Ebola is back: Pastor and husband from Milbank return to Sierra Leone with Dr. Gess, 94
Ebola is back, and has claimed the lives of 11,400 in Sierre Leone. It is a shocking number, considering that less than 24 hours after the number was released, the World Health Organization declared West Africa to be Ebola-free. Pastor Melanie Reiners, Milbank Parkview UMC, and her husband Roger, are currently in Sierra Leone. They are accompanied by Rev. Lowell Gess, a 94-year-old retired ophthalmologist and United Methodist pastor, from Alexandria, Minnesota.
Rev. Gess will be returning to Sierra Leone for the 187th time. His most recent visit was last January, 2015, at age 93, when he returned to treat patients and replace the doctors who had died or left because of the Ebola outbreak. Photo Courtesy of StarTribune, by David Joles. Rev. Lowell Gess has his boxes and suitcase packed for another return trip to Sierra Leone.
Gess is responsible for the founding of the Kissy Eye Clinic in Freetown. In the early 1950s, Gess was a young medical missionary in Africa. By day, he cared for patients’ eye troubles. On weekends, he appealed to their hearts as a pastor. By 1975, the government offered to help pay for a new ophthalmology clinic, but more funds were needed. The result was the Kissy Eye Clinic.
Pastor Melanie and Roger Reiners are no strangers to the Kissy Eye Clinic. The Parkview Church in Milbank where they are members, and Melanie serves as pastor, has been sending teams and donations to Sierra Leone for several years. Photo: Jan Snider, United Methodist Communications. At a community gathering in Tilorma village, Kenema district, Sierra Leone, hand-washing became routine after the outbreak of Ebola. The virus has killed nearly 4,000 people in Sierra Leone.
The Reiners and Gess will meet a research team from Emory University which has treated Ebola patients. The research team is looking to set up a research facility at the Lowell and Ruth Gess UMC Eye Hospital in Freetown.
“It is an exciting time for increasing the outreach of the eye hospital as well as a wonderful opportunity to plan for the future with regard to the facilities and instrumentation,” said Pastor Melanie Reiners.
