MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. -- As Ebola crosses international borders, so does the anxiety and fear that comes with the disease. A Suncoast couple with ties to a nation at the center of the crisis knows that feeling all too well.
Manatee County pastor David Dann and his wife Annette are keeping a close eye on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The couple established a ministry in Liberia that includes an orphanage, 17 churches and even a high school. They say they keep in constant communication with their congregation just to make sure everyone is safe.
"They have a special bucket now with faucets, that every house, every institute that you enter you have to wash your hands," David Dann says.
The pastor is well aware of the more than 3400 people who have reportedly died due to bola in West Africa. He is the founder of Christ's Victory International Mission in Liberia, and is responsible for more than 800 congregation members. He says his members have been taking the necessary precautions and have thus far all managed to stay healthy.
The Danns wants it to stay that way.
Due to the lack of electricity in Liberia, the Danns are unable to video chat with anyone from the congregation. To keep lines of communication open, they recently purchased cell phones for a few staff members in order to text and call multiple times a day.
"We do talk to the pastors quite a bit,” Annette Dann says. “Sometimes they'll send us pictures. They sent us pictures this week from some of the kids from the orphanage. They'll send us pictures from the church.”
The couple typically travels to Liberia on a regular basis, but have been forced to monitor the situation from their Suncoast home, watching the outbreak unfold on television or through phone conversations with staff members.
"It’s very heartbreaking for us to hear from our folks about different neighborhoods and different communities where Ebola is very rampant,” Annnette Dann says. “People are dying every day."
And for the time being the challenging task is to get supplies out the congregation as much as they can.
“Because the shipping cost is very expensive we need funds to send to Liberia to buy food, especially rice which is a staple," Pastor Dann says.
