Road To Bahn

When I was a kid I loved the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road Pictures.  You remember: “The Road to Bali”, “The Road to Singapore”, etc.  I think there were seven in all.  They were so much fun to watch.  Sometimes, traveling Africa, I think of those old movies. 

Last week Fredna and I took the road to Nimba, County, which is in the northeastern portion of Liberia, for the annual Nimba District Conference.  The conference was actually held in a town named Bahn.  Bahn is also the location of a large Ivorian refugee camp with upwards of 15,000 refugees.

We could have driven from Monrovia to Bahn in one day, but I wanted to stop over in Ganta so I could look at a couple of locations for future church builds.  I also wanted to visit the Nimba Bible School facilities there.  This Bible school is being built on property in an area that will experience huge city growth in the near future.  Currently, the school is being conducted at the facilities of First Assembly of God church in Ganta.  Progress is good, and the school should be able to open in a few more months.

  

 

The second day we were on the road to Saclepea where we met the Nimba District Superintendent, Rev. Moses Dermie.  He took us to the building site of the new Nimba District Office, which is under construction.

 

 

Now, the road to Bahn.  Just outside of Bahn we stopped to see another location for a potential church build.  Pastor Robert Wandah and the congregation of Duowin Assembly of God is meeting in a grass-thatch temporary structure.  Some of the ladies showed us how they had cleared the jungle and planted rice next to the church.  Two of the area chiefs came to meet me and tell me how they needed this church to be built in their area.

 

 

 

 

On to Bahn Assembly of God church where the district conference was being conducted.  We were able to see old friends and meet new ones.  It was great!  I spoke on the need to plant new churches in Liberia and how we are the 11th-hour workers.  The fellowship was wonderful, and the hospitality was not lacking in any area!

 

  

This lovely couple took us to their home and served us a wonderful Liberian meal!

After the conference we were once again on the road – the road home.  No matter where we go, it is always good to return home!  In fact, this road we are all traveling – life – is a road that can lead all of us home.  Have you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life?

LIGHT BULB MOMENT

A few years ago Fredna and I were travelling in the northern part of Namibia, visiting churches, passing out Bibles and encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We drove by a village and saw a lady sitting close to the road by her cooking fire.  The village was not very large, and we didn’t see hardly any people around the open areas.  This woman was sitting there with a baby preparing a meal for her family.

We stopped to visit with her, and ask if there were any churches in the area.  During the conversation she asked for a Bible.  My first question to her was, “Can you read?”  She told me that she could not, but one of her children could because she attended school.  I immediately gave her a book – not just any book – it was the Word of God in her mother tongue.

She was so happy!  She called her children to her so she could show them the new Bible.  Then she looked at me and said, “You people come and tell us about Jesus and the light begins to shine.  Then you leave and the light goes out.  With this Bible the light will never go out.”

For years I have been challenging people and churches to financially support the work of missions.  I believe that it is God’s heart – reaching the lost of this world.  Do people have a right to hear that their Creator gave His life for them?  Do people have a right to hear that God loves them with an everlasting love?  Do people deserve to enjoy the “Light”?

As children of God we have a responsibility to send this gospel to every corner of the earth, to enlighten every individual possible, to share the good news of Jesus Christ!  As they say in Liberia, “I beg you please…” the next time you have the opportunity, give so that others can hear, so the light never goes out!

Proverbs 11:30, “…and he that winneth souls is wise.”

Return To Liberia

We have returned to Liberia!  Here is our latest newsletter.

Liberia's Only Ebola Virus Disease Patient Dies in Monrovia

Monrovia - FrontPageAfrica has gathered that the only confirmed Ebola positive patient in Liberia has died. According to sources, Ruth Tugbeh, 44, who was confirmed positive of the deadly virus on Friday, March 20, putting the gains against Ebola by Liberia at risk of reversal died at about 9:00 AM Liberian time on Friday. The patient was undergoing treatment at the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) managed by the United States public health service.

