I was recently asked to share about my work in Africa on this blog by Katie Hire who went with us to Africa this year...so here it is.

I love traveling to Africa to provide surgical care for those that are unlikely to have access to surgery. I usually do this the first 2 weeks of each year. You need to understand this is not a chore for me and I do not do it out of a sense of obligation. I do it because I love it. The people I serve there are so grateful and it is very rewarding to help someone that would otherwise not be able to be cared for. Also like Eric Little, the Olympic champion and later missionary to China, said in the movie “Chariots of Fire” when asked what motivates him to run, “Because God made me fast… and when I run I feel His pleasure”. For me the experience of doing short term missions is similar. I have been given so much and I feel God’s pleasure when I can give back in this way. And it is not just what happens to those I serve at the Hospital for Women and Children in Koutiala, Mali, West Africa. It is about what happens to me. It “recharges my batteries” and helps me put life into perspective. In a strange way I feel I can do what I do for people here in Columbus, Ohio because I am able to get to Africa and serve there.
Of course, the people I care for there do not need bariatric surgery. In fact I visited feeding camps run by Doctors without Borders filled with malnourished children when I was in Koutiala this year. My role is to do operations such as skin grafts for burn victims, release burn scar contractures, repair cleft lips and remove congenital neck masses and help in any way possible.
The hospital was developed over the last 7 years at the request of the people living in Mali that were seeing their pregnant mothers dying in childbirth and children dying of diseases that should be easily treatable. I was privileged to be on the steering committee for the hospital’s development and the hospital has been open for about 4 years. They have delivered over 5,000 babies and they are doing a great work. There is a fulltime American OB/GYN specialist and pediatrician as well as several advanced practice nurses. Otherwise the staff is from Mali. Together they are all doing a marvelous job.
Although I have been all over the world doing short term mission throughout my career including Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Ecuador in our hemisphere, Tibet in China, and have been to Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, and Sudan in Africa, I now have narrowed my focus to go yearly to this hospital in Mali. I usually take a small team of people with me, some of which are medical people, and I take my wife and often one or two or my adult children. It is a great privilege to do these missions and it is an honor to work alongside the wonderful people there. For more information about the Hospital for Women and Children in Koutiala, Mali just click on the link labeled African Hospital on the left side of this blog.