Dearly Beloved,
Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ! We are thankful to Him because we know Him, but most importantly, HE KNOWS US! Therefore, we will “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you [us] in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thes. 5:18.
We need all your fervent prayers as we go through this state of emergency with the ebola situation here in Liberia. As it is now, the situation is beyond man’s control, but thanks be to God that it can NEVER go beyond God’s. This is why we are asking you to PLEASE JOIN US IN CRYING OUT TO THE LORD FOR MERCY ON US!!!
Ebola is not as contagious as it is deadly, but the current outlook or functioning of our society makes the contagiousness deadly effective. It is contracted through body fluid (sweat, urine, blood, vomit, feces, etc) of an infected person. When contracted, the stage of vomiting and bleeding is like the hopeless stage of a victim.
Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, is seriously overcrowded! A city that can comfortably host about two hundred thousand people is hosting more than a million people. Commercial vehicles are crowded with passengers. A taxi has been taking four passengers in the backseat. Thankfully that has been reduced to three for now. Boarding a commercial vehicle involves a serious struggle against others desiring to do the same. A line is a simple way to resolve this, but many will not abide by a simple line rule; hence, fighting to get in first has become the order of the system.
When the ebola outbreak in Liberia was first announced, many people said it was a scam. When someone was reported dead due to ebola, without seeking the help or adhering to advice from experts, people went to verify. They would touch the dead person to find out whether there was bleeding or vomiting. In the process, they contract it, and now it is widely spread.
Contracting ebola is like a death sentence. It has no cure, and only 1 out of every 10 person survives. The Liberia media is not reporting the actual number of people dying from ebola. Even the international Medias are not being fed with the entire truth regarding the number of victims. Someone said it seemed the government does not want to create an alarming situation that would be hard to contain by giving accurate reports that are disturbing, but the situation is already truly alarming now and hard to control.
On Wednesday, two people died from ebola opposite our church area. I had to walk in that direction to see a man who was having problems with his nephew, a member of our church. There was a huge commotion in the community. Roadblocks were set for vehicles because the government had delayed for more than a day to come for the bodies of the ebola victims. One of the victims was lying openly in the yard of his house according what I was told. Despite the strong warning that one is at the highest risk of contracting the disease around a dead victims, I saw some young people constantly going in, and out of the direction of the victims as we were sitting on the porch discussing with the young man’s uncle. Some were going to verify because they were still arguing that the ebola outbreak was a scam.
I meet with a group of 13 pastors every Saturday for counseling training. We realized that the situation is so grave; hence, we decided to suspend our training meetings for the month of August and observe the situation.
All (I am not exaggerating when I say “all”) major hospitals in the city of Monrovia and many in the entire country are closed. All major clinics and many manor ones are closed. All schools are closed. The government has closed all government offices except a skeletal staff that are necessary for some of the ministries. In the northern part of Liberia bordering Guinea and Sierra Leone, two villages are completely wiped out. In one of them, 34 people died within 8 days. The village was deserted, villagers asserting that a curse had fallen on the village. All who participated in the burials fled to other villages and relatives. They are definitely carrying the virus to where they go.
In Monrovia, several communities are reporting death cases. Currently, the government is ill equipped to meet the demand of the situation. That’s why they delayed more than a day to remove the bodies that were in the community where our church is located. Also many staff who had been working with the ebola containment units have died from ebola. They are ill equipped. Initially, some staff went to remove ebola victims while wearing a glove on only one hand. Because of the high death rate among their staff, many deserted the job. The staff is getting smaller in number while situation or demand is expanding.
One of the measures the government is putting into place to contain the situation is to quarantine suspected people. The testing equipment is very, very limited. Therefore, suspects will be quarantined for 21 days. The problem is that some suspects will likely be negative while others will be positive, but these will be quarantined together. They are still working on resolving this challenge since quarantine facilities are highly limited. In the meantime, when a victim is identified from a certain church, work place or social group, the government will enforce the quarantining of others members of that group.
Praise the Lord! I heard from International Medias that the international community has put together a package of a hundred million US dollars to combat this virus in these three countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The people at the highest risk are the medical staff. Many doctors and nurses have died from ebola. This is what caused the closure of hospitals and clinics. This has also led to many non-ebola related deaths. When people get sick, there are no hospitals or clinics to go. Two weeks ago, a pregnant woman died from bleeding because no hospital would admit her for fear that her bleeding could be ebola-related.
On Friday morning, one of our members took a malaria tablet that got her nauseated and very ill. Her husband failed to find any commercial transportation because she vomited (one of the signs of ebola). He thought to reach me since I have a vehicle, but was able to get a motor bike to hire before calling me. They visited several hospital sites and were repelled by police uniform men who were providing security to the facilities. Confused and disturbed, he was still able to know only one thing to do – PRAY – pray, he did! In the evening, she had recovered fully and was able to attend our Friday prayer night to share her testimony. In Monrovia at the moment, when anyone gets sick or experiences an accident, treat yourself or prepare to meet your Maker!
In view of all the above, the leadership of our church will meet tomorrow after service to decide our steps in this observation process. We will be considering one of three directions:
1. Continue to meet and trust the Lord to protect us as we faithfully serve Him;
2. Suspend all church activities and meet only on Sundays;
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3. Suspend all church activities for a while and observe the measures being put into places.
Regardless of the direction taken, we are praying that God will provide for us to give out basic medication (medication for common problems like headache, cold, malaria, etc.) to help our members since medical facilities are closed to the public. Even drug stores are closing now since they are serving as hospitals. Some people take the sick to the drugstores since they do not know what medication to buy for their love one who gets ill. PLEASE REMEMBER US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!
Thanks for your concerns and ardent prayers!!! We will be grateful to the Lord for any help, including advice about the direction to take, in our emergency crisis now! PLEASE UPHOLD US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!
Any support can be sent to:
Heart of Africa
P. O. Box 5
Wilmore, KY 40390
Memo line – By The Light Ministries Emergency Support
I hope to constantly update you.
In Jesus’ Name,
Yallah
Please forward all who can prayed for us!!!
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