What do you think?
Rate this book
In Harm's Way: A View from the Epicenter of Liberia's Ebola Crisis
When long-time American missionary Nancy Sheppard volunteered to work with her friend Nancy Writebol in ELWA Hospital’s Ebola ward, she did not know what to expect. Night after night she worked, suiting up and disinfecting the medical personnel and helping wherever needed. While it was difficult, she recognized she was witnessing something extraordinary. Author Nancy Sheppard writes, "What am I seeing here? I asked myself. It was invisible to all but me. This dying woman was perhaps the most untouchable person in the world and yet Dr. Brantly was touching her. And he was not just touching her physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Who was I that I should be granted the privilege of witnessing this? It was somehow both utterly tragic and supremely glorious."When, despite following protocols to the best of their abilities, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly were diagnosed with Ebola, she knew how they would suffer as they fought this deadly disease.But, "In Harm’s Way" is more than a book about ELWA Hospital’s Ebola ward, it is the story of Liberia itself. Told in the sympathetic voice of one who cares for the country and her people, Nancy explains the multiple societal and cultural factors that have exacerbated the Ebola crisis in her adopted home. Warm and human, this book takes you into Liberia’s epicenter of the war against Ebola. You will not emerge the same.
- GenresAfricaNonfictionHistory
147 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 23, 2014
38 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Nancy D. Sheppard
3 books1 followerNancy Sheppard (1960-) was born in Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin, and shared her childhood with three brothers and a twin sister. After college graduation she and her husband Mark felt God was calling them to be missionaries to Liberia, West Africa. Following an idyllic first three years of ministry in the interior of that country, the Liberian Civil War began. This plunged the Sheppard family into a ministry they had never imagined--one among war refugees. God used the many years spent in this difficult work to create a new heart in Nancy, and it is out of that heart she writes. Mark and Nancy Sheppard have been married 33 years and are the parents of six children, ages 5 to 30 years, and the grandparents of three.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 18, 2020
Interesting story, but with very limited detail. I have complete respect for the author and her bravery. The choice to include so much religious material made it a somewhat tolling read, but that is of course the authors prerogative.
December 29, 2017
Let’s say you aren’t a trained medical professional, would you volunteer to work around one of the most deadly diseases on the planet? Nancy Sheppard did. She treats it so matter-of-factly as if there was really no question as to what she should do. It was really very humbling and inspiring.
While she was in Liberia at the start of the epidemic, she was in the USA for the vast majority of it. She was in constant contact with those working in the Ebola wards and knew the country and the different factors that they were dealing with that made their work so dangerous. That is what gave this book its unique perspective on the tragedy. She could explain how the Liberian history and culture affected the treatment of an epidemic.
It can be pretty grisly at times, but it’s not without hope. First, she points to the selfless sacrifice of the medical community, then she points us to the love of God the motivated so many of them. At the very end, she ties it together and points us to the loving sacrifice of Christ for us.
This book didn’t touch me as personally as her first book did, but I’m still glad I read it. It’s really hope-filled for a book about an epidemic.
While she was in Liberia at the start of the epidemic, she was in the USA for the vast majority of it. She was in constant contact with those working in the Ebola wards and knew the country and the different factors that they were dealing with that made their work so dangerous. That is what gave this book its unique perspective on the tragedy. She could explain how the Liberian history and culture affected the treatment of an epidemic.
It can be pretty grisly at times, but it’s not without hope. First, she points to the selfless sacrifice of the medical community, then she points us to the love of God the motivated so many of them. At the very end, she ties it together and points us to the loving sacrifice of Christ for us.
This book didn’t touch me as personally as her first book did, but I’m still glad I read it. It’s really hope-filled for a book about an epidemic.
June 27, 2017
I have known Nancy since childhood. We went to church together, and I know she has e love for missions. And I enjoy learning more about her experiences
March 21, 2018
Sheppard is a missionary who spent years in West Africa, including Liberia. Her family was there when the Ebola crisis hit in 2014, and Sheppard eventually spent time volunteering in a medical unit—she didn’t have medical training herself, but she was able to suit up doctors and nurses, decontaminate clothing and medical gear, et cetera.
There’s a limit to how much of this is new material. Sheppard’s time in Liberia during the Ebola crisis was relatively brief; when she and her family went to the U.S. for unrelated reasons, they were unable to return. Instead she spends much of the book talking about the experiences of Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantly, American missionaries with whom she worked but who both contracted Ebola. The overall story of the Ebola outbreak is told better in Inferno, and Brantly has written his own book, so I guess I’d hope that this would lean more on Sheppard’s own experiences in Liberia prior to the outbreak. It’s a bit sad to me that there’s so much attention paid to Writebol and Brantly (both of whom survived) and so little paid to individual Liberians, such as Samuel Brisbane, who were also fighting to care for the ill and many of whom died…or to Liberian individuals with whom Sheppard had built relationships over her years in the country.
