Dear Praying Partners,
“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” Lam. 3:22. Thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His gracious answers to prayers. It is so comforting to be upheld in prayers by so many believers around the world. Jesus is marvelously and superbly good!
Thank you for your prayers and supports. We love you! We want to assure you that your prayers are doing so much before the throne of the King of Kings on our behalf. Our Lord is listening to you. Please continue your worship in His presence while remembering us. Whenever I share with my people that believers in many parts of the world are praying for us, I see their faces light up in appreciation and confidence of surviving. It is truly reassuring to know that many people are praying for us. I will be reading to the congregation some of your replies, assuring us that you are praying for us. Again, thank you! May the Lord remember you as you share our burdens in this dark night of our journey.
As Liberia temporarily lost control over our Ebola crisis, God’s glory was, and is shinning brighter and clearer. But the loss is terrible. On Saturday last week, a body was placed on the road leading to our church from the main (Somalia Drive) road. We took pictures. Two more bodies were placed in the streets, but not on the main road. We did not drive into those roads to take pictures. According to information given us, corpses of Ebola victims have the highest risk of transmitting the virus. Corpses are being placed on streets all over the city.
Removing corpses have been taking longer than it should. This has increased the health risk and led to the spread of the virus. It is tragic that when a body is placed in the street, some people often gather around it. They get close enough either for the purpose of identifying the victim or for verifying whether it is Ebola related death. Some loot the victims. In the process, they end up contracting the virus. Most often these bodies will remain in the open streets for two or three days, creating serious health hazards. Sometimes road blocks have to be set up to call government’s attention to remove them. Most of the people dying now are just dumped on the streets for government to undertake the burial responsibilities.
At the moment, when people get sick, even common sickness like headache, cold, etc., they are immediately quarantined even by their families to avoid the spread of Ebola. Since hospitals are closed, many of the sick are left to look after themselves.
A young woman (likely between 17 to 19) was found dead under the palaver hut on the ELWA campus at the main entrance of the hospital on Saturday, Aug. 16. The suspicion is that she was Ebola positive. Since she was refused entrance into the Ebola Testing Unit, and she could not return home because her family was avoiding her, she sat under the palaver hut and rested her head on the veranda. I imagined she was feeling totally alone as many have been feeling. She did not woke up! We saw her body in the morning before we went to a workshop. When we returned after the workshop, her body had been removed.
While we were still on the ELWA campus after the workshop, we visited the hospital area. This is the campus on which the two American missionaries, Dr. Kent Brantly and Mrs. Nancy Writebol were working when they contracted the Ebola virus. The hospital is still closed. We wanted to visit the Ebola Testing Unit (ETU), but were turned away perhaps because we were not going to be tested, and we were not journalists. We attempted filming, but were stopped and told to get permission. The authorities that could grant us permission were inside the compound and we were not permitted to enter the compound.
The disruption of normal activities is creating serious hardships, especially among normal people. Brother Henry Dolo is a member of our congregation and a driver. He is hired to drive a taxi. He makes his living doing so. But commercial drivers are at serious risk of contracting Ebola. There is a story about a taxi driver who stopped in the middle of the street, jumped out of his taxi and disappeared from the scene when a passenger vomited near him. Once a vomit or body fluid of an Ebola victim makes contact with another person, that person is infected. Concerned about this, Brother Henry taxi’s owner parked the taxi to avoid the risk the Brother will be exposed to. The owner is able to pay Brother Henry only when the car earns money in the traffic. So now, Brother Henry is without a job and without an income. He has a pregnant wife and two beautiful children. In his job, Brother Henry earns enough to take care of his family, but not enough to have a good saving. In two months after parking the taxi, Brother Henry’s saving has run out. He is desperately searching other means of income especially considering his wife’s condition. If he goes back into the traffic, he and his entire will be at risk of contracting Ebola. Our church is finding ways and means to reach out to Brother Henry and his family, and many others like him. Please remember us in your prayers. Pictures attached.
Ebola is deadly. One of my brother, George Kawala, died last week Wednesday, Aug. 13. His entire family is in trouble because they did not know that his illness was due to Ebola. After his death, he was tested positive before his family knew the truth. His wife, six children and a nephew are currently quarantined for 21 days.
My cousin from Kakata is critical now. He and his family who were attending to him were brought to Monrovia to the Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF) Treatment Unit on Tuesday.
Three members of my Sister-in-law, Bendu Kawala who is a member of our congregation, are confirmed dead from Ebola. Please remember all of us in your prayers!
The establishment of an Ebola Care Unit (ECU) in a location called West Point sparked a riot in the city after the center was ransacked. Tragically, some people have still not accepted that Ebola is a reality. They looted sweat-soaked and blood- stained mattresses and bed sheets that were being used by Ebola victims at the ECU. After the looting, the government sent solders to quarantine West Point. It is a tiny peninsula about a mile long and less than a quarter of a mile wild. It is totally sandy. West Point is known to harbor some notorious criminals. They were quarantined with no food supply. The entrance into West Point is Waterside Market, which used to be the largest open market in Monrovia. After a full day without food or any assistance from government who had quarantined them, the residents decided to march out and supply themselves with food from the Waterside stores. The troops engaged them in a shootout, which resulted to the riots and curfew being imposed.
