Training, mentoring, and discipling Tanzanian surgeons while providing surgical care to the poor.
About us:
Imagine you had appendicitis and needed life-saving surgery. and the nearest surgeon was two days away. That is the reality for millions of people across Africa. In Tanzania, there are roughly 200 surgeons of any kind for 50 million people. That’s like 20 surgeons for the entire Detroit metro area (our hometown), where just one hospital system has ten times as many surgeons.
Dave is a general surgeon and is training Tanzanian surgeons in order to fill that gap. God tells us in Micah 6:8 to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. This is what compels us to go, to meet the needs of the poor and to be part of God’s work in transforming a nation.
We always thought that we would end up in a remote rural area where there was a desperate need for a surgeon. Then we realized that we could spend the rest of our lives there and they would still desperately need a surgeon when we are gone. That’s when God directed us to the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), which administers residency programs in mission hospitals across Africa, training, mentoring and discipling African surgeons who love Jesus, see themselves as missionaries, and are committed to serving their own people with high quality surgical care.
Dave works with a team of ten Tanzanian surgeons and one Canadian surgeon in Arusha who are training ten residents at a time in a five-year general surgery residency program. Serving in this capacity, Dave is part of developing a sustainable surgical workforce and leaving a legacy to transform a country that we love.
As a family, we are partnering with both a Tanzanian Swahili language church and an international English language church.
We are also looking for opportunities for Sarah to engage her passions for building up and transforming communities. Sarah’s background is in community development and she is passionate about coming alongside people as they figure out how to meet the needs they see in their lives and in their communities. We pray that there are ways that she can be involved, even in this season of raising children.
Blogs and Articles on WorldVenture:
– Performing Surgery: The Sustainable Way
