Well

Healing Our Beautiful, Broken World from a Hospital in West Africa

By: Sarah Thebarge

Narrated by: Sarah Thebarge

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

Sarah Thebarge ponders the intersection of faith and medicine in this insightful narrative of her medical mission trip to Togo, West Africa.

Sarah Thebarge, a Yale-trained physician assistant, nearly died of breast cancer at age 27, but that did not end her deeply felt spiritual calling to medical missions in Africa. Risking her own health, she moved to Togo, West Africa - ranked by the United Nations as the least happy country in the world - to care for sick and suffering patients.

Serving without pay in a mission hospital, she pondered the intersection of faith and medicine in her quest to help make the world "well".

In the hospital wards, she witnessed death over and over again. In the outpatient clinic, she daily diagnosed patients with deadly diseases, many of which had simple but unavailable cures. She lived in austere conditions and nearly succumbed herself in a harrowing bout with malaria.

She describes her experiences in gripping detail and reflects courageously about difficult and deep human connections - across race, culture, material circumstances, and medical access.

Her experience exemplifies the triumph of surviving in order to share the stories that often go untold. In the end, Well is an invitation to ask what happens when, instead of asking why God allows suffering to happen in the world, we ask, "Why do we?"

©2017 Sarah Thebarge (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Wonderfully written, the book will have you staring through it, into a world that seems to have been made new. I am grateful there are new writers in the world like Sarah Thebarge. You'll get caught up in the strength of her kindness and the girls she describes even as we gain our focus to slowly see them, and so many others, for ourselves." (Don Miller, author of Storyline and Blue Like Jazz)

"With a faith shaped through service and sharpened by real experience, Sarah Thebarge responds from the depths of her heart with the question we should have been asking all along: not, 'why does God allow suffering?,' but 'Why do we?' Sarah's piercing, loving insights in this book, told through the stories of her medical service in West Africa, will grow your faith, improve the questions you ask, and help you on your journey to find better answers. Well will move you." (Michael Wear, author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America)

Beautifully written, quick and fascinating read

“Well” is a beautiful, albeit at times heavy, story of the author’s 3 month trip volunteering at a hospital in Togo. The gritty, heart-wrenching stories of her experiences among the Togolese people are, at the same time, interwoven with hope and wisdom. The author’s compassion and genuineness are evident and inspiring. The experiences she had in Togo are such a different world than I’ve ever experienced, even having been to developing countries. The author wears her heart on her sleeve in the pages of this beautiful book, and lets the reader vicariously live a completely different experience than most of us are used to. She also reads the book herself on Audible and does a fabulous job— it is SO much better when the authors themselves read their own nonfiction audiobooks! You can feel the emotions and hear it all exactly as she tells it, in her own voice. This adventure is totally worth the listen!

Edifying memoir and poignant voice

Edifying memoir on the subject of death, illness and pilgrimage read in the author's own voice.

Excellent Book

Highly recommend this very well written and gripping story. The author reads this story well and you feel like you are right there with her. Excellent read!