Liberia’s Cuttington University, diocese at epicenter of Ebola crisis

Impacted communities find lifeline in church response

[Episcopal News Service] Liberia’s Cuttington University, located near one of the epicenters of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, is reaching out to its surrounding communities while worrying about the epidemic’s impact on the now-closed school’s future, and mourning the loss of graduates and friends.

Meanwhile, throughout Liberia and Sierra Leone, Episcopal Relief & Development is in regular contact with local church partners who “are leveraging their widespread presence and trusted reputation to alleviate suffering and contain the Ebola outbreak” that has killed at least 1,427 people in West Africa since March 2014, according to an Aug. 27 press release.

Partners in both countries are mobilizing local volunteers to promote accurate information about Ebola and distribute hygiene and sanitation supplies, while the Episcopal Church of Liberia is supplying food parcels for households in quarantined communities and providing basic protective equipment for health workers at local hospitals, Episcopal Relief & Development reported.

Abiy Seifu, senior program officer for Episcopal Relief & Development, described the situation as “extremely dire,” due both to the severity of the disease and the difficulty in containing it. “People want to care for sick family members at home, they are afraid to go to the clinics because so many are dying and there is a great deal of misinformation about how Ebola is spread. Fear about the disease is making the outbreak worse, and we are aiming to combat this fear with accurate information and support for basic needs.”

A staff member in Episcopal Relief & Development’s Africa Regional Office in Ghana models the facemasks, gloves, gowns and other protective supplies shipped to Liberia and given to three area hospitals – Phebe Hospital, Redemption Hospital and C.H. Rennie Hospital. Photo: Courtesy of the Episcopal Relief & Development

Development staff members of the Episcopal Church of Liberia are working with government health leaders in Bong County to distribute food items such as rice, cooking oil and canned meat in four quarantined rural communities, the agency reported.

Cuttington University’s main campus in the interior of the central region of Liberia is about six miles from Gbarnga, the capital of Bong County. Cuttington, founded in 1889 in Liberia by the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, has two other campuses, one in the country’s capital, Monrovia, and another nearly 45 miles south of Monrovia.

The university is home to the largest nursing school in the country and, because it offers the country’s only bachelor’s degree in nursing, many of its graduates work in critical care situations. Many aspiring doctors take the university’s bachelor’s in biology to use to make the pre-requisite of the country’s only medical school, A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine and Cuttington grads make up the largest portion of Dogliotti students.

“This link between Cuttington and the medical community is real and is causing us great anguish,” Cuttington President Henrique Tokpa wrote in an Aug. 25 letter. “We know the people involved in this epidemic and we sympathize with their families.”

The first medical worker in Liberia to die from Ebola was a 2012 graduate of Cuttington’s nursing school, Tokpa wrote in the letter to the Rev. Ranjit Matthews, the Episcopal Church’s network officer for global relations and networking. The nurse, whom Tokpa referred to as Mr. Daah, was working in the hospital in Foyah in northern Liberia.
A practicing medical doctor at the Phebe Hospital – a Lutheran hospital located near Cuttington’s main campus and the nation’s largest public health institution – who also teaches part-time in the College of Allied Health Sciences at Cuttington unknowingly contracted the Ebola virus and at the same time interacted with the Cuttington University’s nursing students, the president said.

“Along these lines, Cuttington University remains exposed to this deadly epidemic, Ebola, and its attendant effects,” Tokpa wrote.

The president gave five examples of students, alumni and staff who have died, including “Kwee,” a former employee who died along with his wife and son.
Henry Callendee, dean of Cuttington’s School of Education, has lost at least 12 of his family members who live in a now-quarantined town in Lofa County, according to Tokpa.

At first, not much attention was paid to the outbreak when it was in neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone “because we did not anticipate the violent nature of the Ebola virus,” Tokpa wrote in the letter.

But by mid-July, with the university’s “vacation school” still operating, Tokpa said “we immediately began to sense that the situation was spiraling out of control so we took some immediate measures,” including placing around campus buckets of chlorinated water with spouts to encourage hand washing.

