Q&A with Will Copeland, CAC alumnus living in Bomet, Kenya, serving as a neurosurgeon at Tenwek Hospital.
1. Where are you and your family currently located? How long have you been there?
My wife Alisa and I and our 6 kids are living in Bomet, Kenya. We have been serving at Tenwek Hospital through Samaritan’s Purse since September 2016.
2. What is your mission while you are there?
Tenwek's mission is to share the love of Christ while providing compassionate, affordable healthcare to our patients, and to provide discipleship as we train local Christian surgeons committed to carrying on this same mission. There has never been a full-time neurosurgeon here, yet the need for neurosurgery in East Africa is great, with an estimated one neurosurgeon for every 9 million people, compared to one for every 65,000 in the United States. That leaves each neurosurgeon in East Africa to do the work of nearly 140! Our family intends to live and serve at Tenwek as long as the Lord directs us. It is our goal to firmly establish neurosurgical care here, eventually to include a residency program.
3. What is something you and your family have learned since being missionaries?
We have learned firsthand that God uses ordinary people to do His work. Growing up when I heard someone was a missionary, I immediately put them on a pedestal. I assumed I wasn’t as committed as them, or didn’t read my Bible and pray as much as them, or struggled with temptation more than they did.
But Alisa and I are just ordinary people. Coming to Kenya hasn't changed that. I still struggle with my selfishness and short-sightedness, thinking my plans are more important than God's and that I can accomplish good things for Him without truly relying on Him. Yet He is teaching me that even in my ordinariness, when I surrender myself to Him, my desires to His, He will use me as He exalts His name in this world.
Click here to read the rest of the story on www.cacmustangs.org.
