Stepping through stalks of sorghum, a woman carried her elderly mother-in-law to a makeshift clinic in Dongol, Nigeria, set up between fields.

As a small group of Americans watched, the pair gathered with other villagers in the sparse shade under tents and trees.

The older woman, Asabar Idi, had undergone a leg amputation a few years prior. Recently, cataracts had begun taking away her sight.

“This is a timely intervention, we must say,” said Sanday Samuel, the Dongol chief’s representative and a community wakili sadarwa — a role similar to that of an ambassador.

“We want to thank God that this is coming right at the time that it’s been needed the most,” he added.

This was the first joint medical and dental clinic hosted by Hope Springs International, a U.S.-based ministry associated with Churches of Christ that had previously operated in the area digging wells.

The nearest medical facility to this farming community of about 700 people is about a 90-minute walk.

To avoid the lengthy journey, villagers often opt to see traditional healers without medical degrees or formal training — one of whom performed Idi’s amputation, a procedure that may not have been a medical necessity.

“Honestly, most of the time you find out that the professionals here are really not actually professionals,” Samuel said. “And then those that are sincere … often make referrals to bigger hospitals, but then because of the economic situations, our people don’t end up going. So bringing interventions like this right to our doorsteps is huge.”

In northeastern Nigeria, 8.3 million are estimated to be in need, according to a 2023 U.S. Agency for International Development report. An additional 4.4 million are estimated to experience food insecurity.

But despite the great need for intervention, few international nonprofits and humanitarian aid organizations operate in the region.

Foreign aid is often deterred by the presence of the terrorist organizations ISIS-West Africa and Boko Haram.

Outside the makeshift clinic, local men carrying long guns stood guard. They joined a 13-person armed security team the Nigerian government provided Hope Springs while in Gombe State.

“Before the onset of the insurgency and the insecurity that now abounds everywhere, we used to have an opportunity to come work and be able to help propagate the Gospel here,” said Rambi Ayala, director of operations in Africa for Hope Springs, which is headquartered in Gallatin, Tenn.

Ayala, a graduate of the School of Biblical Studies in Jos, Nigeria, previously served two consecutive four-year terms as a state representative for Billiri East in the Nigerian State Houses of Assembly.

“Today, some of us who are here are a bit more concerned about safety, because of some of the extremist elements that we have all over the place,” he added. “Gombe, for instance, is located in the northeastern part of the country, and the northeast is the hub of Boko Haram.”

‘They kill people in Nigeria’

When Hope Springs first reached out to health care professionals to recruit a team, Jennifer Collins, a nurse practitioner, deleted the email.

“Nope, they kill people in Nigeria,” Collins recalled thinking. “They don’t like White people. They don’t like Christians.”

It wasn’t the first refusal of that nature Lee Hodges, president of Hope Springs, had heard.

The 79-year-old Christian has made 15 trips to Africa and oversees operations in Chad, Nigeria and Niger.

Safety is always a concern, Hodges said. He joined Collins — who conceded after a follow-up letter and much prayer — and 10 other Americans on the recent medical trip.

“What people don’t often understand is that it’s Muslims killing Muslims,” said Hodges, who also serves as a shepherd for the NorthField Church. “They’re not just killing Christians. I think they put Christians on the top of their kill list, but they’re ruthless.”

Terrorist organizations in Nigeria have killed about 40,000 people and displaced as many as 3 million since 2009, according to the CIA.

“Especially in this part of Nigeria, the deeper northern part of Nigeria, it has never been easy,” said Ayala, who served as minister for the Kado Church of Christ prior to joining Hope Springs. “We face all kinds of persecutions here and there.”

‘Corruption, violence — it’s survival’

Security isn’t the only operational challenge of doing aid work in Nigeria.

At the makeshift clinic, security officers took money from anyone with financial means, directing them to the front of lines. Desperate mothers with ill children held out crumpled dollars to volunteers, hoping to bypass waiting areas. Elderly men bought patient forms from others who had already been triaged.

“​​Corruption is going to be everywhere,” said Jon Harris, a Hope Springs board member and the videographer on the trip. “For places like this, corruption, violence — it’s survival.”

In some ways, the corruption is cultural, Hodges said. Bribes are commonplace and expected.

Yet despite the risks, Hope Springs plans to keep expanding.

To ensure smooth operations in Nigeria, Hope Springs employs trustworthy individuals — Christians, many of whom are graduates of the School of Biblical Studies. Board members and donors regularly receive status updates through videos and photos.

The organization has dug more than 200 wells since beginning its operations in northeastern Nigeria. At least 50 of those were sponsored by the NorthField Church. 

“It’s always water and health — it always comes in that order — and then education, if at all possible,” Hodges said.

$15.50 for the blind to see

The joint medical and dental clinic marked the organization’s venture into a new frontier: health care.

Eleven American health care professionals and volunteers joined a team of 23 Nigerian doctors, pharmacists, optometrists and dentists hired by Hope Springs to host clinics in four rural locations.

Tom Haddon, pastor of the NorthField Church, had watched the videos of wells changing lives in rural villages for years through Hope Springs — but this was his first time venturing to the West African country in person. 

Watching Idi balance precariously on her daughter-in-law’s back, he was struck by the comparison to the lame man in Mark 2.

Like the friends of the paralyzed man, Idi’s daughter-in-law had overcome challenges — carrying her mother-in-law through the fields to the clinic, waiting in line outside in the heat.

Upon learning of her cataracts, Haddon thought of a second story — the blind man at Bethesda — which appears only a few chapters later in Mark 8.

The Hope Spring’s clinic, operating out of a two-classroom school, couldn’t do anything for Iri’s condition except offer a referral to the nearest hospital for surgery — an operation that would cost 25,000 naira.

“The daughter said that would be hard for them to raise,” Haddon said. “I asked how many 25,000 nairas was, and then when we did the math, it was $15.50.”

Iri was just one of 75 patients from the community referred for cataract surgery.

Moved by the low cost for a life-changing operation, Haddon pledged that the NorthField congregation would cover the cost of the surgeries.

“We can’t tell her to pick up her mat and walk, but we can give her her sight back,” Haddon said.

“Our church model is start where we are, spread out in the communities around us and then go to the ends of the earth,” he added, citing Acts 1:8. “Hope Springs is our ‘ends of the earth.’”

Nearly 4,500 patients were treated during the seven-day campaign, Ayala and Hodges estimated.

“We are more than a humanitarian organization,” Hodges said. “Humanitarian organizations focus on good business and money. Yes, it’s life changing, but we’re looking for something deeper. We want people to see the love that Christ had for them.

“There has to be a humanitarian part that goes with the Gospel,” he stressed. “It’s exactly what Jesus did — he fed, he healed, but he also led people to Christ.” 

This article originally appeared at The Christian Chronicle and has been reprinted with permission.

Audrey Jackson, a journalism graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, is managing editor of The Christian Chronicle.