Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus,
Our situation is complex, but NOT to our Lord Jesus Christ. “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” Jer. 32:27. Wow! How Awesome is the God we serve!!! Nothing, absolutely nothing is difficult for Him!!! Therefore, we are delighted to put our full trust in Him.
I do not like communicating bad or sad information, but since we stand in dire need of prayers, I will share what is reality here.
Ebola is expanding in this part of the world. Tuesday of last week, I drove by a body lying in the middle of the street on the Pipeline Road while everyone went by. A small group of people were standing close by looking at the body either for signs of ebola or for recognition of the victim. The victim, it appear, was in his mid twenties, but I was uncomfortable to get close enough. Instead of getting close, I decided to go and alert the authorities. A police station was about a thousand feet from the body. An officer told me that it was the second day that the body has been lying there. He said it was not their responsibility to remove bodies, so I should refer the case to the Internal Affairs Ministry.
Ebola is raging like wild fire. It is especially threatening when it hit close to home. One of my beloved brothers (a cousin I grew up with like a brother) has come down with ebola. He is a nurse and also the administrator at the clinic where he works. A lady who was admitted to their clinic in Kakata, a city about 40 miles outside Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, died at their clinic and the corpse was tested positive of ebola. He and three other nurses that attended the victim have come down with ebola. Please pray for a miracle for him and the three nurses; and all the health workers among us.
A man who was diagnosed with ebola in Kakata, escaped from the quarantine unit and ran to Monrovia to some relatives and did not tell them the truth about his situation. He died a few days ago behind where our church is located.
Wickedness has engulfed our country like a tsunami washing away an entire city. In addition to the ebola epidemic, another problem that is as threatening as the ebola story is occurring–Poisoning food and water. The communities are full of stories of people poisoning food and water. One of the stories is that at a high school graduation party last month in the Soul Clinic community, a suburb of Monrovia, the party food was poisoned. About 15 people died as a result. The dead included the entire family of the couple who prepared the food. After the food was prepared, someone sneaked in and poisoned the stew unknown to everyone. The account of what happened or how it happened or how many people died as a result varies significantly, but deaths as a result of that food poisoning at the Soul Clinic area has been established as true, and the number of deaths is about 15 or above.
LORD, WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PLEASE HEAR OUR CRIES!!!
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In Dolostown, a town near the Roberts International Airport, a church conference was held there at the end of last month. On the last day, the food was poisoned. I talked to a reliable resident of a town near Dolostown and he told me that more than 20 deaths has been reported from that poisoning incident. Many such stories are reported constantly, but I am mentioning only a few of those that has been confirmed or established.
LORD, THE DEMONS HAVE BEEN LOOSED! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PLEASE CONTINUE TO REMEMBER US IN YOUR MERCY AND GRACE!!!
In addition to poisoning food, it is widely rumored that people have been poisoning wells as well. I have not made any actual confirmation of any story of these rumors. The government has denied that there is any truth to this, but I am mentioning it keep us in your prayers because it is a high possibility.
Monrovia is still without adequate pipe borne water; or only small number (perhaps 25%) of the city residents enjoy pipe borne water. Even those privileged with the pipe borne water get supplied only a few days a week. Many people have large barrels to store water on the days water is supplied. Personally, we have barrels to store enough water for about a week. We have been out of water for a little over two weeks now. I overheard that some of the well poisoning individuals succeeded in poisoning the hydro plant from where the city pipe borne water supply comes. This is hard to verify because no one at the Water & Sewer office will satisfactorily explain the reason for the water shortage. But the two weeks water shortage cannot be necessarily used as proof of the hydro plant poisoning because there are times when we run out of pipe borne water for a month or a little over.
But for now everyone has reverted to well water. We are praying that the well-poisoning stories are not true. It is easy to hide such death stories because currently, all the mysterious deaths are simply attributed to ebola since there is usually vomiting and quick death; and instruments and facilities needed to be used to establish cause of deaths are significantly limited.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
In the midst of all these evils, the glory of God shines brighter and clearer. God continues to demonstrate that He is LORD over all our situations.
Many health workers are dying because they are contracting the deadly virus ebola through caring for people. Therefore, many of them are withdrawing since protective equipments are scarce. Though many are withdrawing, others are employing extreme measures and stepping up. Many of those stepping up are believers in Jesus Christ!
