Ebola update

Almost a month ago, Uganda announced that a 24year old man was diagnosed with Ebola and had passed away. There were apparently 20 previous deaths in his area that have since been declared “suspected cases” since it was too late to test to confirm. Now Uganda has had 58 confirmed cases and 21 confirmed deaths. This past weekend, the president of Uganda announced a lock down for the two primary affected districts. Since this outbreak is several hours drive west of us, we have not been impacted much where we are. There have been two cases in Kampala, but they were a couple from the affected regions. We pray that others in the Kampala area were not infected. 

While we are currently not concerned about the outbreak in terms of our personal health, the levels of stress and anxiety are high as we sort through the “what ifs” for both our family and our school. Since we live on a large compound at Good Shepherd’s Fold and are able to isolate with our team here if need be, we do not have any plans to leave Uganda. Below I have included a map from the CDC to help you see the location of the outbreak in Uganda in relation to our location (the yellow dot). 

After more than two years of life being impacted by COVID, we were hoping for a more “normal” school year. Thankfully, our school schedule has not yet been impacted. It is our hope and prayer that this outbreak will end soon and not spread any further. In the midst of the challenges, God continues to teach me to depend on him. I have been trying to read large sections of Scripture to saturate my mind with truth in the midst of my struggles with anxiety. While reading through Romans, I was reminded of the value of suffering, even though it is my tendency to want to avoid it as much as possible. 

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”‭(Romans‬ ‭5:1-5‬)

I am reminded that God has loved me enough to bring me peace through his great sacrifice. And I pray that He will enable me to rejoice in the midst of challenging and uncertain times knowing that he is growing me in endurance, character and hope. Please pray with us both for an end to this Ebola outbreak and that God would grow us in the midst of it.