Recently, I had the chance
to watch the gripping documentary, “Facing Darkness” about the 2014 Ebola
outbreak that ravaged the African nation of Liberia (Click here for the trailer). The movie told the
life-and-death survivor struggle of Dr. Kent Brantley, who was serving in
Liberia with Samaritan’s Purse as a medical missionary during the epidemic. Dr.
Brantley became the first American diagnosed with Ebola in late July 2014.
The 104.9-degree fever
caused him to lapse into delirium and nausea. He could not keep down any fluids
or food and the uncontrollable diarrhea further weakened his condition. The
body aches were nearly unbearable. Because of the isolation that Ebola patients
experience as they are quarantined, Brantley said, “Ebola is a humiliating
disease that strips you of all your dignity.”[i]
Brantley moved closer to
death, when finally, someone suggested that they try giving the doctor a plasma
transfusion from an Ebola survivor. In the days before his infection, Brantley
had been treating a 14-year-old boy with Ebola, who baffled the doctors and
miraculously survived the virus. One of the doctors had the foresight to take a
unit of the African boy’s blood with them back to the States.[ii]
Doctors in Liberia were able to stabilize Brantley long enough for him to be
transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA via specialized air
ambulance.
Amazingly, the plasma donation
worked for Dr. Brantley and many have thought it was no accident that the boy
who donated the blood was type AB—the universal donor for plasma. Brantley made
a full recovery and was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of
health on Aug. 21, 2014. Since his recovery Brantley, donated the plasma in his
blood to three more patients in America who contracted the virus. All three
survived.[iii]
Towards the end of the
film Brantley said something that gave me chills, “People often ask me did your
faith save you? I tell them ‘No,’ because faith doesn’t make you safe. My faith
was the reason I was in Africa. It was my faith that put me on the front lines.
It was faith that put me in the Ebola Treatment Unit.”
I think Dr. Brantley is absolutely
right. It’s our faith that takes us to the front lines, and into the storms.
It’s our faith that takes us to places where must rely only on God to get us
through. Following Christ is not safe, just look at the people of the Bible.
Noah followed God and got caught in a Flood. Abraham followed God and nearly
sacrificed his son. Joseph followed God and ended up being thrown into a pit
and left for dead. Daniel was nearly eaten in a den of lions. Each of the Apostles
gave their lives as martyrs precisely because of their faith.
At the end of Hebrews 11,
the great Hall of Faith, we read this, “35 Some were tortured, refusing to
accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others
suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were
stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about
in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the
world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and
caves of the earth.”
Follow Jesus and you may
risk your life. Don’t follow Jesus and you will waste your life (Mark 8:36). The
cost of following Christ by faith is great. The cost of not following Christ is
greater. Faith does not make things easier necessarily, but it does make all
things possible. -DM
[i]
Dr. Kent Brantly, “This Is What It Feels Like to Survive Ebola,” Time, 5 September 2014 <http://time.com/
3270016/ebola-survivor-kent-brantly/>
[ii]
Sydney Lupkin, “Why Blood Transfusions From Ebola Survivor Dr. Kent Brantley
Could Help Patients,” ABC News 14
October 2014 <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/blood-transfusions-ebola-survivor-dr-kent-brantly-patients/story?id=26182136>
[iii]
“A Miraculous Day,” Samaritan’s Purse, 21
August 2014 <http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/samaritans-purse-doctor-recovered-from-ebola/>
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