by Dr. Gayle Thomas, PCP Medical Ambassador
My story begins, as most do, with my parents, David and Beth Duddles. They attended First Covenant Church in Minneapolis in the 1950s while studying at the University of Minnesota, where they trained to be teachers. They went to Congo in 1958 as missionaries with the Evangelical Free Church (which closely partnered with the Covenant Church) while Congo was still a Belgian colony. My parents learned French and Lingala and taught Congolese students at Bolenge at the Institut Chrétien Congolaise. This was a school staffed by missionaries from several denominations, including the Covenant Church. I was born at the nearby Tandala mission station. Here we are posing in front of the Congo River.
Gayle Thomas with her parents in DR Congo.
Independence from Belgium came suddenly in July 1960 and was a time of violence and fear for Belgians and other expatriates. My parents were under house arrest for two weeks and had their home invaded by armed and intoxicated soldiers. The unmarried missionary living next door was nearly raped. Some missionaries were raped. My mother and I were evacuated by the Belgian army in the days after independence when I was not quite two years old, and my father was evacuated by the U.S. Army two weeks later. The period following independence was marked by years of political violence and unrest as the U.S. and Russia vied for access to the new nation’s natural resources.
My father returned alone in 1961 to teach for eight months. While there, he hosted a short-term missionary, Dr. Paul Carlson, at his house in Bolenge as Dr. Carlson was on his way home from his first four-month term in Congo. Although I did not have firsthand memories of Congo, the sacrifice of Dr. Paul, my parents’ stories, and the accounts of missionaries who visited us while I was growing up had a significant impact on my life. In high school, I decided to dedicate myself to becoming a missionary doctor in Africa.
In 1978, while a college student at the University of California, Davis, I met a young man named Jim Thomas at University Covenant Church. Jim had graduated and was on his way to the mission station at Loko as a nutritionist when he was commissioned one Sunday at church. I introduced myself with “Mbote,” and he asked for my address for his prayer letter—a smooth missionary pick-up line.
Jim learned French and Lingala and served for two years at Loko. Here he is posing with three of his nutritional rehabilitation trainees. The man at the end is Nurse Dote, who you will see again in a more recent photo.
Jim Thomas with his nutritional rehabilitation trainees. Nurse Dote on the far right.
Jim returned to Davis in 1980 as I was graduating from college. We both enrolled in graduate school in Los Angeles—myself in medical school and Jim in public health. We were married a year later by our college pastor from University Covenant Church in Davis, Dr. Ron Lagerstrom.
Jim and Gayle’s wedding day!
While a third-year medical student on my pediatric rotation, I was lost in the unfamiliar basement of Harbor General Hospital in Torrance, CA, at 2 a.m. It was very quiet. I saw a small plaque on the wall and wandered over to read it. It was a Humanitarian Award given posthumously to Dr. Paul Carlson, who had done his internship and surgical residency at that hospital. I had not known anything about his medical training and hadn’t realized I was so closely following in his footsteps. I felt a tremendous sense of God’s affirmation of my life and career goals, which stayed with me and carried me through many difficult years of training.
In accordance with our interest in Africa, we spent a year in Kenya as graduate students. Jim conducted research with UCLA for his PhD dissertation, and I worked in a rural hospital. Here we are visiting our friend Simon in his home.
We thought God was leading us to serve as missionaries in Africa, but instead, after our training, we felt led to Chapel Hill, NC, where Jim taught in the School of Public Health and I worked as a Family Physician in a Community Health Center with recently arrived immigrants. We raised our two sons, served in our church, and continued to travel to East Africa, where we started a nonprofit called Africa Rising. However, we never made it back to Congo until 2023 with Paul Carlson Partnership.
Fast forward 40 years, and you can see from my expression how excited I was to finally be in Congo, flying to the Ubangi region with our MAF pilot, Steve, who also happens to be Renee’s son. We were part of a team of PCP Medical Ambassadors traveling to Karawa to train Congolese doctors and nurses.
2023 trip to Congo with the PCP Medical Ambassadors.
We made a detour to Tandala Hospital, where I was born. The doctors and nurses welcomed me back, gave us a hospital tour, sang “Happy Birthday” to me, and the chief surgeon prayed a blessing over me. Here, you can see Craig Anderson with me, who recently retired from PCP.
Visiting Tandala hospital in DR Congo.
Tandala staff welcoming me back and praying over me.
Jim also had his welcome back at Loko. But first, he, Craig, and several others had to travel over roads like this from Karawa to Loko. The lack of infrastructure makes it extremely difficult for Congolese medical staff to serve their people.
Remember Nurse Dote, seen in 1979 with Jim? Here, he and Jim are reunited at church in Loko. Nurse Dote has served the community at Loko all these years, raising and educating his family with the money he earned. Now, his son, Dr. Jacque, serves as a physician at Karawa Hospital and is raising and educating his own family.
Nurse Dote and Jim Thomas reunited.
Dote’s son, Dr. Jaques, is a physician at Karawa Hospital.
Over the years, our thinking about our roles as Westerners in Congo has evolved, as Africa has evolved. We believe that we should no longer usurp the position of African physicians and nurses by providing direct patient care but should focus on supporting, training, and equipping them. That is precisely the mission of PCP’s Medical Ambassadors.
These doctors and nurses care for patients with very limited resources. Karawa Hospital has no laboratory capability. Tandala Hospital has no X-ray capability. Despite this, infant deaths decreased by 50% at Karawa after annual trainings on neonatal resuscitation, and maternal deaths declined by 78% after trainings on managing maternal complications such as postpartum hemorrhage.
Maternal health training
Jim, as a public health professional rather than a clinician, focuses on prevention rather than cure. He is in dialogue with Congolese staff at the Karawa’s Malnutrition Stabilization Center, exploring ways to prevent malnutrition in villages.
Jim and I deeply resonate with the volunteer opportunities that PCP has provided us. We value PCP’s long-term commitment to this region of Congo, which has meant so much to us throughout our lives. The often-told story of impoverished Africa is true but incomplete. There is also the story of intelligent, trained, and capable Africans eager to further their training and serve in medical settings that we would find extremely challenging.
