FAMILY LEAVES ELEGANT LIFE TO PROVIDE MEDICAL HELP IN KENYA
In the remote town of Kapsowar, Kenya, American missionary doctors and African medical professionals are bringing compassionate care to some of the area's neediest people. This selfless desire has led one American family to dedicate the rest of their lives to serving on the continent.
Picture: Kapsowar Mission Hospital
Americans Bill and Laura Rhodes moved to this corner of Kenya to work at AIC located near the Ugandan border leaving behind the elegant life they lived in the USA.
Dr. Bill Rhodes, who had no medical background, was pursuing a master's degree in Biblical Hebrew in Jerusalem when he and his wife picked up two Christian medical students hitch hiking through Israel.
The statement one of the students made changed their life’s direction. In recounting the experience, Laura Rhodes state how the student expressed passion towards helping in remote areas of the world where help is needed.
That set the Rhodes family on a 16-year odyssey, with numerous setbacks, in preparation for a surgical career that would change the lives on the African continent.
When Bill and Laura moved here to Kenya in January of 1999, they knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was a lifetime commitment to serving the people of this country, but more importantly, to come to a region of the nation that had some tremendous needs.
In recent years, Dr. Rhodes' vision to bring medical care has gone beyond the valleys that surround Kapsowar to include other countries. For example, he, along with his wife and members of the mission hospital, often travel to countries like Liberia, Chad, and South Sudan.
Over the course of time, Dr. Rhodes has trained several medical practitioners with the aim of providing them with the skills to extend help to more individuals in need.
Picture: Some of the doctors trained by Dr. Bill Rhodes
Dr. Rhodes is honoured with the AMH or African Mission Healthcare Gerson L'Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service. The annual prize comes with a $500,000 award, which will go toward the hospital, surgical work, and training.
Bill and Laura Rhodes are determined to spend the rest of their lives either here, in north-west Kenya, or somewhere on the continent.
"Yeah, this is the end of the rainbow for us," exclaimed Rhodes. "Very few people get to really do what they really want to do. We bless God, every day, because we know we are in that little minority that is actually getting to do exactly what we wanted to do."
Christianity is more than serving selfish interests. Being a Christian centres on making the lives of others better. The actions of the Rhodes family brings to life the sacrifice Christ made for the sins of man. He left His throne and came down to the world to save us. Christ did not choose His comfort but focused on the believers salvation. In Philippians 2:4, the scriptures pointed out that a believer is not just to focus on their affairs, but also focus on that of others. The moment that us done, GOD makes it His plan to reciprocate that selfless act with blessings.