Prayers requested for ministry leader with serious head injury after fall from ladder

By Mark Ellis —

Melinda Penner, the co-founder of Stand to Reason with Greg Koukl, suffered a serious head injury after falling from a ladder on November 4^th.

“She was found unconscious, bleeding from nose and ears. Tests at UCLA showed that her skull was fractured, there was internal bleeding in three places, and pressure was building up inside her skull approaching lethal levels,” Greg Koukl reported on his blog.

Doctors performed a three-hour surgery Sunday night to remove a portion of her skull to release pressure on her brain. “They warned, though, that Melinda may never be full-functioning again, and may not be able to live independently in the future.”

Koukl is requesting prayer and placing his faith in God. “The doctors aren’t working alone,” he notes. “We have a great God, and we know that faithful prayer is being offered up all over the country for our dear friend, Melinda. Many people have recovered completely from trauma like this.”

Doctors tell him the surgery Sunday night went well. “A post-surgery MRI showed that the brain stem is okay. Damage is all on the right side, which is good news for language. She’s off coma-inducing meds, so hopefully we’ll see signs of her waking up over the next couple of days. All her other organs and functions are doing well. Of course, this is very good news at this point, and it’s clear the Lord is responding to our prayers, so keep it up.”

Penner graduated from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska with her B.S. in Education, and then earned a B.A. in theology from Christ College in Irvine, CA. She also completed her M.A. in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at Talbot School of Theology. She taught middle school in Christian schools until founding Stand to Reason with Koukl.