When We Faced Ebola

1995.  It's been 19 years since we faced Ebola.  Last month I was in Congo again, holding a reunion of our trainers in the very place where it all happened.

We were living in Congo in a remote outpost called Mission Garizim (Hill of Blessing).  Our only communication with the outside was by radio.  However, something had gone wrong with the radio and we could hear others talking, but could not call out.  John was taking David Bryant back to Kinshasa after visiting the mission.  (David later became vice chair & then chair of the ECM Board.)
The men were traveling in the big 10 ton army truck to Kikwit.  They stayed there a couple days before catching an airplane to Kinshasa.  Our mechanic Mukwa went on to Kinshasa with the truck to get much-needed supplies.

While in Kikwit, John & David noticed that people, usually very friendly, were avoiding shaking hands.  Instead, everyone was greeting one another with an uplifted hand.  They began to call it "the Kikwit handshake."  In church, a doctor gave an announcement that people should be aware of an outbreak of "bloody diarrhea" and should wash their hands a lot and avoid bodily contact with others.  She said they were fighting something and they did not know what it was.

The men arrived in Kinshasa on Tuesday.  The next day the government quarantined the entire Bandundu Province where I was located.  The CDC was called in, and we later learned it was Ebola, and Kikwit was the epicenter.  John & David had been sleeping in a guest house only about 200 yards from the hospital where eventually over 300 people died!

Back at Mission Garizim, even before the quarantine, I knew something was up, because there was a lot of strange, "coded" shatter on the radio.  Missionaries were being told that "they might want to arrange to leave."  When they questioned why, no definite reason was given, but there was an uneasiness about the conversation that made me know something serious was up.

In Kinshasa, John was trying to pull strings to get me out so the family could be together, but no permissions were being given & no exceptions made.  I later learned that the only flights were for health workers, and the pilot had to take his temperature every hour.

Meanwhile, I was not sure how long it would be before John would be able to come back with the supplies for the mission, and we were already low, so I instituted rations for the students under our care and for ourselves--me and our adopted daughter Kristi.

John was in Kinshasa about three weeks.  Mukwa also made it to Kinshasa, but the border was closed behind him.  When I heard the whole story, I was thankful that he was not in one of the many trucks stranded at the provincial border, unable to enter the city after making a long & difficult trip to get there. 

When I later learned the seriousness of the disease and saw video of workers in hazmat suits bulldozing bodies into a mass, plastic-lined grave, I knew God had been with our family in a special way.  I pray for all those struggling for their lives both here and in Africa, and for their families.  I pray God will give special wisdom to all who are struggling to contain this killer.