By: Norman Wetterau, MD - FMHF President
The fourth horseman of the Apocalypse rides in Congo. This is recognized in the New England Journal of Medicine but do our churches know this?
“And there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death…they were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague”.
- Revelation 6:7-8
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, August 22, 2018, Ebola or something similar will sweep our globe unless we can improve the medical infrastructure in Central Africa, and specifically in Congo. The civil war in Congo killed by sword and famine and unless we can assist this country medically, plague may sweep the earth.
Is support of our medical missions in Central Africa optional? Currently, our hospitals in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo are not budget items for Free Methodist Missions but do get support from groups like CAHO. Most churches put support of their own church programs and buildings above medical and development missions. In Congo, we have a 100-bed hospital and 20 clinics, which are the main health care for 200,000 people. The hospital runs on $100,000 USD a year, of which 25% comes from US donations. Health infrastructure and care are poor. There are national doctors and nurses. We have nursing schools in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo and a medical school in Burundi, but there is often no money to support the trained staff. Many recent graduates of Hope Africa Medical School are unemployed. The medical infrastructure and staffing are not enough for even basic medical care: treatment of malaria, TB, and c-sections, but this is far away and often of little concern. Many churches have never had a medical speaker from Africa or given an offering. This is too far away to be on our radar. There are needs right here. We are concerned about Ebola, but it is in Congo, not here.
Recently there was another outbreak of Ebola in Eastern Congo near some of our churches, but farther north than our hospital. This outbreak has been made worse by the lingering civil war in Congo. Some aid workers were attacked by rebels. The situation could become much worse in the coming months. The August 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine had an article that every American needs to read:
It talked about the current epidemic and the situations that cause such epidemics to arise and spread. Although in the past we have brought these mini-epidemics under control, the article says that the conditions are ripe for the development of new infections and new spread. At some point, it will become uncontrollable, and suddenly reach the populations of Europe and the US, where it will spread death to thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. If we ignore the situation there, we will have to deal with it here. The article had a possible solution, a solution on which we need to get our churches on board:
“In light of the increase in frequency of Ebola outbreaks in DRC and their relatively rapid detection, it seems that it would be well worth the relatively small cost of investing in diagnostic capacity and training to avert the cost of containing any large outbreak. We believe that a similar return on investment could be expected from financial and educational support for improving and expanding the clinical care infrastructure.”
Yes, this is something for WHO and the UN (which some Christians do not support), but also something we can help with. God had given us the opportunity to establish some of the first hospitals, many which still exist and are the mainstays of medical care for large populations. If we continue to just look at our own needs and not that of our neighbors, we may experience what is foretold in the NEJM and also in Revelation 6: death and pestilence.
Update: After writing this article, on November 28 the New England Journal of Medicine published a second article: Ramping Up the Response to Ebola by Jennifer B. Nuzzo PhD, and Thomas V. Inglesby, MD. It is not long and I would encourage you to read it. This article was referenced on the BBC news recently. This is Congo, where our hospitals are and where the Nobel Prize winner is. We have a hospital, over 20 clinics, and over 100,000 members, so we are a major player in that region. Also look up more about Dr. Denis Mukwege. Finally pray for the elections in Congo which will be held Dec 23.