It’s not that it’s a bad book. The writing is clear and straightforward, and there’s some useful history/context if you don’t know much about Ebola and/or Liberia. But…there are more complete pictures elsewhere, and (unless a missionary lens is your preference!) ones that aren’t so filtered through a religious perspective.
There’s a limit to how much of this is new material. Sheppard’s time in Liberia during the Ebola crisis was relatively brief; when she and her family went to the U.S. for unrelated reasons, they were unable to return. Instead she spends much of the book talking about the experiences of Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantly, American missionaries with whom she worked but who both contracted Ebola. The overall story of the Ebola outbreak is told better in Inferno, and Brantly has written his own book, so I guess I’d hope that this would lean more on Sheppard’s own experiences in Liberia prior to the outbreak. It’s a bit sad to me that there’s so much attention paid to Writebol and Brantly (both of whom survived) and so little paid to individual Liberians, such as Samuel Brisbane, who were also fighting to care for the ill and many of whom died…or to Liberian individuals with whom Sheppard had built relationships over her years in the country.
It’s not that it’s a bad book. The writing is clear and straightforward, and there’s some useful history/context if you don’t know much about Ebola and/or Liberia. But…there are more complete pictures elsewhere, and (unless a missionary lens is your preference!) ones that aren’t so filtered through a religious perspective.
July 31, 2018
This is an interesting book, including family pictures, of Christian missionary, Nancy D. Sheppard's experience in Liberia. I guess I really hadn't thought of it before but the people, including medical professionals, willing to provide care with such a deadly disease are Christian missionaries. The author provides a brief but good overview of how she became a missionary and her experiences in Liberia (which includes civil war as well as ebola outbreaks). Her role in the ebola outbreak was helping the clinicians get into their gear and out of it as well as cleaning meticulously their garments and gear. I think she offers a personal perspective that one doesn't often find when topics such as this are addressed.
June 13, 2018
Incredible book
absolutely an incredibly book. Thank you Nancy Shepard for sharing the liberia's story on Ebola. Anyone wanting to read about this awful disease need to read this book. This book talks about human kindness and love towards the Liberian people while fighting Ebola and the love and faith the nurses, doctors and many other workers had during this difficult if not impossible times. The world could learn a lot what it is like to work together in God's love while in the midst of a major devastating disease.
absolutely an incredibly book. Thank you Nancy Shepard for sharing the liberia's story on Ebola. Anyone wanting to read about this awful disease need to read this book. This book talks about human kindness and love towards the Liberian people while fighting Ebola and the love and faith the nurses, doctors and many other workers had during this difficult if not impossible times. The world could learn a lot what it is like to work together in God's love while in the midst of a major devastating disease.
June 6, 2019
It was a good book, but
But two mistakes major mistakes were made in there. 1. They did not say that Ebola is also spread by respiratory means. 2. The ways you can catch Ebola which David When men described perfectly. I tell you the best book I have read on Ebola is Ebola and Beyond by: Jeffrey McMillan. He sells it for just 0.99.
But two mistakes major mistakes were made in there. 1. They did not say that Ebola is also spread by respiratory means. 2. The ways you can catch Ebola which David When men described perfectly. I tell you the best book I have read on Ebola is Ebola and Beyond by: Jeffrey McMillan. He sells it for just 0.99.
January 1, 2018
Deep and thought provoking
It is all in the blood....the blood of Christ, as Nancy States in the end of this book. This writing was deeply emotional for me....imagining the horrors of the virus taking so many lives, and the people who willingly cared for those with the virus.
It is all in the blood....the blood of Christ, as Nancy States in the end of this book. This writing was deeply emotional for me....imagining the horrors of the virus taking so many lives, and the people who willingly cared for those with the virus.
Read
June 2, 2021dnf@ 2%, too much jesus and “god’s plan” for me to stomach
September 29, 2015
Nancy, the author, is a friend from childhood. (I was the flower girl in her wedding.) I have followed with interest her spiritual journey over the years, her passion for Liberia (especially its children) and, most recently, her first-hand brush with Ebola. For all of those reasons, this very personal look at her brief role in fighting the disease was fascinating. Her love for the people of her adopted country is evident throughout and her descriptions of the work at the hospital are vivid and eye-opening.
October 15, 2016
A book worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews