We arrived in Liberia March 21. We began building relationships, we began our work. Ebola was in the country, and our school had to cancel its annual sports tournament, the Ricks Olympics, because students would be traveling from infected areas to compete. We read about Ebola on the U.S. Embassy and CDC websites. Like all the other dangers in Liberia, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, traffic, and poor health care, we educated ourselves and took the necessary precautions.

We were excited to come back home to attend the World Mission Conference in July. While we were in Wisconsin, Ebola began making world headlines. Liberia's president shut down the schools for August, and we decided that Rebecca and the girls would stay here until Ricks reopened, but I would still return to Liberia on August 24th.

Last Wednesday, a man working with another ministry in Liberia asked me to transport two suitcases full of CPUs, chlorine processing units. These would provide a virtually endless supply of chlorine to set up sanitation and decontamination stations. I began planning how and where I would set up these stations around Ricks to prevent Ebola from entering the communities on the Ricks campus.

Last Friday, the plug was pulled on my return.

Please pray for me. I am frustrated. I want to be where I can help. I want to be doing the work you and our partners have sent me to do. 

Please pray for our friends in Liberia, more likely to suffer now from the fallout of Ebola fear than Ebola itself. Four million Liberians are now experiencing doubled prices for basic commodities like rice and cooking oil. The routine illnesses Liberians coped with before the Ebola outbreak, like malaria, yellow fever and typhoid, are going untreated because clinics have closed. Clinics are closing because the health care workers fear Ebola. Perhaps worse of all, missionaries and humanitarian relief workers, people like me, have been told to leave and not return for now.

I just read that when ships arrived into the port at Venice from plague-stricken regions, they had to wait in the harbor 40 days before docking. The word quarantine is the Latin for this 40-day wait. I have been asked to wait almost that long to re-evaluate my departure to Liberia. A month from now, we will begin the discussion of going again.

What does a maintenance guy do for a month?

Read the news every day. Continue training myself on everything I think will help Liberia, from solar technology to canning. Pray. Continue speaking in churches. Pace the floor. Raise awareness about Liberia.

International Ministries has designated $20,000 from The One Great Hour of Sharing fund to Liberia. If you would like to send additional support, please click on http://internationalministries.org/drives/22.

Thank you for your prayers. To reply to this message, email stanton@internationalministries.org.