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A review by maigahannatu
Called for Life: How Loving Our Neighbor Led Us into the Heart of the Ebola Epidemic by Kent Brantly
4.0
As missionaries in West Africa, we were watching the Ebola story with great interest and, I must confess, a fair bit of fear. What if it spread to our country? What would we do? We were travelling during that time and I remember wondering what if I sat next to somebody who had it? Then I heard that one of the missionaries in our organization (Nancy Writebol and then later Rick Sacra) had contracted it. While Kent Brantley was with World Medical Mission (Samaritan's Purse), he worked at our mission hospital. So this story was very real to me.
Having experienced hospitals in impoverished settings, I can just see what is happening and the stressfulness of working with less than ideal conditions. Some of these hospitals are unpleasant under the best of circumstances and in a crisis of a contagious disease, I can imagine how horrible it would be to deal with such desperately ill patients all day long. While I am not medical, I have a pretty good idea of the stress doctors in Africa face under "normal" conditions because of the large number of patients who die.
I was encouraged by Kent Brantley's faith and his willingness to stay in the face of a horrible and difficult situation. He quotes a missionary I know personally: When things get tough, the tough go back to their calling." Remembering that it is God who has called us is sometimes the only thing that can keep us doing what He wants us to do.
I thought this was a well-told story and I love Dr. Brantley's honesty. Sometimes the transitions between when he was narrating and when his wife was narrating were a bit choppy, but I appreciated hearing how she faced the fear and anxiety of having her husband so sick.
Having experienced hospitals in impoverished settings, I can just see what is happening and the stressfulness of working with less than ideal conditions. Some of these hospitals are unpleasant under the best of circumstances and in a crisis of a contagious disease, I can imagine how horrible it would be to deal with such desperately ill patients all day long. While I am not medical, I have a pretty good idea of the stress doctors in Africa face under "normal" conditions because of the large number of patients who die.
I was encouraged by Kent Brantley's faith and his willingness to stay in the face of a horrible and difficult situation. He quotes a missionary I know personally: When things get tough, the tough go back to their calling." Remembering that it is God who has called us is sometimes the only thing that can keep us doing what He wants us to do.
I thought this was a well-told story and I love Dr. Brantley's honesty. Sometimes the transitions between when he was narrating and when his wife was narrating were a bit choppy, but I appreciated hearing how she faced the fear and anxiety of having her husband so sick.