Recently providing an update on the patient, Dr. Francis Nah Kateh, Deputy Incident Manager of Liberia Ebola Response Team assured that the condition of the patient was stable and said she is being administered the best treatment. “Her condition is stable, she is receiving the best care, we are making sure that she survives to tell her story”, Dr. Kateh said.

Ruth was transferred from the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) run ELWA-3 Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) near Monrovia to the MMU few days ago. The patient allegedly contracted the virus through sexual intercourse with a male Ebola Survivor but health officials have said the man has gone more than 100 days since surviving from the virus.

Dr. Kateh disclosed on Thursday, March 26, during the week, that another person was showing signs and symptoms of the virus and has been placed into isolation.

Speaking at a news conference at the Ministry of Information, Dr. Kateh said specimen from the contact patient has been taken and the resultant lab information will be publicized. Dr. Kateh emphasized that given the current stage of the health crisis, continual information sharing with the public is essential in alleviating fear and suspicion.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kateh has also disclosed that another suspected Ebola patient was extracted from the Clara Town community on March 23 and taken to an ETU for further medical examination.
According to Dr. Kateh,  the IMS is currently going through active investigation to authenticate the status of the suspected patient as well as find out the primary cause of the recent infection which hampered progress to becoming an Ebola-free nation.

This confirmation by Dr. Kateh means that Liberia now has two suspected and one confirmed Ebola cases, a condition which validates that Liberia still faces threats from the virus that killed over 10,000 people in West Africa.
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FPA Staff Report. "FrontPageAfrica - Liberia's Only Ebola Virus Disease Patient Dies in Monrovia." FrontPageAfrica - Liberia's Only Ebola Virus Disease Patient Dies in Monrovia. March 28, 2015. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/news/4807-liberia-only-ebola-patient-dies.

LAST EBOLA PATIENT IN LIBERIA?

The final Ebola patient in Liberia is back home and Ebola-free.

Beatrice Yardolo, 58, spent 16 days in a Chinese Ebola treatment unit, but she returned home today, singing and dancing while her husband looked on and cried. He told ABC News he was so happy that it was overwhelming.

"Words are inadequate to even express how I feel," Steve Yardolo, 61, told ABC News, stopping at times to stare at his wife in awe. "If people could see the inner part of a mind, of an inner being, they would have seen the happiness in me."

The Yardolo family caught the deadly virus from their son, who had been working in another Ebola treatment clinic. Three of their children died in January and February, Yardolo told ABC News. In the days after her foster daughter died, she started to have Ebola symptoms and decided she needed to go to the Ebola treatment unit.

She said the doctors at the Chinese Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia saved her life.

"My walking from here to go to the [Ebola treatment unit] center, it wasn't easy," Yardolo told ABC News. "[My] children crying behind me, 'Don't go! don't go.' I said, ‘If I don't go, it will be bad again.'"

Since the outbreak began in March, the World Health Organization has reported 23,934 Ebola cases and 9792 Ebola deaths in the West African countries where the virus is prominent: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Liberia, WHO reported 9,249 cumulative cases and 4,117 deaths.

According to WHO, 384 new Ebola cases have been reported in the past 21 days, six of which were in Liberia. And one of them was Yardolo. And if there are no new cases for 42 days, twice the length of the virus's incubation period, Liberia can be declared Ebola-free.

Liberia has 19 Ebola treatment units, and none of them has any confirmed Ebola patients now, said Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia's assistant minister of public health. The country has gone 13 days so far without any new confirmed cases, he said.

"This is significant progress, and this is why we are celebrating, but Ebola is not out yet," Nyenswah said. "We are not out of the woods yet. We must continue all of the measures, and I said it is now up to the Liberian people to maintain the vigilance. And we sustain ourselves to zero and look at our borders to protect our people from the Ebola crisis."

Yardolo, who has four living children, left the ward surrounded by doctors, nurses and her family that isn't under quarantine. Holding bright-red flowers as she stood before a crowd of onlookers, she thanked God and the Chinese treatment unit.

"So this is what I have to say: Xiexie to the Chinese [Ebola treatment unit]!" she said to a round of applause and smiles.

