New York Church Prays for Ebola-Stricken 'Doctors Without Borders' Volunteer

By Stephanie Samuel, Christian Post Reporter Monday, October 27, 2014

Minister Janet Lovell and her congregation at Brooklyn's God's Miracle House of Prayer, Praise and Worship held a prayer meeting over the weekend for New York Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer's healing and the end of the fatal virus' spread across West Africa, America and Spain.

The 50-member church met Sunday in their small church with a picture of the Manhattan doctor taped to a wooden cross. Together they prayed for Spencer's healing. The congregation also prayed for spiritual guidance for the global medical community working to treat and cure Ebola patients.

Lovell told local news station WCBS 880 that although she does not know Spencer or his family, she feels "he is my brother."

Miracle House member Yvonne Massop said she has compassion for the volunteer doctor since her daughter also works in the medical field. Massop urged, "Pray for the people with Ebola, but especially for the ones who will render service to them."

Spencer is in serious yet stable condition at Bellevue Hospital. He is receiving a plasma transfusion from Nancy Writebol, an America missionary who contracted and survived Ebola over the summer. A hospital official said Sunday that Spencer looks better.

Spencer tested positive for Ebola last Thursday. The Columbia Presbyterian Hospital doctor is believed to have contracted the disease that causes hemorrhagic fever while treating patients in Guinea earlier this month as a Doctors Without Borders volunteer. He returned to New York from West Africa on Oct. 17 but did not display symptoms before October 23.

Spencer is the ninth case of Ebola in the United States, and the seventh U.S. patient to have contracted the deadly virus while treating infected patients. So far, one Ebola patient has died on U.S. soil.