Outlaw for God: The Esther Bacon Story
This book tells the story of Esther Bacon,
a medical missionary to Liberia. The effect of the things she did was
historically unique. What she accomplished demonstrated a power
greater than that of her peers. Seldom in the history of the Christian
church has one person done so much for so many against such great odds.
Esther Bacon went to Liberia just before the Second World War, in 1941. She worked in Curran Memorial Hospital, a Lutheran mission hospital in the jungle village of Zorzor until her death from Lassa Fever in 1972. She went out as a Registered Nurse but for the first four years she functioned as a physician, midwife, public health officer, dietician and in many other fields. Later she worked with a succession of doctors, all of whom emphasize unashamedly that they learned more from her than she learned from them.
Long before she died she had become a legend in Liberia. Her life was an inspiration to all who knew her: tribal Africans, missionaries, Peace Corps Volunteers, government officials, church officials, truck drivers, family, and not least, the chronicler of her story.
But Esther Bacon was neither a myth nor a legend. She was a real person -- a saint perhaps -- in blue slacks on a brown horse carrying a kerosene lantern through a green tunnel of jungle to save the lives of a mother and her unborn child. She was a martyr in a blood-stained white uniform with her slip showing. Bishop Roland Payne, first native-born bishop of the Liberian Lutheran Church, said, "Yes, she was an outlaw...an outlaw for God, who would break any and every rule in the book if it would save a life."
From an endless list of her accomplishments, one can be cited to illustrate the impact she had on medical work in Liberia: when she arrived at Curran Hospital, no women came to the hospital to be delivered. In 1970, 1308 babies were delivered in the hospital with no maternal deaths.
The framework of this book is built on the letters she wrote to her surrogate mother, her Aunt Nora Leander, over a span of 31 years. The framework is filled in from hundreds of sources, including interviews taped by the author with virtually all the people of importance in Esther's life (33 in all): African nurses, pastors and friends; missionary doctors, pastors, nurses and friends; American relatives and friends.
The book is superbly illustrated by Betty Stull Schaffer, a former missionary colleague of Esther's in Zorzor.
Autographed paperback copies available from the author for $15 plus $2.50 S & H.
W 4290 Jene Road
e-mail: dibble@discover-net.net
Eau Claire, WI 54701
Un-autographed hardback and paperback copies available at
Note from the author: I would be happy to correspond by e-mail or snail-mail but I do not have the capability to take a credit card. Therefore all payments must be by check or money order.