She'd just said "thank you" in Mandarin.

Please pray that Beatrice is truly, The Last Ebola Patient!

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Doe, Carielle, and Sydney Lupkin. "Last Ebola Patient in Liberia Leaves Treatment Ward." ABC News. March 5, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2015. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-patient-liberia-leaves-treatment-ward/story?id=29413567.

RELIEF!

I am happy to know that relief has arrived in Liberia!  The relief is in the form of two forty-foot containers filled with approximately 286,000 individually packaged meals of fortified rice and nutrients. 

One of the side effects of this Ebola issue is hunger.  The country has been placed under Marshall Law by the government.  This action has curtailed most movement around the country by the citizens.  A lot of businesses have closed their doors to operation which means that people have lost jobs.  Markets have closed and that means that it is very difficult to obtain food.  The Ebola treatment centers have also faced shortages of food.

The elderly and young children are the most vulnerable.  These meals will make a tremendous difference in their lives.  Assemblies of God World Missions, Convoy of Hope, Christian Health and Alliance of Liberia and the Assemblies of God in Liberia have all partnered together to furnish these life-saving donations to the people of Liberia.

More containers of food, medical supplies, and medical equipment are on the way to Liberia today!

Where It All Began

Lofa county is the epicenter of the vicious Ebola virus that has killed thousands in Liberia.

According to a report from BBC News on January 23, 2015:  Researchers from the New England Journal of Medicine have traced the outbreak to a two-year-old toddler, who died in December 2013 in Meliandou, a small village in south-eastern Guinea. The Gueckedou prefecture in Guinea, where the outbreak started, is a major regional trading center, and by the end of March, Ebola had crossed the border into Liberia. It was confirmed in Sierra Leone in May. In June, MSF described the Ebola outbreak as out of control.

People have stayed away from Lofa County in fear of the Ebola virus. Only in the last couple of months have non-residents begun to travel once again to the Northeast corner of Liberia. Last weekend, January 24-25, 2015, the Executive Director of CHAL (Christian Health Association of Liberia), Mrs. Patricia Kamara, along with CHAL Board President, Mrs. Elizabeth Mulbah and CHAL Board member Mrs. Marion Subah traveled to Mbalotahun (Place of Hope) Leprosy Town Clinic in Lofa, County. The CHAL members were on a mission of mercy. The visit to the Leprosy Town Clinic gave them the opportunity to survey the situation first-hand. There are many Ebola survivors and family that live in this small village.

Kamara and the others were able to deliver 30 cartons of individually-packaged meals to the residents. 30 cartons equal 6,480 individual meals. These meals will furnish vitamins, nourishment and hope to a community that is in desperate need.

A few victims of leprosy and survivors of the deadly Ebola virus along with their children and a staff member of the Place of Hope Leprosy Town Clinic in Lofa, County, Liberia, receiving the CHAL donation. The boxes are part of the 6,480 meals donated by Assemblies of God World Missions USA, Convoy of Hope USA, and the Assemblies of God in Liberia.

CHAL Executive Director, Patricia Kamara, along with CHAL Board President, Elizabeth Mulbah, and Board Member Marion Subah stand with the Officer in Charge of the Place of Hope Leprosy Town Clinic. Those sitting are staff members of the clinic.

The clinic and the community were overjoyed to receive the donations from Assemblies of God World Missions, Convoy of Hope, CHAL and the Assemblies of God in Liberia.

The WHO says Guinea has reported its lowest weekly total of new confirmed Ebola cases since the week ending 17 August 2014. Liberia has also had its lowest weekly total since June. Sierra Leone has reported a fall in the number of cases for the second week running and recorded its lowest weekly total of new cases since August.

We thank God that there have been over one million meals donated by AGWM and Convoy of Hope. Within the next couple of weeks one million more meals will arrive in Liberia to be distributed to the needy and hungry. More food, medical supplies and medical equipment will be arriving in Liberia in about 40 days. Due to the generosity of many people, many people are receiving life-sustaining gifts!