Many of the problems are due mainly to the government’s poor handling of the Ebola crisis. Facilities at ETUs or ECUs are inadequate, equipments are insufficient, information is inaccurate, etc. I’ve heard over and over, even on the radio that there are only two ambulances provided by government to attend to Ebola problems for the entire city of Monrovia, which has a little over a million people. These are use mainly for removing bodies or transporting the seriously ills to ECUs.
However, civil conflict or government instability is the worst thing that can happen now. It will be more deadly than the Ebola crisis. We are crying that the Lord will prevent us from such calamities.
Dolostown has been quarantined. A relative who lives there, called me on Wednesday evening and shared how many of the residents were dissatisfied with the manner in which the quarantine is being handled. “We just woke up in the morning and saw that the town was surrounded by soldiers who dare anyone to attempt to leave the town. Now, we are here without food or any form of supply. It is like we are re-living the civil war all over again,” he complained. Thankfully, some interventions, including medical, are now occurring in Dolostown.
PRAISES:
Praise the Lord that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Rom. 5:20b. The light of Christ is shinning brighter and clearer than ever. A good number of believers showed up for a workshop about “How to successfully manage a ministry to the glory of God.” It was a sound godly teaching. Participants fearlessly marched to the ELWA campus despite the news that Ebola Testing Unit was located on the campus.
Sister Josephine Baysah (Auntie Joe) is a member of our congregation and an inspiration to many of us. She is an American citizen and can fly out of here any minute she wants. Two doors from her Old Matadi Estate residence, a neighbor’s fiancée died from Ebola. The victim was a nurse who worked with a doctor that died at the John F. Kennedy Hospital, the largest government hospital in Liberia. When she was diagnosed with Ebola, she was taken to the ECU at the hospital where she died a week later. She died exactly one week before her wedding. When her fiancée showed up at his house after a while, the children in the house ran to Auntie Joe for refugee. She provided guidance and helped resolved their problem.
At church, she spoke strongly urging people to take Ebola seriously and adhere to preventive rules and regulations. Her presence encourages many people to cling to hope. But the danger around her is serious and growing by the day. I spoke with her and told her she should not feel coerce to stay considering the fact that the danger around her was increasing. She told me, “I have peace about staying. I suffer from pressure and would have been out of here long since. But I can’t tell you the amazing peace I feel when I prayed about the situation. I am fully aware of the danger; yet, I am confident the Lord will keep me. But if this is what God will use to call me home, so be it.” Praise the Lord!
Many Liberians are acknowledging the hygienic principles (washing hands, cleaning homes and yards, careful in preparing , selling and eating street foods, etc) the Ebola outbreak is instilling in people. Many have been affirming, and even encouraging each other to uphold these practices even after the Ebola crisis.
This crisis is also leading people to seek God. Churches are overcrowded. For the past few weeks, we have had to seat people outside and around the main place of worship. The reality of death is overwhelmingly present; hence, some are thinking correctly and asking eternal questions. When we announced the suspension of weekly activities and a possible closure of the church for a while, many people were opposed. One of them talked with me: “Pastor, under this dark cloud of evil that has spread over this nation, the only place offering hope is the church. If the church closes, where will we turn for any hope at all? Even hospitals are closed and families, afraid of, and abandoning their own sick, are full of guilt when they hear the death of their love ones. The church is the only place offering hope now.” I was touched, but I also realized that if Ebola breaks out in a church, members will immediately stop attendance or avoid the church.
Another praises to the Lord is the questioning of doctrines and teachings of preachers. In Sister Damawa’s previous church that I mentioned in my last update, six people have died just within the two families from July 26 to August 19. The dead includes the associate pastor whose son died shortly after the death of the grandmother of the assistant pastor. Their senior pastor had preached and maintained that there was no Ebola; and even if it existed, it was not their portion; hence, no one who died should claim it was Ebola. But after the latest death of the associate pastor, the senior pastor consented that the deceased should be tested to establish the cause of death. There are other Ebola death related stories among his members, but two families lost six people in a short time before the senior pastor is yielding to reality. Many, even in his congregation of about two thousand people, are asking many questions like: Was it worth losing those many lives before waking up to reality? Can the Gospel he is preaching be viewed seriously or is it a sleeper’s Gospel? PRAISE THE LORD! THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS WAKING PEOPLE UP TO REALITY!
I have not taken up the counseling position at ELWA yet. The person that was providing counseling there came down with illness. He has not undergone the Ebola test. The church; however, have decided that I could be putting the entire congregation at a high risk of Ebola infection should I take up the position. The compromise is, if we suspend church activities completely, I can offer the services.
We want to thank all of you who have been upholding us in your prayer and financial supports. We are grateful to you! Again, thank you and God bless you.
The quarantining is mostly likely going to increase until it covers everywhere. We are praying and trusting the Lord to bless us and provide relief for our people. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us in this emergency? All emergency donations can be sent to: “Ripe for Harvest” with #348 indicated on the check memo and mailed to:
Ripe for Harvest
P. O. Box 487
Monument, CO 80132
Donation can also be made online @:http://ripeforharvest.org/
Blessings in Jesus,
Yallah
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