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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 11th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: fighting Ebola in the Congo.

Ebola is continuing to spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo…the DRC. Confirmed cases have jumped up to 515 and at least 91 people have died.

It’s the largest recorded outbreak of a rare Ebola strain called Bundibugyo. Some worry it may reach the heights of an outbreak in 2014 in West Africa.

BROWN: Bundibugyo has a fatality rate of more than 30%, and no vaccine or cure. Doctors and nurses risk their lives on the frontlines to care for the sick and dying. 

WORLD’s Grace Snell talked to one Congolese surgeon caring for Ebola patients in the epidemic’s epicenter and offering the hope of Jesus along the way.

GRACE SNELL: Jacques Ebhele was working as a surgeon in Malawi when his wife had a dream. It was about a Bible passage, from Joshua 22.

In it, Joshua sends the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh across the Jordan. Back to their own lands.

Ebhele and his wife felt sure the verses were for them.

EBHELE: That was clear to us, it was from God that it was time to go back to your country. But when you go back to your country, continue to fear the Lord.

Ebhele is from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo—a region plagued by conflict and poverty.

EBHELE: The first question was, ‘Why, God, why, why? You know, I’m just fine in Malawi, you know, good salary, good environment, no insecurity.'

In Congo, Ebhele would face the exact opposite situation. No salary, no security; not even a good school for his kids.

Still, Ebhele knew God would provide.

EBHELE: I chose to come back just to obey the Lord. You know, when God calls and He will equip. Whatever is lacking, He will, He will fulfill.

Ebhele came back to Ituri province, where he’s from. It’s rich in minerals and agriculture. But he says those riches attract outsiders with nefarious motives.

EBHELE: Those people who wants to steal minerals and they want to just create chaos.

Dozens of rebel groups and militias also prowl the area, killing civilians.

Then came Ebola.

EBHELE: This is a Bundibugyo strain. It has no specific medication, no proven vaccine.

Ebhele’s hospital treats people from across Ituri province—an area about the size of Sri Lanka—as well as some patients from neighboring provinces. At first, they were only seeing about three or four suspected Ebola cases a day. Now, that number is between seven and 10 patients a day.

Ebola symptoms mimic endemic diseases like malaria and typhoid, so doctors rely on testing to identify cases. Ebhele says only about 40% of their tests turn out to be positive, and patient numbers seem to have hit a plateau.

But, those are just the people showing up at the hospital. Many are suspicious of the healthcare system and simply refuse to come.

All the unrest in eastern Congo also makes it difficult to track cases and exposures. People displaced from conflict zones often live in overcrowded refugee camps.

EBHELE: Which is a bad, bad condition, especially for Ebola, because the transmission will be easier that among those populations.

Meanwhile, infected people continue arriving at the hospital each day. Ebhele has put all his elective surgeries on hold to keep up.

EBHELE: Even if I’m a surgeon, I can still do a supportive care, giving fluid, giving this medication, all that to try to alleviate the symptoms from the patients.

Lots of outside relief groups like Samaritan’s Purse and Doctors Without Borders have also arrived to help. But, Ebhele’s days are still long and unpredictable.

EBHELE: You do whatever support you can bring to the patient, including medication and including foods, and, but the most support we can bring to the patient is to, to surrender them unto the mighty hand of Jesus.

Sometimes Ebhele does see patients recover—even from advanced stages of the disease.

EBHELE: I know a patient who came who was really, really bad, but we never understand how this patient just got better, and then he went out of the hospital, you know. So this is, only God can do that.

In the middle of the fight, Ebhele relies on prayer.

EBHELE: Prayer is really, really the cornerstone of what we are doing, so we don’t joke with that. We really take that seriously, because we believe that without God we are nothing, and with Him we can do anything by the strength that He has put in us.

Every evening, he meets with members of his extended family for an hour of prayer. Later, he calls his wife for one-on-one prayer. They both also have prayer partners in the United States.

EBHELE: Hope is there, but the fear is also there, but we are praying so that the peace and the confidence we have in Jesus win over our fear.

They pray for God to heal people and to stop the spread. And they pray for strength to keep caring for patients.

But, most of all, they pray for the gospel to go forward—no matter what.

EBHELE: We want to have this as an opportunity to talk about Jesus to people, you know, if something has no treatment, then we tell them, 'Jesus is the solution.'

As Ebola numbers keep rising, Ebhele asks for believers around the world to join him in that prayer.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell.

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