The staff invited doctors and the head of a Bong County Ebola task force to campus gatherings to educate students, faculty, staff, and community members about the virus and how to protect themselves. Officials “began to strategize about school closure” and worked out ways to send students home with ways for them to finish the work of the term, Tokpa said.

J. Kota Kesselly, dean of the Cuttington’s School of Allied Health Sciences, has joined the Bong County task force, which meets daily.

And the university has donated more than 150 gallons of gas to help run vehicles for people assigned to bury the dead and respond to calls for aid from “live victims,” Tokpa wrote. Vegetables from the school’s garden have been donated as well as buckets for use as hand-washing stations in communities that cannot afford to buy their own.

As school officials were planning how to shut down the vacation term, the Liberian government ordered all schools to close as part of an effort to stem the spread of Ebola. Cuttington had hoped to reopen in September or October, Tokpa said.

The university is dependent on the tuition charged to students to pay its employees. Those employees have not been paid for June, July and August, and face the prospect of not being paid in the near future, the president said in another document he sent to Mathews.
Plus the university will have to disinfect all of its buildings, according to Tokpa. With 3,000 students expected eventually to return, the university must remain on alert when the epidemic subsides and schools can re-open, he added.

Cuttington’s partners at Rutgers University in New Jersey are supplying some basic support to the university and Phebe Hospital in Bong County, he said.

“We have to remember that these communities in West Africa now struggling with Ebola have only emerged in recent years from more than a decade of civil strife,” the Rev. Canon James G. Callaway, general secretary of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion and treasurer of the American Friends of Cuttington, told ENS. “This is the second time that Cuttington University has reorganized itself to address its community’s needs. As the Liberian civil war was just ending Cuttington opened its campus to retraining former combatants for new livelihoods as they are now marshaling resources to overcome Ebola.  As educators they are showing that leadership starts with service.”

As of Aug. 22 the United Nations’ World Health Organization said there have been 2,615 suspect and confirmed Ebola cases, including 1,528 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 1,427 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. WHO claims that the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak may have been underestimated, due in part to families hiding infected loved ones in their homes.

The Ebola outbreak is unprecedented in many ways, according to the World Health Organization, including the number of health care workers who have died. More than 240 health care workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died, the organization said on Aug. 25.

“Ebola has taken the lives of prominent doctors in Sierra Leone and Liberia, depriving these countries not only of experienced and dedicated medical care but also of inspiring national heroes,” the WHO statement said.

The organization said many of the deaths occurred among workers who initially did not know that the person they were treating was infected with Ebola, in part because many health workers, especially in urban areas, have never seen the disease and its early symptoms are similar to other infectious diseases endemic in the region, like malaria, typhoid fever and Lassa fever.

Factors contributing to the high number of deaths also include shortages of personal protective equipment or its improper use, far too few medical staff for such a large outbreak, and “the compassion that causes medical staff to work in isolation wards far beyond the number of hours recommended as safe,” the organization said.

“Some documented infections have occurred when unprotected doctors rushed to aid a waiting patient who was visibly very ill,” the WHO statement said. “This is the first instinct of most doctors and nurses: aid the ailing.”

“We have to remember that these communities in West Africa now struggling with Ebola have only emerged in recent years from more than a decade of civil strife,” the Rev. Canon James G. Callaway, general secretary of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion and treasurer of the American Friends of Cuttington, told ENS. “This is the second time that Cuttington University has reorganized itself to address its community’s needs. As the Liberian civil war was just ending Cuttington opened its campus to retraining former combatants for new livelihoods as they are now marshaling resources to overcome Ebola.  As educators they are showing that leadership starts with service.”

As of Aug. 22 the United Nations’ World Health Organization said there have been 2,615 suspect and confirmed Ebola cases, including 1,528 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 1,427 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. WHO claims that the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak may have been underestimated, due in part to families hiding infected loved ones in their homes.

The Ebola outbreak is unprecedented in many ways, according to the World Health Organization, including the number of health care workers who have died. More than 240 health care workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died, the organization said on Aug. 25.

