We’ll refer to this American medical missionary as Carol, for reasons of security, and we can’t tell you what part of Eritrea she lives in.

Carol spends much of her time treating Eritrean children. She deals daily with the kinds of horrifying injuries and diseases most of us hope never to see.

She describes some of the more common ailments she sees, saying "Children with big bellies and pencil thin arms. These are the children that are malnourished. We see a lot of that in Eritrea. We see a lot of HIV. We see a lot of pneumonia’s, of hepatitis, a lot of diabete."

Carol came to the mission field after twenty-five years in private practice, leaving behind family, friends and a well-paid position in the States.

She recalls, "I was at the point in my life where I wanted to do something else. I wanted to use some more talents that were maybe lying dormant and I was ready just to surrender what I had accumulated through the years. I sold the furniture and I asked someone to take care of my personal business and God opened doors and provided people and the ways and means for me to do that. We need very little to live in this world and I realized that when I sold out in America and when I saw what people were living in when I went to northeast Africa. Again, it’s a learning experience to find that you need very little to live and you just need for God to be in it."

Eritreans are in nearly equal parts Muslim and Christian. Given the recent violence that has flared in religiously diverse nations elsewhere in the world, you might think Carol ready to return to the States for safety’s sake. Instead, she looks to her faith for the courage to remain in service to the people of Eritrea.

Carol notes, "There are concerns, but those concerns should not translate into fears. And God always opens the way for us whether it is financial or educational…that if He has touched our hearts and confirmed in our hearts with conviction, through the Holy Spirit, that what seems to be difficult and a barrier…He can do it when we submit to Him and just surrender and it’s kind of a naked feeling."

Another reason to stay in spite of the risks is Carol’s newfound love for the land, the culture and the people of Eritrea.

She describes her new neighbors by saying, "People with long robes and turbans and donkeys and camels and women who wear brightly colored long dresses and beads around their necks and rings in their noses and its just a very strong Old Testament culture. Where people, although they’re steeped in that culture are very accepting of who you are and accept Americans for help and are willing to trust you even though they don’t know your name or your language. I think that’s one of the things that endeared me is that their very welcoming into your family and they open up their homes and their dinner tables and they’re just very open with their love and demonstrate it. I think perhaps its something Americans can learn from."

Carol often turns to her Bible for inspiration and courage. She especially enjoys recalling the promises of God as recorded in the Bible book called Deuteronomy, chapter thirty-one.

Carol explains, "I think just the resounding truth that God is faithful. He never leaves you, never forsakes you, that He has a will for your life and won’t depart from you and that His Spirit is always with me. And so I just claimed that and stepped out in faith. It is a step of faith and can be scary and yet God is not a God of fear, but a God of love and protection."

A Christian nurse providing care for the sick and destitute in Eritrea. A life well lived!