Author & Medical Missionary Harry Kraus Thanks His Wife

My guest today is the best-selling author of The Six-Liter Club, a man of many talents and one who knows how fortunate he is. Here's Author Harry Kraus about his wife:

"Sisters, imagine your response if your husband came home one day and said, “Let’s move to Africa.”

Would you be scared? Angry at your husband?

Angry at God?

Perhaps my wife was a little of all three, but she prayerfully considered my enthusiasm and then helped sell the dream house (twelve acres on a hilltop in the country), pack up our three sons and moved to Kenya.

I was asked on a TV interview today, as I often am, “How do you do it all? Novelist, surgeon, father, husband, missionary…what gives?”

My answer is always the same: grace. And for me God’s grace has a name: Kris.

I am the visionary, always wanting to rocket off on some new project. My wife has seen many variations of this theme. During my surgical residency, I said, “I want to write a novel.” Later, after years in private practice, I sprang the above news on her: “I think we should serve in Africa.”

But rockets get no where without planning. I may be the rocket, but Kris has her feet planted on terra firma. She is the detail gal, counting the cost, paying the bills, figuring out the ins and outs of mechanics and logistics while I am playing with imaginary characters and reaching out across continents with a hope to bring God’s love to the sick.

My wife has learned flexibility and adaptability. She has laid aside her dreams for her children’s and mine (after being in Kenya for a few months all three of our boys agreed, “We don’t want to go home.”) She agreed, ditched her own ideas for the future and stayed in Africa, filling in, teaching, mothering other boarding students at Rift Valley Academy who needed a little (or a lot!) of extra help.

Now, while we are home from Africa and I am running around promoting my latest novel, The Six-Liter Club (which, by the way is another story of a very brave woman…wonder how I get my inspiration, huh?), she has taken another brave move and started back to school. Approaching fifty, she is old enough to have given birth to many of her fellow students. But she uses her experience to her advantage. She is focused, studies hard, and her grades reflect her diligence and maturity.

Next summer, we will pack up again and return to Africa, yet another transition that will test my wife’s metal.

Do I doubt she can thrive in spite of the change? Not for a minute.

She is my brave woman. Thanks for giving me a chance to tell you about her.

She is a channel of GRACE to me."--Harry Kraus, MD www.harrykraus.com

Author bio: Board-certified general surgeon and best-selling author, Harry Krau laces his fiction with medical realism. He began writing as a surgery resident and has authored twelve novels and three works of non-fiction. His book, "The Six-Liter Club" was just released by Simon and Schuster in April and his next non-fiction release "Domesticated Jesus" is happening next month. He and his family have served as missionaries in Kenya for four years. They are currently on furlough in Virginia.

Thanks, Harry. So happy you have a great wife and know it.