I grew up hearing stories of my grandparents meeting as single missionaries in Nigeria, falling in love, marrying, and starting their family. My grandfather died in Nigeria when my dad was 4. He had two younger siblings and a fourth on the way. My grandmother stayed in Africa as a single mother.

My mother’s parents had a dramatic shift in their life trajectory when they became Christians. With 7 young children, they dropped everything for my grandfather to attend Bible school, and then they became missionaries in remote parts of Northern Canada.

Both sides of my family were sacrificial in their service to Christ. My parents left everything to become missionaries in Ethiopia. My in-laws also did medical missions in Kenya and other parts of the world over the course of 20 years.

My own motivation drives deeply from the pattern that has been set for me.

In high school, I visited the fistula hospital in Ethiopia.

I learned that sometimes women would labor in remote villages for days without medical assistance. As a result, they would develop ostracizing fistulas that separated them from their communities. Women would travel days to receive the simple fistula repair that would restore them to society. Upon discharge, they would receive a new dress to remind them that they had new life again.

This impacted me and set me with the vision of wanting to assist women in childbirth in Africa in the hopes of being on the prevention side, keeping them from developing fistulas in the first place by offering them medical care upfront.

I am currently in a transition period. I have a new level of ability professionally, but only have permission to begin working in it in Sept 2021. I am now a Certified Nurse-Midwife and have the ability to do obstetric and GYN care.

We are currently working and will continue to serve at Rift Valley Academy for many years. At Student Health, I plan to utilize the gynecology/sexual health education portion of my certification to interact with students teaching them about God’s design for identity, gender, and sex and helping them to have optimal health in this often hidden area of health. Working at the school, we operate as a support service to the ministries that are more evangelistic in Africa.

I have been given permission to work part-time off the RVA campus beginning in September in order to utilize my obstetric training. I am partnering with another midwife who is working in Kenya and we are going to build a clinic locally to serve women, providing compassionate OB/GYN care. This is the beginning of a many-year project, developing policies and procedures, getting government permits and programs, etc… to serve women. It is our hope that providing humane and loving care will draw them to the Lord and that by operating differently, their curiosity will be piqued, and we will gain the opportunity to share the reason for the hope that we have.

I see providing healthcare as an entryway and access point into sharing Christ.