Nigeria Free- Praise God!

Today Nigeria has been declared free of the Ebola virus. I believe it is a fitting time to share with you something I noticed a couple of weeks ago when Nigeria was unofficially declared Ebola-free.

Most of the Ebola cases in Nigeria were people in the city of Lagos who had contact with Mr. Sawyer, who collapsed at the airport shortly after his arrival in the country. However, one of the last Nigerians to die from Ebola was a doctor in another city who treated one of those who had been in contact with Mr. Sawyer.

On September 3rd Reuters released an article about this doctor. It said that he had seen some 60 patients and also a large number of family members during the period of time between when he was first potentially contagious and when he was hospitalized, and that when he was on his sickbed, "members of his church visited him in the hospital in the oil hub Port Harcourt and performed a healing ceremony 'said to involve the laying on of hands.'" The article went on to lament, "Given these multiple high-risk exposure opportunities, the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos."

My heart sank when I read that article. "Even the church is spreading this thing," I thought. I believe in praying for the  sick. But laying hands on an Ebola victim? That's presumptuous. That's leaping off the pinnacle of the temple and expecting the angels to catch you. I was frustrated, but I've read many frustrating things in recent months and I soon forgot about it. I forgot, until I read another article.

On Monday, September 22 Reuters carried an article titled "Ebola outbreak 'pretty much contained' in Senegal and Nigeria." In the article I discovered that several hundred people who had been in contact with this doctor had been put under surveillance, but not a single one of them had died. His wife and sister were the only ones to catch it from him and they both recovered. The terrible outbreak in Port Harcourt never happened. What's more, one month after that doctor died the entire country of Nigeria was unofficially declared free of ebola.

I don't know whether God really told that church to lay hands on an Ebola victim, or whether they acted foolishly and God extended grace. What I do know is that God moved in power, and I want to make sure that He gets the credit. Despite a large number of contacts that could have led to sickness and death, God halted the disease. If I understand correctly, this man was the last Ebola death in Nigeria*. The rest of the country was spared.

Praise God that Nigeria is Ebola-free, at least for them moment. Pray that it stays that way, and pray for the countries that are still fighting this beast.



*There may have been one other death after his. I read various online sources but couldn't figure it out for sure.