03/23/2025
Dear friends of Antioch and community:
Please take a moment to read the story below. Antioch Baptist Church will be taking up a love offering for the Dyar family.
First and foremost, please pray that Jennifer's surgery will be successful. Secondly, if you would like to donate any amount, it would be a blessing to them during this trying time. You can donate by one of the following options:
1. Mail a check written out to Antioch Baptist Church, designated "for Dyar family", to the church at this address:
2479 Antioch Church Rd NW
Dewy Rose, GA 30634-3205
2. Hand deliver your donation in person during our Sunday worship service.
3. Call or text our church number (833-458-7182) to setup a time to meet someone at the church with your donation.
Thank you,
Andrew
---
While on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation in Jamaica with my mom and then 9-year-old son, I suffered an aortic dissection on July 12th, 2023. I stayed 4 days in Jamaica, being flown from Negril to Kingston before finally being stabilized enough to make it to Miami for emergency open-heart surgery on July 16th. My brother and sister-in-law had to fly to Jamaica to get my mother and son back to Atlanta, GA, while I was left alone in the hospital in Jamaica. My husband and stepdaughter made it to Miami as I was coming out of surgery. I suffered a stroke, sepsis, and pneumonia and was in a medical coma for over a week. By the pure grace of God and the many prayers from people back home, I survived. I spent 3 weeks in the hospital in Miami before being discharged to a rehab in Augusta, GA. I was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome along with my son. Even though the whole ordeal was, to say the least, traumatic, the silver lining is my son is now followed closely by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and he won't go through the life-threatening ordeal I did.
Fast forward to now, I have another aneurysm in my descending thoracic aorta and will be undergoing an open thoracotomy to repair it on April 14th at Emory University Hospital. I'm terrified but thankful it was caught, and I will be closer to home and family this time. I am a mail carrier with USPS. I went back to work full-time 3 months after my original open-heart surgery and have been working full-time since. I will be out of work 4 to 6 months with my upcoming surgery. I was not eligible for short-term disability due to my pre-existing condition, and the post office offers no short-term disability either. Due to numerous doctor's appointments for myself and my son, I have very little sick leave accumulated to cover my surgery. With a $700 a month insurance premium, medical bills for myself and my son, not to mention household bills piling up while I'm not working. Our savings have been drastically diminished over the last couple of years due to doctor bills and missed work.
I'm asking first and foremost for prayers for my family as I believe and have experienced firsthand the power of prayer, but am asking also for any donations, no matter the amount, to help cover food, and expenses incurred during my hospital stay and also the time I will be unable to work. I have every intention to kick this surgery's butt and be back to work in the 4 months' time frame instead of 6. I have had to humble myself to even ask for any help but I believe with my whole heart God will provide as he did in 2023. If you have read this far, thank you for taking the time to listen to my story.
