Why Support Raising?
Getting to know the surgical residents. Ayenew is pictured above in the green scrubs.
Why are you raising support?
When first thinking about working overseas in an underserved area of the world, we considered supporting ourselves. One possibility we considered was living in Africa during the academic school year and then returning to the States during the summer to work to cover our expenses for the rest of the year. As we stepped forward to answer this call, we realized that thinking was incompatible with God’s calling on our lives. He did not call us to be strong or sufficient in ourselves but to be fully dependent upon Him.
Mission hospitals function in a very different way than hospitals in the States. They do not woo ex-pat physicians and employees with sweet bonus packages and lucrative salaries. Alternatively, they call on individuals to partner with others in their home country to cover their financial needs so that the hospital can provide stellar services to an impoverished population at the lowest cost possible and, at times, cover expenses through a benevolence fund.
By submitting ourselves to trust in the generosity of others, we can then act as extensions of others who believe in our calling and mission. This principle of interdependency has sometimes been challenging for these independent Americans to wrap our brains around; however, we have already felt the ripple effect of the generosity of strangers as we have embarked on this journey.
During our brief vision trip to Soddo, one of the resident’s stories really stuck with me. His name is Ayenew, and he is a fourth-year resident. Prior to starting his surgical residency, he was a general practitioner in a remote part of Africa. During his time as a GP, he kept a running tally in mind of all the patients he could have helped if he had surgical training. He recalled one instance when over 50 injured patients from a violent conflict came to the clinic where he and five other GPs worked. They tried everything they could and shipped off patients in ambulances for 2-3 hours to the nearest facility. However, most of the ambulances returned with deceased patients who could not survive the trip. He desires to complete a trauma/critical care fellowship after training and return to Ethiopia to further the trauma and surgical care his community has access to.
We hope to build in and encourage Ayenew and other residents training alongside him by partnering with us. We hope to disciple and train them to go out and be leaders in their hospitals and communities for positive change. We hope to serve the hospital to promote further growth so that the local population will have access to excellent care and future doctors will have a place to hone their skills.
And of course, we cannot do that without your help, so we ask that you prayerfully consider partnering with us by joining our support network and/or financially partnering with us. Ultimately, support raising is an act of faith and obedience. Missionaries trust God to provide through the support of others, and supporters trust God to use their contributions for His purposes. It's a beautiful expression of the global Body of Christ working together to fulfill the Great Commission and bring glory to God.
