God Help Us!: Liberian Leaders Spearhead Prayer Charge

MONROVIA, Liberia -- The death toll has reached another tragic milestone in Liberia, climbing above 4,000. Now the country's president and vice president are calling on people to pray for their nation.

The Ebola crisis has driven many Liberians to their knees. Churches are jam-packed every Sunday with people pouring out their hearts before God.

Bethel Cathedral of Hope is one such church experiencing unprecedented attendance.

"Liberia is not a stranger to crisis and so we have that resilience by the grace of God to be hopeful and to rise up in the midst of impossible situations," Bishop Wollo Belleh told CBN News.

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Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is a committed Christian. In an exclusive interview with CBN News last week, she said it's vital that churches play a calming role in the midst of a national calamity.

"When you meet circumstances that you don't understand and that you don't control…you can turn somewhere, where do you turn? You have to turn to your faith, you have to turn to God and that's a Liberian experience that's deep rooted," the president said.

A few weeks after the latest Ebola crisis erupted, Liberian Vice President Joseph Boakai helped launch weekly prayer meetings encouraging Christians to take hold of God. Boakai told CBN News how he's praying for his country.

"My prayer is that God would help us overcome this in the shortest time possible and console those that are bereaved and also help us to understand our current predicament and work as a nation," he said.

Today, Liberia is a nation putting all its natural and spiritual resources together to defeat a deadly enemy.

Meanwhile, health officials in Texas are scrambling to find out how the first transmission of Ebola on U.S. soil occurred despite the safety guidelines in place. The Texas nurse was in full protective gear, but a mistake happened, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"There is nothing about this case that changes that basic premise of science and so it's important that while this is obviously bad news, it is not news that should bring about panic," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.

The infected patient is in an isolation ward in stable condition.