When you go a week without seeing a human face, that does something to you.
My 4-year-old son prays every night for his best friend who is the same age - our next door neighbor in Liberia, a little Liberian boy: 'Dear God, please don't let him get Ebola.' I'm proud of him for thinking about his friend and praying for him but that's not a prayer that a 4-year-old should have to consider.
When I became ill, I started to experience what my patients had suffered under my care.
There are a lot of health care providers in this country who have a very deep sense of service and compassion for the suffering of others, who are motivated to go to West Africa despite the risks of infection and death. And doctors and nurses face those risks every day regardless of their setting.
What I can tell you is that I serve a faithful God who answers prayers.
In theory, and I think in practice, I am immune to the strain of Ebola that I was infected with. But there are five different strains of Ebola.
Please continue to pray for and bring attention to those suffering in the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa.
The nature of Ebola is that health-care workers are predominantly affected because of the way that it is spread.
I wasn't afraid of treating Ebola patients in the isolation unit. That was the safest job. But seeing patients in the clinic, seeing patients in the emergency room, being in the community - those things gave me pause.
God blessed me with a peace that surpasses understanding.
Even with the bad news, I felt calm. I never shed a tear when I called my wife and said, 'Amber, my test is positive. I have Ebola.'
I've thought a lot about the moment when I was infected with Ebola.
Pray for the people of West Africa. You cannot be apathetic towards people for whom you are earnestly praying.
I know that some consider it controversial for me to claim that God saved my life when I had received an experimental drug and some of the greatest medical care available in the world. I can see how these two realities appear to contradict each other.
Through the care of the Samaritan's Purse and SIM missionary team in Liberia, the use of an experimental drug, and the expertise and resources of the health care team at Emory University Hospital, God saved my life - a direct answer to thousands and thousands of prayers.
Ebola's a terrifying disease.
On Octover 16th, 2013, I moved to Liberia with my family to serve as a medical missionary at ELWA Hospital in the capital city of Morovia.
As the Ebola virus continued to consume my patients, I witnessed the horror this disease visits upon its victims, the intense pain and humiliation of those who suffer with it.
When a person survives Ebola, when they recover, they're not a carrier of the virus.
Just like medicine anywhere else, I get to walk through life with people in the midst sometimes of their most difficult and challenging circumstances they've faced - a terminal diagnosis, bad news, poor prognosis - and also the most joyful times with people, like the birth of a new baby.
