About Us

Betsy, Phoebe, and Fraser Henderson

Our Story

We will be based at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya, where Fraser will serve as a full-time Neurosurgeon through the Post-Residency Program at World Medical Mission (WMM), a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse.

We have made a commitment to serve for 2 years starting in January 2022, and are grateful for this opportunity to use our training and serve God through the life-saving work of Tenwek Hospital.

Fraser C. Henderson Jr.

I was born during my father’s medical training and ultimately he brought our family back to Southern Maryland to the small farm where my mother had grown up, and this is where I spent most of my childhood. God’s greatest blessing thus far was to find Betsy in the middle of medical school, and her love for East Africa spread to me. I decided to pursue Neurosurgery in my third year of medical school, and rotated at Kijabe Mission Hospital in Kenya under Dr. Leland Albright, who later visited my residency to share his experience as a missionary Pediatric Neurosurgeon.

Over the next years, we joined the Anglican Church in South Carolina and found ourselves surrounded by a culture of mission, in part because Betsy served as Director of Mission. While training at the hospital consumed most waking hours, a senior minister of our church became a spiritual mentor and a personal inspiration for both my medical research and long-term career interests in Neurosurgical Oncology.

A decades-long vision of working in the field with my father became a reality during my sixth year of residency, when we completed a two week mission trip to Tenwek Hospital in early 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded. Working alongside my father and Dr. Will Copeland (current Neurosurgeon at Tenwek) was a powerful experience.

During that time and in the weeks following, God moved us to apply to work at Tenwek. When WMM accepted us into the Post Residency Program, we received the invitation to Tenwek with both excitement and nervousness, wondering how God could pull it all together from every perspective. We are learning firsthand about God’s promise that He will equip us for that to which he calls us, and hope you will walk this journey with us.

Betsy G. Henderson

Growing up in Roanoke, Virginia (also known as the “Star City of the South”), God first put an interest in Africa in my life at 8 years old, when one day my Grandfather received a letter from an elementary school student in Ghana (named Emmanuel) who was looking for a pen-pal. Knowing I was an aspiring writer and interested in learning more about the world, my Grandfather gave me the letter to me and encouraged me to respond. I corresponded with Emmanuel for several years until he moved, and so from a young age, Africa did not seem like a foreign place but simply home to my friend and his family.

From that day on, the desire to work in Africa and better understand the dynamics of life there stayed on my heart, and led me to study East Africa remotely and in-country as an undergraduate and graduate student.

During that time, the Honorable Phoebe Asiyo, one of the longest-serving female members of Kenyan Parliament and a globally renowned advocate for women and children’s rights, invited me into her family. Learning about Kenya from “Mama” Phoebe and seeing the country through her eyes made an indelible impression on me, and I think is one of the many reasons I feel so drawn to Kenya and the incredible things God is doing there.

Reflecting on our journey thus far, I’m often struck by the ways that God has been putting small steps of preparation along the way. For example, I’ve been able to continue facilitating U.S. connections to Africa through serving as the Director of Mission at our church and running my own consulting business. I enjoy writing about development and policy topics in Africa, and have had my work published as the 2020 Africa Fellow for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP), and am a regular contributor to the pan-African business publication, How we made it in Africa. I am also a member of the Africa Policy Accelerator (APA) at the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS).

One of my favorite Swahili proverbs is “Kidogo kwa kidogo“, which translates to “little by little”, and means that “big” things are often accomplished by small steps over time. My prayer is that our work in Kenya will contribute to God’s Kingdom (both in the short and long-term) through each prayer, each surgery, and each day at a time. Wherever you are in the world or in your own walk of faith, I hope you will join us in this journey!