When Ebola Comes Close to Home

When I first heard the discussions about the outbreak of the Ebola virus the conversations centered around activities in West Africa. Soon the discussion shifted to the United States and to hospitals in Georgia, Nebraska and Texas. Then an airplane flight from Dallas to Cleveland and back brought Ebola much closer to home for me. I spent 24 years as a pastor in Cleveland, and my mind began to wonder if someone I knew in Cleveland might be drawn into this outbreak.

It did not take long for an answer to come. I was called by the secretary of the church I served in Cleveland to warn me that I was about to receive calls from CNN, MSNBC, and other cable news channels that wanted to talk to me about my former church administrator, who is now married to the mother of Amber Vinson, one of the nurses that contracted the Ebola virus while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in a hospital in Dallas, Texas.

Suddenly, Ebola was not a virus infecting and killing people on the other side of the world, but a virus that resulted in one of my closest and dearest friends being quarantined inside his home in the Cleveland area for 21 days. Every day since I heard this news I have called him and communicated with him through text messages. He is handling this with great calm and deep faith. So far, his stepdaughter is in stable condition at Emory University Medical Center.

With each passing day, I listen for news about the struggle to contain the Ebola virus both in Africa and in the United States. I hope and pray that no other families will see their loved ones infected, and that no other persons will find themselves in the lonely condition of being quarantined. The Ebola virus must be contained and defeated at its source in West Africa. If not, others in this country and around the world will get a phone call from CNN or MSNBC asking about the condition of one of their best friends