Missionary Who Contracted Ebola Returns to Liberia

SIM missionaries David and Nancy Writebol are returning to Liberia, six months after they left to seek medical treatment for Nancy who contracted Ebola.

Writebol worked on the frontlines of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia last summer, helping to disinfect SIM doctors and instruments used in the crisis.

She is heading back to Liberia to serve as personnel director for SIM, an international mission organization. Her husband, David, will serve as SIM country director for Liberia, overseeing the mission's hospital, radio station, and grade school.

George Salloum, vice president for finance and operations at SIM, said the Writebols are passionate about serving in Liberia.

"They feel led to return to do all they can do to be the hands and feet of Jesus and they feel like they have not been released from this calling," he told CBN News.

Schools in Liberia have re-opened in the last week for the first time in six months. They closed during the epidemic that killed 3,900 Liberians, according to the World Health Organization. The death toll is the highest on record for Ebola-affected countries in West Africa.

Education officials feared over-crowded schools would only increase the death rate and closed schools across the country.

Another SIM missionary and Ebola survivor, Dr. Rick Sacra, recently returned to Liberia where he served a month-long stint in SIM's ELWA hospital in the capitol of Monrovia.

Although Ebola cases in Liberia have dropped dramatically, SIM is still encouraging its healthcare workers to remain vigilant.

Just last week, the country's assistant health minister reported sending eight healthcare workers home for observation after coming in contact with a patient who later tested positive for the virus.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday to discuss the ongoing Ebola response in West Africa as well as economic recovery plans for Liberia.