Imagine a missionary doctor sitting under a tree in Africa, seeing patients as they line up from far and near. She sees 100 patients a day or more. In a year, perhaps 3000. In ten years, 30,000. Not a bad contribution to the problem of suffering in her country. But imagine how burned-out, how completely exhausted she is after this work. And when she finally gives up, the work is finished. Many thousands of patients were treated, and many lives saved even. But the work is not enduring. It is not sustainable.

Now, imagine that same doctor pouring her life into doctors-in-training in that country. Year after year, spending intentional time teaching 10-15 resident physicians. In ten years’ time, perhaps 20 or 30 are trained. Each of those go on to treat thousands of patients in their careers. Some of them are retained as teaching physicians, and they in turn pour into others. This is multiplication. This is empowerment. The impact of that one person is perhaps 50-fold when compared to the lone worker at the beginning of our story.

The Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons was founded in 1996 with one residency program in the jungles of Gabon. Since then, it has grown to 17 programs in ten countries. We are one of those programs. Why is it so important to train African surgeons?

Right now, 56 million people in sub-Sahara Africa are in need of surgery. In most of the continent, there is one surgeon for every 250,000 population. In Ethiopia, there are only a 300 surgeons for a country with almost 90 million inhabitants. (If WHO guidelines were met, we would have 4,150!) PAACS has the goal to train 100 surgeons by 2020. Sixty-four have been trained thus far.

Because the program is fully accredited, our graduates are eligible to be members of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa. And in turn, are fully licensed by the country of Ethiopia as surgeons. And the faculty actively disciple the residents during their training – teaching them not just excellent surgical practice, but equipping them with the spiritual tools to use medicine to bring people to Christ.

We praise God for this kind of empowerment and training. Of Africans. For Africa.