Facing Darkness: Ebola Rescue Team's Documentary Gives Glory to God

Facing Darkness, the new documentary about Samaritan's Purse's daring and life-saving work during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia, is coming to a theater near you this Thursday (March 30, 2017) -- for one night only!

This true story of faith gives audiences an inside look at how the deadly disease ravaged a community of Liberians and the aid workers who fought to save them. Arthur Rasco, a senior producer at Samaritan's Purse and director of Facing Darkness, remembers the epidemic and working on the documentary like it was yesterday.

"Samaritan’s Purse had been engaging in the Ebola outbreak in 2014," Rasco recalls. "We had been given some video footage back from Liberia in 2014 from people on the ground that were sending us some pictures and video clips. We were getting ready to send a larger video team out. Then, the unthinkable happened. One of our own doctors, Dr. Kent Brantly, became infected with Ebola. Not only that, another missionary, Nancy Writebol, also became infected with Ebola."

"So that threw us into a tailspin," he says. "We were able to get both of them to the US and to see their subsequent treatment, evacuation, and then, praise the Lord, survival."

It was a few months later, in 2015, when Samaritan's Purse President and CEO Franklin Graham felt led to share their story in a documentary.

"Graham said, 'Let’s do a long-form story where we can give God the glory and make this be a testimony of God’s goodness and His faithfulness,'" Rasco says. "And so we put together this feature-length documentary called Facing Darkness that would give glory to God for the incredible things that happened."

Asked what he hopes audiences will takeaway after seeing Facing Darkness, Rasco said:

"It’s about facing difficult circumstances. How can we be brave enough, courageous enough? How can we face those difficult times in our lives? If we look at the way Dr. Brantly approached the issue of choosing compassion over fear, we can see choosing to love your neighbor as yourself, choosing to, in this case, treat patients as they are."

"We want this film to be an inspiration to a new generation of missionaries, to go around the world to share the love of Christ and to inspire a new army of Dr. Kent Brantly’s as it were."

Check out the official movie trailer for Facing Darkness:

Facing Darkness will be in theaters nationwide for one night only on Thursday, March 30, 2017. Get tickets.