Web Reads: The heartbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone

Ebola heartbreak. A Norwegian psychologist working with Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in Sierra Leone, writes this moving story about Patrick, a child with Ebola who lives with his ill father in an Ebola isolation center. The boy has already lost his mother to the disease.

Silent Star Wars. What would Star Wars be without John Williams’ music? Here is the award ceremony with the dramatic score. And here it is without.

Best essays. Robert Atwan, founder of the annual Best American Essays volume, compiles a list of the 10 best essays since 1950. He explains his definition of a good essay: “To my mind, the best essays are deeply personal (that doesn’t necessarily mean autobiographical) and deeply engaged with issues and ideas. And the best essays show that the name of the genre is also a verb, so they demonstrate a mind in process—reflecting, trying-out, essaying.”

Evaluating Christian counseling. Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, has a long essay about the history of biblical counseling and problems associated with it. Christian psychologist and biblical counselor Phil Monroe provides some helpful questions for both critics and advocates to think about while reading the Joyce essay.