As I sit before this computer to write this blog, my heart is racing. My adrenaline is up and I feel the extreme urgency to move our Surplus to Need project quickly to completion.
All morning I have been chatting with Medical Doctors in Kabala via whatsapp to find out their exact needs to prepare for Ebola and maintain health care in the district.
In Kabala, these sacrificial doctors are trying to brace for approaching Ebola and they have very very little to work with. I am calling on each and everyone of you to stand in the gap where there is no separation and do what you can to give these doctors the tools they so desperately need. In life there are those moments when we can make a huge difference in the lives of others and in order to do so we put away our petty prejudices, dissolve divisions and become one - this crisis is one of those moments. What a beautiful way to help each other and forget our differences by an outpouring of love.
Yesterday while reviewing the process for shipping at Supplies Over Seas in Louisville, Kentucky, I investigated the Protection Suits we plan to send.
I was nonchalantly fiddling with the hood and gloves, when Melissa Mershon of SOS showed me the boots that must be worn. The boot was heavy. As I held this heavy boot, I stopped fiddling with the equipment as my heart sunk and my eyes welled up with tears. I pictured the medical workers in the scorching heat and drenching humidity of Sierra Leone trying to save lives in this sauna suit of shiny plastic. I can't imagine.
Nazareth House Apostolate is preparing through Supplies Over Seas to ship up to 100 hospital beds,
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| The beds that are available for shipping once we raise the funding |
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| Lucy and Melissa Mershon of SOS with the mattresses for the beds to be shipped. |
Ebola specific treatment and preventative equipment and dress,
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| Melissa Mershon of SOS with Ebola Suit Hood |
and much needed health care supplies to the Kabala Government Hospital in Kabala, Sierra Leone.
The 300 students, their parents, our teachers and our staff living in our compound, namely James and Kadijah and family, are the responsibility of NHA. It is up to us to provide them with the protection and means to survive. The Government of Sierra Leone is doing all they can to combat this Ebola Outbreak but they need our help.
There are other groups waiting to raise the money like us in order to send these supplies to Liberia. The situation is, whoever raises the money first sends the available supplies faster. More supplies will come available, but I'm hoping to be in the first run before supplies run out. There is no competition, of course, the need is great everywhere. Sadly the fact of the matter is -- it is the funding that is holding back the surplus we have access to here in Kentucky and keeping it from meeting the need they have in Kabala. With Liberia in the news, shipments are arriving. There have been many shipments to Freetown and also Kailahun District in Sierra Leone. But Kabala is late in registering Ebola cases and nothing has been sent their way. We are the first responders, so to speak. We need $25,000 to send this shipment on and we are on very limited time.
We ask you to give and give generously. Lives are at stake. Your financial donation may be made to us through this link: http://www.nazarethhouseap.org/donations/ or directly to Supplies Over Seas at this link: http://www.suppliesoverseas.org/donate/money/ --make sure to indicate NHA EBOLA - Sierra Leone on your donation.
The enemy Ebola is an adversary to all humankind. It makes no distinctions of race, creed, sex, social status, Nationalities, or economies. To combat this enemy we must unite not divide ourselves. Stopping Ebola in its tracks in West Africa prevents the spread globally. This is an opportunity where the people rise to the occasion to make a difference ...and the difference is life and death.
It is our duty as humankind to help those in need. Your response to this plea gives way to a blessing.
Deuteronomy 15:10
Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
The much repeated verse: "God helps those who help themselves" is nowhere in the Bible. Besides, there is nothing available after the terrible war fueled by former Liberian President Charles Taylor for Sierra Leone to use to "help themselves". Instead the Bible says in 1John 3:17
New International Version
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
New Living Translation
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion--how can God's love be in that person?
English Standard Version
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
New American Standard Bible
But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
King James Bible
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
Thank you!