I was contacted today to start providing some counseling help for health care workers who are stepping up to attend to patients. Many of them are becoming seriously traumatized as they watch people (patients as well as their own fellow health care workers) died gruesome deaths daily around them. They helplessly watch victims vomit and bleed to death! They are becoming fewer working with so many. Some are quitting the practice now due to the trauma they are experiencing. I was asked whether I would be willing to provide trauma counseling for health care workers and also to train a few people to join in this service. I briefly prayed in my heart, thought about it and accepted as I remembered, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14b. Whatever this turns out to be, to Jesus Christ be the glory!
LORD JESUS, YOU ARE MY SHELD AND MY SALVATION!
The Lord continues to demonstrate His protection for His own. He did so for one of our leaders in the church. Two weeks ago, they caught a child, about 8 or 9, who had poisoned their stew. Brother John Kekula is a family man who has live in his house with fourteen other family members. They include his wife and two children, his mother, and some of his brothers and other close relatives. Around mid-day on Wednesday, July 23, a little girl walked to their house and asked for a drink of water (this is a common and acceptable practice in our society). She was directed to the living room where the drinking water is kept. She walked quickly and went straight into the kitchen. By divine timing, another little girl, about 4, also a visitor, arrived at the house and went straight into the kitchen. When she saw the 8 years standing over the stew, she yelled out crying as if she was being attacked. The adults ran there and she told them what she saw the 8 years old doing. When sternly confronted, the 8 years old confessed that she poisoned their stew. She said she was sent by a witch to do it. Brother John and his family or several of them were doomed to die that day had the Lord Jesus not intervened. God delivered His people from death!!! PRAISES TO YOU, LORD JESUS!!!
Sister Damawa Remi was a member of a church which teaching has some challenging points with regard to sound Biblical teaching. She started attending a discipleship class where sound biblical teaching is held. When she shared her belief with her discipleship class leader, she was advised that their belief and practices did not conform to sound Biblical doctrine. I also encouraged her to find a Bible believing church after listening to her share her belief. She left the church same week that ebola was first announced to have entered Liberia. She visited several churches, including ours. She is one of us now.
When it was first announced that ebola had entered Liberia, there were lots of denials and misgivings about it. The health ministry even sent people around after a while to tell people that ebola had been kicked out of the country, but carefulness was essential. But ebola death related stories did not end until a violent resurface of ebola became a terrible reality. Immediately after the resurface, the head pastor of Sister Damawa’s former church informed all his members from the pulpit that no member of his church would contact ebola, no matter how rampant it became. So they were living in denial of the reality of ebola. Ebola has claimed the lives of two members of their church and a few (including the assistant pastor) are down exhibiting symptoms of ebola. Damawa recalled that when she was attended her former church, she was the doctor or nurse who treated all her church members. Many times she went from home to home of members to attend to their sick. Had God not timely redirected her, she would have gone unprotected to attend to those ill members.
GLORY TO YOU, LORD JESUS! YOU PREVENT US FROM CALAMITIES!!
Praise the Lord that in the midst of these insanities, the message of “repentance” and “personal relationship with Jesus” is drawing keen attention. A person I dropped from my list of counselees because our sessions were being a waste, has began to develop new and “genuine” interest in relationship with Jesus Christ. Praise the LORD!
A brother who was plunged in drunkenness has been delivered! He was unable to adhere to counseling because he was constantly drunk. Some believers who are committed to praying for individual members of the body of Christ included him on their prayer lists. Now, he is delivered and is waiting for recommendation to a Bible believing church where he should fellowship. He has already agreed and is waiting for a recommendation of a church. I want to recommend a church around his area. Please pray that the Lord will lead us to a good church in his community.
Hospitals and major clinics remained closed. Drugstores continue to perform multiple functions; howbeit, the prices of drugs have soared about three times the actual prices. Also the government is restricting movement, which is necessary for fighting the ebola. The movement restrictions will pose serious problems for a lot of our members and neighbors if the restrictions will last even for a month. Therefore, we bought a little amount of rice and some medications as much as we could afford and distributed it on Sunday to our members and some of our neighbors.
We are praying and trusting the Lord to bless us so that we can offer relief to 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/
God bless you.
In Jesus’ name,
Yallah
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