Mogama's Ebola-Infected Liberia

Disturbing dreams about guns and killings arise in REFUGEE WAS MY NAME by Mogama, his story of late 20th century civil war in Liberia. He escaped the war and became a refugee, then earned a graduate degree in the U.S., got married, and began a new life. He could not envision the deadly Ebola outbreak this year in his native land.

Mogama once told a roommate in refugee camp about a significant dream for which he foresaw "...a woman who, due to her maturity, becomes the actual leader of Liberia." Almost 20 years later, in 2011, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Liberian peace activist and Liberia's first woman president, part of the prediction in Mogama's book. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first woman elected president of any country in Africa.  Mogama also predicted in his book that peace would come only "in the distance."

Liberia made its slow climb out of the pit of civil war and up to a new presidential election from the news until...Ebola. Today, Ebola quarantines continue in Liberia, and in Liberia's capital of Monrovia, West Point neighborhood, thieves broke into a clinic treating Ebola patients. They stole linens and equipment, infecting the halls and rooms with such fear that some Ebola or supected-Ebola patients fled. It is thought that they, in turn, might pass the the disease to anyone close to them. Ebola is believed to spread by direct contact.

On Mission Liberia updates, Mogama has reported that Dr. Oluwole Olusola, whom many call Dr. Wole, "is a medical doctor, surgeon and psychiatrist who has worked in the medical field for decades...currently lives in Maryland, where he works as the Medical Director at Brentwood Meadows Hospital. 

"Presently Dr. Wole is writing a book on natural health and healing, because he is determined to bring God's natural health and cures to people." 

Natural Ebola treatment ideas follow in this report by Mogama. 
 

Refugee Was My Name by Mogama. Published by Opine Publishing.

Wisdom for Ferguson, Missouri, in Light of Tragedy

Desire without knowledge is not good—
   how much more will hasty feet miss the way! 
 ~Proverbs 19:2

Commentary


Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, touch everyone listening to news about the day that one policeman attempted to stop a young man in the street. Resistance followed, then physical engagement, and finally a tragic end. A young man died.

Blessed is any young man with loving parents, and that appears to be the case in this instance, for the one who died. 

It may also be the case for the young policeman who shot him six times. It may be the case for many protesters who took to the streets fearing, it appears, that justice would not be done unless follow-up action occurred, unless they spoke out. It may be the case for some who took advantage of the ensuing confusion and looted innocent citizens' shops. It may be the case for law enforcement personnel and elected officials, as well as local clergy.  

I remember a loving mother I met at a conference once. She asked me to pray for her son. I agreed, and asked a few questions for some details. Her goal was that her son be released from prison, where he was serving time for DUI, driving under the influence. In his case, alcohol was the snake coiled around his neck. 

The more I learned told me that this young man had had other DUI arrests, with lighter punishments. I told the mother I would definitely pray for her son, but I would not pray for him to be released early from his DUI sentence. 

"Maybe prison this time will help wake him up to what he is doing and how dangerous it is," I said. "It is very possible that he could kill someone by driving drunk, and then he would face murder charges." 

The mother did not argue. I thought that she was wise to reflect how easily her son's reckless behavior could take a life, could kill one or more irreplaceable loved ones of other families.     

Wisdom, I believe, is needed by every person that is part of what is happening in Ferguson in these days, from policing officials to elected officials, to appointed officials, to citizens and outsiders.

I feel the range of emotions one can have upon hearing another news story of continuing distrust of such magnitude, being played out on a town's streets and televised widely. Last night, a young man blatantly shot into an apartment building, and I heard that no one was hit by his bullets. I cringed at the fate he escaped, that of a charge of murder; many young children, even infants, have been killed by such random shots fired in haste. I cringed even more, and breathed a prayer of thanks as well, for the spared lives behind those apartment windows.  


Many people outside Ferguson are praying for the city, for everyone involved, so that justice may be done in the courts, based on the facts being assembled now. How many will cooperate, though, with prayers for justice within the law and with peace? It appears that a dangerous few do not relish calm, being in the throes of angry excitement that is likely, in some cases, to be fed by cameras and microphones. Many decisions face everyone on the ground about just, legal, and peaceful processes going forward after the death of a young man so recently at the age of majority, of adulthood.

