Ralph’s Story

Site created on June 28, 2023


Ralph arrived home on 6/15 from Nigeria. He was very pleased with the outcomes of his seminars. He typically is quite tired upon arrival. He experiences jet lag and feels a bit “under the weather.” We thought this trip was no different.

By Sunday though he was not feeling much better and figured he had caught an actual cold. By Wednesday night he was coughing and sleeping way more than normal and was not able to focus. He was seen by his doctor on Thursday and when tests came back he was diagnosed with two different strains of malaria. He was then immediately admitted into the hospital and taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). By Saturday morning, under the care of an infectious disease specialist, he received the first of many does of a powerful anti-malarial drug.

Over the next several days his parasite count dropped dramatically, but his condition has worsened significantly as his body works to repair the damage that his disease had already caused. On Sunday morning his care team recommended that he be placed on a ventilator. That procedure caused significant complications, but by later in the day he was mostly stabilized, tolerating the breathing tube, and receiving continuous dialysis.

Since then he has remained mostly stable as the doctors work to manage his symptoms without creating any new problems along the way and to encourage his body to heal. As his recovery continues, we will post updates to the journal below.

Thank you again for the tremendous prayers, love, and support you have poured out to our family.  

Newest Update

July 31, 2023

Journal entry by Karen Metzger —

To all my very dear friends and partners in ministry,

Simply saying thank you seems like an inadequate response to all the love, encouraging words, meals, acts of kindness, contributions to the GoFundMe page, and prayers that you all have poured out to both myself and my family over this past month.  I type thank you but my heart is bursting with gratitude.  I know we are all being bathed in prayers from all around this globe!  I believe this is what enables us each to continue facing each new day with its challenges and with broken hearts.

My days have been filled with calls, paperwork, meeting with various friends and attempting to prioritize what has to be done and what can wait.  Some days grief hits me like a tsunami and other days it feels as thought Ralph is simply traveling again and will be home shortly.   I believe the whole family is still in a state of shock. 

I wanted to write to give details about Ralph’s Celebration of Life service in Rochester, NY at Browncroft Community Church on Saturday August 5, 2023 at 10:00 am.  The event will be live streamed.  You can use this link to log in at the time listed above to watch the event. https://browncroft.online.church/

I believe once the service is over it this link will still be available to log in afterwards.  Please let me know after the event on Saturday if you have any problems viewing the service and I can send out another link.  Rachel, Josh, Levi, Dan and Jocelyn will all be joining me in Rochester.

After my stay in Rochester and spending some time with family, friends and ministry partners I will return to Kansas City.  I will begin having deeper discussions with Crossworld to find a good ministry fit.  They have recognized my administrative and hospitality gifts and we're exploring how these can be used to continue on with the ministries we've been involved with for decades and to potentially facilitate other ministries within Crossworld.  I can't be too specific right now because so many things are still unclear and need to be discussed.  Of course, I assure you that as that path becomes clearer, I will be in touch.    I'd value your prayers for these discussions!

Thank you for standing with me during this challenging season of my life!

Karen

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