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Woman Loses Husband and Son in Accident, What Franklin Graham Said About Her in a Call for Prayer 

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Evangelist Franklin Graham made a request of his Facebook followers on Wednesday to join him in praying for a grieving Wisconsin family, who lost two family members in a tragic farm accident near Hillsdale over the weekend.

According to reports, Daniel Briel, 51 and his fourteen-year-old son David Briel died while working inside a silo when the silage collapsed on top of them. 

It took more than 45 minutes for first responders to find and pull the father and son from the silo.  The elder Briel was pronounced dead at the farm.  The boy died a short time later. 

"In the farming world these accidents do happen, but they usually don't lead to death," Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told FOX9. "This one was just a tragic accident."

"In the midst of this heartbreaking tragedy, wife, and mother Melissa is leaning on her faith in God and pointing countless others to Him," Graham wrote in his Facebook post.

"She told the media "God is good even through hard times. I want people to take away that God is there and if you keep your faith in Him, He's going to see you through." Melissa knows the truth that "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" ( )," he continued.

"I have peace knowing that he was praying with our son," Melissa Briel told the television station. "I have peace knowing that he was holding onto our son."

The local community has set up a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for funeral expenses for the father and the son.  

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About The Author

Steve Warren is a senior multimedia producer for CBN News. Warren has worked in the news departments of television stations and cable networks across the country. In addition, he also worked as a producer-director in television production and on-air promotion. A Civil War historian, he authored the book The Second Battle of Cabin Creek: Brilliant Victory. It was the companion book to the television documentary titled Last Raid at Cabin Creek currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He holds an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in Communication from the University of