A certain kind of love can lead attitudes of patience and perseverance in such tragedies. Law enforcers love to know who fired shots and that they have not fled. The judicial system loves legal process

The laws by which a community lives are intended to operate fairly, although sometimes that fails. The wisdom to keep trying to get it right is, I think, what the protesters now seek. I believe it is what the officials, local clergy, and others want, what we observers hope for. May it happen without further bloodshed. 

Watching a few minutes of Fox News near midnight last night, I heard reporter Shepard Smith question at what point the press can add to a tense situation. One of his colleagues, Steve Harrigan, had estimated there were 100 protesters in the streets, 200 reporters, and 500 police officers. Such a time calls for consideration of a reporting pool, to lower the numbers of cameras and journalistic questions, reliving events and focusing on emotions. It is easier to contribute to  peace with one's mouth closed long enough to think and apply serious, unselfish reasoning. 

That would be a wise change by the press, I opine.  

Aware of Evil

The Incoherence of Atheism by Christian philosopher, Ravi Zacharias

We think we are aware that evil exists. Yet, do we know how to recognize its seeds? Its roots can be very deceiving, appearing to promise something far different from what we expect. I, therefore, think we do not recognize many seeds of evil; I think we are more likely to train ourselves unwittingly to bear silently with the wrongs that we see developing.  What some of us see is a creeping inhumanity cloaked in social compassion. That's a hard thing. If carried to logical conclusion, it is deadly. And death can enter the mind and the social fabric parading as a flower.

When I had read half of a biography of  Mao Tse Tung, the leader of China whose portrait remains at the entrance to the royal gardens of the past, I put it down. His cruelties and hatefulness sickened me. I will return to it these two years later. I want to know the strategies and the lives of influential evil actors on their generation's stage, disguised as purveyors of good for their countrymen and the world.

The video link above, if you have not yet opened it, contains a talk by Christian philosopher Ravi Zacharias. He mentions Dachau and Hitler's inspiration, a book by Nietzsche. But that is not why I post the link. I hope you will listen.

I have visited Dachau, and I had thought as Ravi says he had, there was no need to visit Auschwitz, which unlike Dachau was a death camp. I have turned away from the evils evident in some places of history. I remember that I did not want to visit Robben Island when in Cape Town, South Africa. My husband convinced me to take the ferry with him. It was a troubling and, because of its later change, a hopeful story. Yet, still a troubling place to visit for more than a few hours, a last institutional face of apartheid.

Having heard Ravi Zacharias on YouTube again, I have decided to read beyond Malcolm Muggeridge, who eventually renounced atheism and was ridiculed by former so-called friends. I need, I think, to read Nietzsche, and I expect to see the reason behind the need after reading.

Atheists blame evil on God whom they not only reject. They deny His existence. Who can break barriers of closed minds? It is not their fault but their failure to think it through, what they think about the non-existence of God. One cannot help being unable to see through closed eyes. That is not blindness, but a failure to open the mind, to entertain the possibility of God. 

I have written about these things before. Hearing Ravi Zacharias's arguments I see the importance to ask, "If man kills belief in the existence of God, where then would notions of what is moral come from?"

What got my attention most was Ravi's story about Stalin, overseer of the murder of million of USSR citizens, and the chicken. The lesson Stalin taught was his belief that tortured people will follow their torturer anywhere. This would mean, if true, that mistreated people will follow their cruel master or leader, that beaten-down people will follow the one responsible for causing their low estate. Learn how Stalin accomplished this, but not forever. His secret, he believed, was to feed them, give to them, something.

I thought of men, women, children under the thumb of Hamas terror in their apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, markets, and everywhere else. I also, on the other hand, thought of the pack of U. S. politicians that continue to add legal burdens to the backs of USA citizens. I thought, as well, of careless leaders among Christians, those who have gained authority by many means. No generation is immune to wrongs; every generation is faced with trying to prevent and/or right those wrongs.

For every one who is devoted to Jesus Christ there is a need to trust God fervently. He is good. He gives us everything we need, wrote St. Peter, for life and godliness through Him who gave Himself for us.

Evil  is here. Atheism is here. The battle is here.

Christian philosopher, Ravi Zacharias:
The Incoherence of Atheism