This Is a Soul: An American Doctor's Remarkable Mission in Ethiopia [B0289]

2011 PB. "Whoever Saves a Life, It Is Considered as If He Saved an Entire World" When Dr. Rick Hodes arrived in Africa more than two decades ago to help the victims of a famine, he never expected to call this extremely poor continent his home. Twenty-eight years later, he is still there. As a boy in suburban America, Rick was devoted to helping those in need, and eventually he determined that becoming a doctor would allow him to do the most good. When he heard about famine in Africa, that's where he went, and when genocide convulsed Rwanda, he went into the refugee camps to minister to the victims. Then he was drawn to Mother Teresa's mission in Addis Ababa. It was there that Rick found his calling when he began caring for the sickest children in one of the world's poorest countries. But he did more than that-he began taking them into his home and officially adopted five of them. This Is a Soul is also a book filled with great joy and triumph. When Rick's kids return from surgery or life-saving treatments, he is exultant. "Seeing these people after surgery is like going to heaven," he says. This Is a Soul is not just a story of the savior and the saved, it is a celebration of love and wisdom, and an exploration of how charity and devotion can actually change lives in an overcrowded, unjust, and often harsh world.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Absolutely wonderful .. Cried through most of it. If I weren't so old I would adopt a child from Ethiopia..."; "Wow! It's amazing what one determined person can accomplish."