“Ebola has taken the lives of prominent doctors in Sierra Leone and Liberia, depriving these countries not only of experienced and dedicated medical care but also of inspiring national heroes,” the WHO statement said.

The organization said many of the deaths occurred among workers who initially did not know that the person they were treating was infected with Ebola, in part because many health workers, especially in urban areas, have never seen the disease and its early symptoms are similar to other infectious diseases endemic in the region, like malaria, typhoid fever and Lassa fever.

Factors contributing to the high number of deaths also include shortages of personal protective equipment or its improper use, far too few medical staff for such a large outbreak, and “the compassion that causes medical staff to work in isolation wards far beyond the number of hours recommended as safe,” the organization said.

“Some documented infections have occurred when unprotected doctors rushed to aid a waiting patient who was visibly very ill,” the WHO statement said. “This is the first instinct of most doctors and nurses: aid the ailing.”

WHO reported on Aug. 27 that Ebola had broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak in Equateur Province has been traced to a pregnant woman from Ikanamongo Village who butchered a bush animal that had been killed and given to her by her husband. Eating bush meet is seen as a major way the virus moves from animals to humans.
In Sierra Leone, the Anglican Diocese of Bo is actively participating in the government District Health and Development Team’s planning and implementation process for Ebola control, specifically on detection and case management, Episcopal Relief & Development reported.

“Some of the biggest challenges in stopping Ebola come from hiding sick people and treating them at home rather than seeking isolation and medical assistance, patients escaping quarantine and burial practices that do not contain the disease,” said Episcopal Relief & Development’s Seifu. Culturally appropriate messaging and case management are essential in encouraging communities to adopt behaviors that will effectively combat Ebola,”
The agency reported that it is currently in conversation with both the Episcopal Church of Liberia and the Anglican Diocese of Bo in Sierra Leone regarding expansion of activities to reach remote communities and longer-term engagement to address the growing food crisis.

“Restrictions on transportation and commerce due to quarantine are already causing shortages, but there may be a longer-term impact on livelihoods and food supply due to lack of market access and missed planting seasons,” according to the agency’s Aug. 27 press release. “In addition, families whose main breadwinner has fallen ill or died are particularly vulnerable.”

Seifu said that one of the key strengths of church partners is that “they can access areas that might be difficult for other organizations or even the government to reach. I am very glad that the local government agencies have recognized this strength and that they can pool resources and expertise to implement a unified strategy. This partnership is important now and will continue to be as the region recovers from this disaster.”
 

Crumbs of the Kingdom...

Proper 15 a – August 17, 2014

 

(Source: Sarah Meyer Walsh - The District Domestic)

Today, we find Jesus on the road once again, teaching and healing, placing signs along the road, and ever more becoming Himself THE sign of God’s grace, love, and mercy.

If you look up the general timing of the stories, you soon will realize that Jesus is beginning to speed up his pace and becomes more intent in his mission. He is probably in his last preaching tour, well north of the Sea of Galilee, almost bordering modern Lebanon. So he is a long way from Jerusalem, and he is ready to begin rounding up his mission of salvation.

As you know, as he went along teaching he used a lot of imagery to describe what He was about and describing the Good News of the Gospel in very creative ways.

He told the multitudes that the Kingdom of Heaven he was announcing was like a pearl of great price or like a hidden treasure. He describe the world that God was intent in bringing about as a good seed that grows and brings fruit to the land, as the mustard seed small enough to be ignored but with an reviving flavor and huge growth potential, and even as a gathering net, or table salt. Of course, as we know, elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus speaks of the kingdom in terms of light, fire, and living water.

Now, however, in this unique occasion it is not Jesus who is offering an image and encouraging his followers to think on the implications of his words. This time it was not one of the disciples coming with a brilliant idea but an Outsider, with big capital “O.” Not a Jew but a Phoenician – a Gentile! – And a woman!

