“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of just three of them.” April Hall, a graduate of Raleigh School of Nurse Anesthesia, quotes this statement by John Piper to illustrate the phenomena of her journey toward life in Angola. I first met April five years ago when she joined forty-three classmates for the 2010 Kansas City INMED International Medicine & Public Health Intensive Course. She anticipated I would be the only Angola connection. April was both surprised and encouraged to find three other students with commitment to this southern African nation.
Skilled surgical care requires more than a skilled surgeon. At least one other proficient professional must watch over the wellbeing of the patient. Steve Foster, Angola’s most renowned surgeon, is now complemented by April Hall, newest among Angola’s tiny cadre of anesthetists. She and her family anticipated that life in Angola might be isolated and melancholy, but through growing friendships and preserving lives they’ve discovered just the opposite. Says April, “I find such comfort in these words: ‘I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.’ Christ indeed shines in the darkness. He provides comfort for the shattered. He gives peace to the hopeless.” Indeed, God may be doing 10,000 things in your own life. What a joy to occasionally be aware of them.