The Adventist church is mourning the first missionary to succumb from the complications of covid-19 caused by the coronavirus.
Filipino physician has become the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary in active service to die of COVID-19 after contracting the virus in the Central African country of Cameroon.
Dr. Manuel Bellosillo, whose 25 years of mission work also took him to Zambia, Botswana, and Nepal, fell ill with malaria at a remote hospital in Cameroon and then, in his weakened condition, succumbed to COVID-19. He was 67, and he and his wife, Elma, were only months from finishing a six-year mission term at the hospital.
“We praise the name of the Lord for missionaries like Dr. Manuel Bellosillo,” said German Luste, co-director of the Adventist world church’s missionary program, IPRS, at the General Conference headquarters in Silver Spring in the U.S. state of Maryland. “Dr. Bellosillo was an example of professionalism and care who was always willing to go the second mile to serve others. May his life inspire others to serve God.”
Family members remembered Dr. Bellosillo as “a God-fearing man and a hard worker who lived his life to serve others.”
My heart breaks for the family of Dr. Manuel Bellosillo, the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary in active service to succumb to COVID-19. -Pastor Ted Wilson
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