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Facing Darkness

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Bob Waliszewski

Movie Review

Returning to theaters one night, April 10.


In June of 2014, Liberians found themselves fighting the largest Ebola outbreak in history. Along with many living in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, 26,000 people became infected. Of those, 11,000 people died, creating thousands of orphans and widows.

Facing Darkness highlights this crisis and the true story of two American aid workers in West Africa stricken with the Ebola virus—Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol—and the race against time to get them back to the United States in the hope of saving their lives.

As terrible as the epidemic was, it could have been much worse, something this documentary underscores. The film also, naturally, highlights the work of Samaritan’s Purse (a ministry involved in numerous endeavors around the globe and the organization behind this documentary). The organization has a hospital in Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, and was uniquely poised to help. Furthermore, a number of workers for Samaritan’s Purse bravely stepped up to the plate to minister to those who came down with this dreaded disease.

They did so at great risk to their own lives, and indeed several aid workers contracted the virus. Transmitting Ebola can be as easy as touching the perspiration of an infected person’s arm or face. And since the Liberians have a custom of holding, hugging and washing their dead, cases of Ebola increased exponentially through the mourning process. Samaritan’s Purse (and others) faced the difficult task of getting people to change deeply imbedded cultural practices. As the film points out, during the Ebola crisis, your “enemy” could easily be your mother, grandfather or neighbor across the street who simply wanted a hug or a handshake!

Tragic misunderstandings complicated the situation: Because Liberia had suffered many years of civil war and been deluged with waves of misinformation, many Liberians believed that the aid workers themselves were purposefully spreading the disease. Hospitals were attacked.

Facing Darkness gives us an unblinking look at that crisis and heroes involved. It’s a powerful film that will inspire you to ask yourself the question, “How far am I willing to go to serve others for Jesus?” [Note: The film does contain some images of corpses and severely sick.]

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Bob Waliszewski