Professor LeMarquand, from Trinity Seminary remarks that “Matthew’s use of the term “Canaanite” to describe the woman highlights the nature of this woman and her daughter as the worst of outsiders. Canaanites were the classic enemies of Israel. The Canaanite woman is not merely a gentile, therefore, but a representation of those peoples who are God’s, as well as Israel’s, enemies.”[1] And yet, in her worry, she still is ready to approach a Jewish preacher.

The story you know. The woman calls on Jesus to do something for her child when everything else has already failed. She is in dire straits. Her daughter is sick, and as mothers all over the world do, she would not leave stone unturned to find healing for her beloved child. Somehow, she hears about Jesus which, obviously, she recognized as someone in authority. Leaving everything back home, even her sick child, she walks down from her village and begins to plead her case. And, does she plead!

She continues to insist until eventually – like the woman pleading her case before the judge – she is such a nuisance, that the disciples had no other choice to alert their Master.

It may not be surprising to note that the Jewish disciples were not in any mood to deal with people other than their own folk. So, as they could not get rid of her, they approach Jesus asking him to deal with her.

Jesus, at first, perhaps feeling tired of people asking for food and healing but not really interested in what really mattered, dismisses her. Even if Christ’s words seem unkind, I have to say that I understand his attitude. I know a man that from time to time shows up during the week to ask money to repair his car. Over the nine months or so that I have been here, he has asked me enough money to buy parts enough to build several new cars! And never once has he inquired about what time is Church!

But the woman, in her desperation, presses on. She would not give up! I believe that Jesus was ready to send her away when – unexpectedly – Jesus finds himself rather than being the Teacher, being the student.

You see, says the woman, even puppies eat the crumbs at their masters table. I really wish that in heaven they have a huge replay machine that could show our Lord’s face at hearing what the woman had to say. But, anyway, our Savior words say it all. “Yeah! You’ve got it. Crumbs!” And then, turning around He says, “That’s Faith! That’s the kind of faith to build up the kingdom of mercy, love, and grace that I am all about!” And, after complimenting her for her insight, sends her back home to find her child restored to health.

The Kingdom of God is like pearls? Yes… Hidden treasure?  Yes… Mustard seed… Hmmm… if you say so. But, holy Carmichael, crumbs?

What is it in a crumb that makes it a sign of the Gospel? Have you ever thought that coming? It is clear that even Jesus had not, and yet he says… “Wow, yeah! She’s right!” Let’s take a minute to consider a crumb.

1.       A crumb points to ultimate surrender. A crumb is a product of something larger. One does not make bread out of crumbs, rather the other way around. Crumbs are the byproduct of taking and breaking. Breaking. In the crumbs Jesus perhaps saw the bread of life broken for the sake of the world, or the breaking of his own body for our salvation, we do not know. However, we do know that a crumb points to a whole that has been broken, to a point of no return, to ultimate surrender at Calvary’s Cross. Let me suggest that at the heart of the Gospel there is a place where we should be ready to be broken. Even if it is paradoxical, wholeness can only be found in brokenness. We are healed whenever we are taken, broken, and shared in love. How do we know when we arrive to such a place?  How does a piece of bread knows when no longer is a morsel but a crumb? Perhaps the sign of the crumb points us to the place where the Gospel is no longer something that we believe in or we do at certain times, but when we realize that “regular” life becomes the “add on” to our true life in the Spirit. When truly we are ready to say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

2.      A crumbs points to the power of small. Deacon Liz already explained to you the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and how the Gospel has in itself all that it takes to grow well beyond a humble beginning and how a shrub that people yanked away from their gardens, in the eyes of God is a sign of sheltering grace. A crumb, in its smallness points to the opposite of “super-sizing” something to make it really worthy and of value. The tiniest crumb of a consecrated host holds the fullest of the plenitude of Christ. A glass of water is a sign of the kingdom. Getting out of our way to help those who have been robbed of their hopes, their futures by greed and corruption has its reward in the Kingdom. “How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!  That’s where God commands blessings, and ordains eternal life” (Psalm 133:1, 3). Unity doesn’t require zillions. It only requires two individuals willing to be at peace. Twenty or thirty people gathered around God’s table is a sure sign of the Kingdom. Should we work to spread the Gospel and fill up this Church with God’s children? Yes! But our motivation never should be grounded in our smallness but in that where “two or three are gathered together, lo I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), in our willingness to share even the little crumbs of grace that overflow the Master’s Holy Table.

3.      A crumb points beyond itself. Have you ever tasted a crumb of a brownie? What do you want? To eat the whole cake! Jesus reminds us that He is the bread of life. And that he who comes to Him will never go hungry (cf. John 6:35). Both as individuals and as a Church sometimes we face the temptation to be all things to everyone all the time. Again, recalling the power of small, it should do well for us to remember if that we can only offer a tiny glimpse of heaven, if we can manage to offer even for one hour or so every week a tiny morsel of the kingdom of God. And if it is the real thing, not fake religion, it will motivate people to come and to ask for more. There are some beautiful hymns describing the Church as Jerusalem, and that’s fine. However, it should do well to us remembering that, perhaps, a better description of the Church is Bethlehem, “The House of Bread” where our Savior came to be born, but where the Bread of Life now makes his home. Bread to be broken to be shared. That’s is what the Church and, we as individuals are asked to be. A tiny spec that points to a larger reality, the Bread of Heaven.

Finally, let us remember that as the bread that we eat once was grain scattered on the hills, even the tiniest of crumbs point to the gathering power of the Gospel. Whenever we raise the Holy Bread we will be raising the hope of our final and complete unity in the love of Christ, and in the final and very real victory of life over death, love over hatred, reconciliation over estrangement.

Crumbs of the Kingdom – A hymn, a song, a smile, or a nod in understanding. A tear, a sigh, a hush, or a hand stretched out in prayer. Water, Bread, Wine, and a Cross uplifted, all point to heavenly grace, mercy and love. Crumbs of the Kingdom for the healing of the world. Let us pray that in the hands of the Master we too may be broken and given for the sake of others and to the glory of God.

Fr Gustavo

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[1] The Canaanite Conquest of Jesus (Mt 15:21-28), by Grant LeMarquand

Signs along the way

Over the years I had the privilege to travel quite a bit around the world. Suffice it to say that so far I have flown almost two hundred thousand miles, and thousands of miles on cars, bus, trains, buggies, and even on horseback!

As you may gather, travel is always an educational experience. One learns about people, languages, and cultures. And, of course, once you get out of the airport or train station, you begin to learn about driving and drivers, and their attitude toward the many signs that are posted along the way.

As you drive on or as one is driven about - or if one has taken a driving test - one becomes aware of signs. Yield; Stop; Do not turn; Wrong Way; Right turn only, and so forth. Signs are there to guide our way.

But other than the power of persuasion, the fear of a ticket, good citizenship, or a sense of the common good, on their own, signs do not have power to change our behavior. A sign may say “STOP,” and we may chose not to stop, and in doing so, risking the consequences. There are many good reasons why we should obey the signs. Indeed, life would be a lot better all over the world if we all decided to follow road signs. But still, it is up to us what we do with the signs we find all around us.

The Gospel today is about one of the many signs that Jesus posted on his journey, and what we would make out of such sign. We shouldn’t be surprised about posted signs, for Jesus was not only an itinerant teacher but also, He was described as being “The Way.” Some of the signs that Jesus posted were clearly described as such, but in general, I think I am on solid ground if I were to say that most of what Jesus did was a sign pointing way beyond the obvious.

Today’s Gospel offers us a chance to look at one of those signs. The Master is in one of his teaching and healing journeys and, eventually, as the day is getting late the issue of feeding the crowd is raised. Jesus asks the disciples to take care of the issue which, needless to say, they thought they were not able to address.

So Jesus ask them to check what they had and in the end, they produce some loaves of bread and some fish. Jesus blesses the bread, breaks it and order his disciples to share it with the crowd. Eventually, it seems that they all had their fill.

But the story does not end right there. In the Gospel of John we get a glimpse of the aftermath. In John, we are told that the next day, after Jesus had left town, multitudes went after him and, when asked, they answer, “Yes, we saw the sign. You multiplied the bread and the fish. That’s why we are here. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here.”

