Missionaries in dire situation.

Oh, pray for the Mach family, our good friends, and missionaries to Africa! Such scary things to go through. Here is their letter to the Loop (our church internet prayer grapevine.)

Dear Friends and Family,
I just sent out our July/August prayerletter which gives a general idea of what has happened here. I am sending this to you to give you a more detailed description.We started smelling a particular odor here in Bingerville around August 31. This continued somewhat and the odor was not overpowering. Around Sept. 2 we began to learn that perhaps some illegal dumping had taken place. I began to research it and did not find out much.Unfortunately what has unfolded threatens to become a nightmare. A Russian factory put 400,000 liters of Hydrogen sulfide and mercury on a boat bound for disposal in Africa. It has been touring Africa for six months being refused by many African nations. It is believed that the minister of transportation here secretly accepted the waste and spilled it in a number of places around Abidjan. You realize that the government the UN has imposed on us here is a coalition government. The minister of transportation is an opposition minister.There are a mounting number of cases at the hospitals including our clinic of nose bleeding, respiratory distress, coughing, cramping, and vomiting. There have been numerous deaths.There has been minimal reporting on the incident, so we remain dreadfully uninformed.In our family, Bobby experienced vomiting and cramping around the beginning of the problem. We found it peculiar at the time. We now feel as though it was no doubt exposure. He has been fine for a week now. Morganne began exhibiting some symptoms. I got her to our pediatrician who did blood tests to determine that she has an acute bacterial infection in her digestive tract. She is currently under antibiotic treatment.I have evacuated the family for the moment to Anyama which is for the moment one of the best places to go without proceeding into the interior of the country.My problem is that I just cannot leave my people to sit here and breath this stuff. I am desperately trying to convince our people to leave. Those who are too poor or most vulnerable, I am evacuating to Anyama. The church that I helped start there is preparing for the arrival of our people. We just simply do not know where this is going, and the odor today is stronger. I will soon be closing our clinic temporarily as there is no known treatment for this exposure. As well, we will most likely be suspending church services until a later date. I just simply cannot believe this.I could use some prayer.