When members of an Alabama Baptist church shook hands and hugged the two Southern Baptist representatives during a recent Wednesday evening, the couple was surprised. Since arriving back in the United States people have literally inched away from Tim and Charlotte Cearley as they explain they are Southern Baptist representatives who serve in Senegal, a West African nation.
Tim Cearley is the International Mission Board’s (IMB) head strategy leader for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is comprised of 49 nations. Charlotte Cearley, daughter of long-time Alabama Baptist leader Harrell Cushing and his wife, Ann, is prayer strategy coordinator for the region.
Tim Cearley said, “What is shocking to us is how widespread the fear of Ebola is in the United States. We understand being cautious but in some ways the fears seem irrational.”
He recalled a recent incident where a volunteer medical missions team leader was verbally attacked and physically threatened when news of an upcoming missions trip to Senegal, an Ebola-free nation, was announced on a local TV station. Among the more than 30,000 comments on the station’s website about the story were threats that the community would take over the sponsoring church and not allow the volunteers back in the community. Also several comments said children would be pulled from the church’s kindergarten if the missions trip took place.
“Some of the threats were pretty strong,” Tim Cearley said.
While this has not happened to the Cearleys yet, some of their colleagues have had churches withdraw invitations for them to speak because they serve in West Africa. Also at least five training events for potential volunteers to work with the more than 200 unreached people groups in West Africa have been cancelled.
Charlotte Cearley said, “We understand Ebola is a frightening disease. But there are 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and only three have (a severe outbreak of) Ebola. Instead of panicking we want to find volunteers who will work in other countries where the fields are ‘white unto harvest.’”
In one area of West Africa, made up of seven countries, U.S. churches make more than 300 missions trips a year. The trips primarily focus on reaching tribes and people groups, mainly Muslim, in those countries who have never heard the name of Jesus. If these trips are cancelled it will mean the loss of more than 10,000 potential personal presentations of the gospel.
Tim Cearley added, “We can’t recommend volunteers go to the three countries with (the most severe) Ebola outbreak — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — right now but we are trying to encourage life as normal in the other countries. This is a time when people’s hearts are open.”
As the Cearleys seek volunteers for Ebola-free areas of West Africa they also are trying to coordinate help in the three countries most severely impacted by the disease.
Three families and two Journeymen (a two-year missions position with the IMB) currently serve as Southern Baptist representatives in Guinea. One family serves in a major hospital that, to date, has been Ebola-free. Two couples work in outlying areas where the disease has struck in churches where they serve. One couple serves near a town where protesters stormed an Ebola center and carried infected patients back into the community.
“These families have each served for more than 20 years in Guinea,” Tim Cearley said. “They are being cautious but for now they are trying to show people how to live around Ebola and use the crisis to share about our eternal hope in Jesus Christ.”
IMB representatives in Liberia were pulled out of the nation about six weeks ago, Tim Cearley said, when it became impossible for them to continue their ministries. Still several are begging to go back.
He described a recent conversation with a representative from Liberia who wept as she sat in his home because she had at least 50 teacher friends in the northern part of Liberia who were starving to death. Food traditionally flowed to them across the shared border with Guinea but now that border is closed. People have no food and no way to get food.
There are no Southern Baptist representatives living in Sierra Leone at this time.
Demonstrating the love of Christ through ministering to human need is a guiding principle for work in Sub-Saharan Africa, Tim Cearley said. That is why he and others are asking, “What would Jesus do with these Ebola-impacted countries?”
“In a crisis like this the Body of Christ can do something physically to make a difference,” he said. Baptist representatives are strategizing on what they can do. Through Baptist Global Response (BGR), the Southern Baptist relief arm, efforts are underway to educate people in nearby countries such as Togo and Niger about the threat of Ebola, basic hygiene and nutrition and how to prevent Ebola’s spread. Initial educational efforts also have started in Liberia. To make a donation to these projects, visit www.gobgr.org.
BGR also has identified some partner organizations through which it can work in Liberia and Sierra Leone to address issues such as food aid, medical teams and ways to help Ebola survivors.
Tim Cearley asked that Southern Baptists pray for innocent people in the affected area who cannot find food and cannot escape. “Baptists have to find a way to turn fear into faith and make a difference in this crisis.”
Share with others: