Last weekend Rebecca and I were at The Cove, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Retreat and Ministry Center. I spoke to the doctors and nurses involved in World Medical Mission, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse under the leadership of Franklin Graham. We were impressed with the hundreds of volunteers who, at their own expense, serve in clinics all over the world in the most primitive conditions. We felt as if we were in the presence of heroes, and indeed we were.
One of those present at the meetings was Dr. Kent Brantley, who contracted Ebola at the Clinic in Liberia but through a series of miracles recovered from the disease (space forbids going into detail about his ordeal). I asked him for details as to how he contracted the disease and how it is spread. He said that he prayed with and comforted a daughter whose mother was dying of Ebola, not knowing that the daughter had it as well. But he said it spreads more easily than the media would have us believe.
All that to say, we will almost certainly see more cases of Ebola, a disease whose victims die a horrible death. Let us pray for the safety of our health care workers, but also let us be reminded that while death is a terrible enemy, it does not have the last word. As C.S. Lewis reminded us, the statistics on death are impressive, but thankfully for those who trust Christ, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).
All for the King,
Pastor Lutzer