“Yeah, you saw the sign,” Jesus says. “But you are here looking for food, and thus, you are missing the point!” See, He tells them, I am here to give you more than bread that fills the body… I am here to give you something even more precious, the Bread of Heaven! “You missed the sign!” Sign? What sign?

Well, in fact it was not that they missed the sign altogether. They noticed it. However they’ve got stuck on the sign itself, and not the true meaning of the sign. They read the signs only at one level. Water. Wine. Food. Bread. Dried fish. And once they were satisfied, they never stop to wonder if behind these powerful actions God had in mind something more substantial than water, bread or a sardine.

Now, granted, sometimes it was not easy to discern the sign. Sometimes even his family or his closest friends didn’t get it. Even after two thousand years of Church, we still don’t get it. Some people thing about God as someone who is ready to rain down on the innocent plagues, death, and destruction and yet forget the sign of the Cross – God does not want the death of the sinner but that the sinner repents and live.

In fact, divine signs never point to the obvious – the issue of the day or the human need of the moment – but point to our souls challenging us to deal with the fact that we are just a little bit more than DNA dressed up as a human being. Divine signs point to a far deeper need than the most basic human needs. Divine signs challenge us to look beyond our more basic human needs and ponder, “Is there anything else beyond DNA and complex chemistry?”

 Divine signs invite us to explore beyond the limits of our bodies, and even beyond our own souls in search of He who created us, and redeemed us in Jesus, the Holy One who said “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Divine signs invite us to consider the hidden abundance that it is in us and in our midst. Jacob’s life, really not something to write home is transformed into Israel. It is a sign. The Transfiguration, which we will celebrate next Thursday, is another sign. The story of the people of Israel, as recalled by St Paul, all point to the fact that that there are no limits to what we can offer God.

Jacob, the schemer and spin doctor, wrestles with the angel. Shockingly, he is willing to put his life on the line, and if you look to his life you may wonder, “How he dared?” In doing so he points out that for God, no one should consider his or her life a bid to low to place on the table.

As St Paul’s writes in our second lesson, the people of Israel, cantankerous and rebellious as they were and continue to be were the channel through which God brought Jesus Christ’s grace, love and mercy to the world (cf. Romans 9:4-5).

Jesus, the Holy One, He who blots away the sin of the world with his own blood, is transfigured. Even in Jesus, the one beyond reproach, still there was room for something else. Be it little or be it much, whatever we offer God, our Lord will find a way to kick it up a notch.

In a few minutes I will take a piece of bread and I will say to you, “This is the Body of Christ.” And I will raise the cup and I will say, “This is the Blood of Christ.” It is a Sacrament, that is to say, it is a sign – a marker – pointing well beyond our human limitations.

Yet, as in the gospel story, people sometimes get bog down on the nature of the sign. Since the early church there have been theologians and plain folks arguing about the bread and wine. Regular bread or unleavened bread? Wine, or should it be grape juice? Are they still bread and wine? What has changed in them? How do we receive the bread and wine? Or only bread? Do we need to fast to receive them? Do we need to revere them or worship them? Can anyone say the words of institution or has to be a priest? Why not a deacon or a lay person? A male but not a female?

Stop for a moment thinking about the sign, and think -- What the sign says? Where is the sign pointing to?

St Augustine famously wrote, “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you.” Let me suggest that the sign of the Bread and Wine, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ points both to the deeply felt uneasiness in our souls and to the One that can bring solace and peace to our hearts.

The sign of the Bread and Wine, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ points to the richness and abundance that it is in us who plant, harvest, mill, and prepare the bread which we have offered to be transformed into the Bread of Life.

Whatever you are going through, whatever your state of life is, whatever your experiences, pains, doubts and even disappointments, all are acceptable to God. Never mind if you feel you are not up to par. The Bread and Wine, the Body and Blood of Christ are signs pointing to the power of God to transform, heal, feed, and bring new life, grace, and peace out of a dirty grain of wheat.

Watch up for one of the most important signs you may find in your journey. It reads, “It is never up to God. It is always up to you.”