
Scott has been updating their family blog with news about Jennifer. If you're interested, you can click here. Their blog is amazing, so feel free to browse around a bit as well. Jennifer is really the rock of our East Africa region. We've never closed a session together without her calling us all to and leading us in prayer. None of us know what the future holds for her, but please pray with us for complete healing. Scott has also said that right now that they need "courage not clarity," (I mean, we'd all love clarity but that's not always an option) so please pray for that as well.
2 comments:
Yesterday I spent some time visiting the Myhres' blog, reading about Jennifer's injury and recovery, and praying for her healing. I remembered her incredible writing about her visit to the Burundi team several months ago, as well as her beautiful, abundant hair! I'm so grateful that she has been an enormously generous friend and mentor to your family. I have felt drawn to pray for her, not only because I know that she and her husband Scott have loved you so well, but because I sense the Spirit in her so powerfully. She is clearly a hero of our faith. Now I want to read her fiction with my kids, too!
You guys are the best. Thanks for sharing the news of her accident. Jennifer’s ardent commitment to prayer helped recruit many people to pray in the midst of crisis over the years—and now we are so thankful to see prayer recruited on her behalf. So grateful.
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