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“A Hard Place”

A New Generation of Doctors Serve in the Desert of Niger

By Compelling Story

December 20^th, 2020

One of Africa’s Hardest

Dr. Glenn Maas and his wife will never forget the day three years ago when they interviewed with Samaritan’s Purse about serving overseas through our Post-Residency Program.

“Three of the six people who interviewed us wrote down, ‘these people want to go to Galmi,” Sonja said.

“Galmi was not where we thought we wanted to go,” Glenn said. “But God wanted us here and told people, ‘They want Galmi,’ even if it never came out of our mouths.”

Galmi Hospital in Niger has a reputation as “a hard place,” as one of the pioneer missionaries described it in 1949. According to the hospital history, when the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) asked for land, the French colonial government offered them a place in Galmi, which was known for being infernally hot, plagued by malaria, and prone to choking dust storms from the nearby Sahara Desert. One early missionary said the colonial authorities “pinpointed the site as being one that would be the least suited to our purposes and for the Gospel.”

Aside from the extreme mid-African weather, Niger languishes at the bottom of the United Nation’s Human Development Index. Nationwide, there is only one doctor per 30,000 people.

Yet Galmi has grown on Dr. Maas’s family, as well as Drs. Stephen and Katie Hoyt, who all came out of the same residency program in Fort Worth, Texas. As their two-year terms are ending, they all feel God calling them to come back to Galmi and serve as long-term missionaries.

That’s exactly what the Post-Residency Program was created to do—to raise up a new generation of missionary doctors to replace those who were retiring from the mission field.

Galmi Hospital is a 184-bed facility that sees hundreds of patients every day.

The Masses and the Hoyts are not the first to follow this path. Two other members are graduates of the Post-Residency Program. Two more Post-Residents are scheduled to come to Galmi this year.

“I’m a big fan of the program and appreciate that Samaritan’s Purse has identified the gap and created something that directly addresses it,” said Stephen Montgomery, the retired director of the hospital. “From our perspective, it’s just fabulous to get young doctors fresh out of training, fresh out of residency, out into a field placement, where they can bond and explore missionary medicine in a developing world context.”

Dr. Steven Hoyt says, “The Post-Residency Program helps hospitals like this keep their missions going.”

Galmi Hospital is a 184-bed facility that sees hundreds of patients every day. Many come for treatment of diabetes or HIV. One of the regular patients is a teenage girl named Adaobi (not her real name) who has Type 1 diabetes. Her family lives in a remote village with no electricity, so they cannot keep insulin because it degrades in the heat.

Dr. Steven Hoyt says, “The Post-Residency Program helps hospitals like this keep their missions going.”

“Being here for two years confirms it,” Steve said. “You are really needed. Patients will wait days to see you, because there is such a shortage of good care. And there’s an even bigger need for the Gospel.

Despite Galmi’s reputation as “a hard place,” the hospital offers a high level of care, including a neonatal intensive care unit where babies born at 30 weeks have thrived.

“In Niger, Galmi Hospital is the face of Christ,” Steve Hoyt said.

“You’re going to Africa? You’re taking teenagers?”

It was natural for family members to question their calling, but in hindsight, the Maases say this was an ideal time for their family to enter the mission field, as their children went through language school in France before they moved to Niger.

“In Niger, Galmi Hospital is the face of Christ,” Steve Hoyt said. “There are so many stories of people who came to Galmi for care. That opens doors. By showing love for the people, it gives credibility and meaning to the Gospel.”