Sorry to have been missing in action for a few days — we ran out of internet minutes our last night in Nyamira and there was no way to buy more and then we went on our day of R&R at the Masaii Mara and there was certainly no signal there of any sort.

Some facts and thoughts on camp — we ended up seeing about 1350 public patients this week in addition to the 178 students of Hope Educ Centre.  This year’s mission was once again beyond words — a wonderful team, our partners at Hope, and this time, a terrific team from the Kenyan Ministry of Health.  Everyone meshed beautifully to deliver the best and most compassionate care we could to the people who walked so far and waited so long to see us.  Many improvements were made based on last year’s experience in terms of layout, processes, materials, etc.  But God started camp early by seating me next to an Ethiopian doctor on the flight over who shared so much insight on the Kenyan doctors with me. He explained all about how we are perceived and how they are trained and gave us so much to think about as we prepared to meet the local medical team.  It really reshaped our thinking to greet them with respect and Christian love.  He also worked on them by choosing 26 special people who cared about their people and who appreciated our service. We worked so well side by side, laughed together, cried together, ate together and prayed together at the opening and closing of camp each day.

A bit about heartbreak. Lots of heartbreak. Not enough shoes, broken tooth roots, an old woman who probably suffered for a year with a broken hip, and a 12 year old rape victim who did not know she was pregnant until she came to see us for stomach pains.

A bit about God’s goodness. Pastor John’s multiple ambulance runs to Nyamira. The xray we paid for to show that the little girl’s badly broken arm had in fact healed well with her rustic cast. The gratefulness of the old woman when John paid for her hospital admission to help relieve her pain. The sounds of the children when they would see their beloved “Ahm-ba” (Amber) and Liz. There probably won’t be a good ending for Sarah’s and my 12 year old, but she did get a negative HIV test and God gave us the strength to pray over her, cry with her and put her in the hands of some very caring Kenyan providers.

Rain, hail, and mud like you have never seen before did not dampen anyone’s spirit or stop work for a minute.  God is so good.

We’re all replaying every minute and will for months to come.  We learned so much and can’t wait to apply it.  But tonight is our last night here and we are celebrating a little. 

More later on amazing safaris, singing by the bonfire and sleeping in cozy tents under the stars.  Tomorrow is a visit to our friends at Joysprings Educ Centre in the Kibera Slums, a little shopping and then to the airport for our 21 hour trip home.

We love you all and God bless.

Amy Ashley writing this entry today!  I wanted to say this day was truly a blessed day.  We were able to help almost 50 people receive dental care in 7 hours.  Many of the people that arrived for treatment needed extractions, fillings and lots of prayer.  I have to say my dream of being a dentist has been filled.  I am so lucky to work with an amazing dentist Dr. Edens, which I have renamed “The Maverick.”  At the young age of 78, he makes even the most difficult procedures look easy.  He has one patient in his dental chair receiving treatment and another one in a chair getting ready for additional treatment.  He would remove a tooth and then turn around and fill another. 

To all my friends and family I say thank you for the continued prayers.  We all feel them.  This team is the hands and feet of Jesus as we serve the poorest of poor in Kenya.  Hugs-

From Dr. Kim:

Amazing day of God’s love and grace.  We had a great day in the dental tent.  We worked our hearts out taking care of the very “least of these”.  These people are in great need of basic dental treatment.  Today alone we treated 51 patients and extracted over 65 teeth.  I was humbly reminded of what Jesus said:  “When you cared for the sick, you cared for me.  When you did it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.”  It was a day of serving the poorest of the poor.

I am especially thankful for the dental team.  Great camaraderie and laughter.  Dr. Wally Edens has been the life of the party.  He has earned the nick name “Maverick” and rightly so.  He is the “run to guy” when we get in a dental complication.  He has the muscle and “Know-how” to fix the problem.  Our entire team love him and are thankful that he had the guts to go to the uttermost ends of the earth to care for the poorest of the poor.  He has been a true blessing to all of us!

Lastly, but most importantly, my daughter Liz has blown me and the team away with her love and compassion for these poor people.  Today she shared with me how she put shoes on this very elderly woman.  She said she has never seen any one so thankful for shoes.  Liz so enjoyed giving and fitting shoes for all these poor people.  Tonight she told me she was so thankful to be here.  It is a life changing event and now she understands the importance of loving those who smell terrible and who have such great need.  Tonight at the team meeting, Faye talked about how loving Liz was to these very poor people.  I was so humbled by her comments;  I cried.   Bless the Lord.

Please keep praying for us.  We need your prayers.

Love you!

“A little hectic…very thankful…totally exhausted…blessed & humble…smiles…humble pride…fun…excited children…amazing opportunity…heart of compassion…joyful…driving to Nyamira (Pastor John made 3 round trips between Sakwa and Nyamira today to get needed supplies)…inspiring…emotional…intentional car accident…awe…teamwork…child laughter…blessed…little dirty feet…blessed & exhausted…feels like home…humble…pass-not processed yet…intensely emotional…God in action…so endearing.

For those who prefer visuals, enjoy!

Our wonderful kids from Hope Educational Centre

Waiting for the Dentist

Dr. Jason providing expert pediatric care

Denise washed lots of tiny feet before measuring

Kim and Evelyn working dental magic with daughter Liz assisting - teamwork, one of the blessings of mission work

One amazing opportunity I had was to give an older man a pair of new shoes. His old ones were tattered and had many holes in them. They were possibly half as old as he was! They were also way too small for him. When I handed him the shoes, tears filled his eyes and he said repeating over and over, “Thank you, thank you, thank you…” His gratitude was overwhelming. I had never seen such poverty in my life.
We worked with 109 children today, giving them dental and medical attention. Some of us, like me, got to play with the kids. They LOVE bubbles. They also love to be held. It helps them know that they are not forgotten; they are loved and cared about.

Since we didn’t give many details about last night (everyone jet-lagging….), we wanted to let you know that we safely arrived, and we accomplished all our logistical tasks…Pastor John and a small crew exchanged money, got our SUV, and acquired local internet and cell phone access, while the rest of the team checked in at the Koplinger Guest House in Nairobi…we did the first round of pill-packing, shared our favorite beverage (Tusker beers), and rearranged our school supplies…then promptly crashed in our comfortable little beds…

Quick re-sorting of mission supplies before leaving Nairobi

I am so excited to report for today.  We woke up early to a glorious day!  The sun was shining and we piled into the trucks for the long trip to our camp.  After our 25 hours of flying yesterday, we set off for our ride to Nyamira on a Sunday morning…amazing how much lighter the Nairoba traffic was today!

The view we experienced at the overlook to the Great Rift Valley was truly spectacular, and as we began our drive through this huge valley, we began to see gazelles and zebras alongside the road…and we knew we weren’t in Washington DC anymore.  Our first major stop of the day was at the Equator at noon…you can imagine how intense the sun shone down on us while we got our group picture and bought some nice African trinkets.  After our light lunch, we continued on our beautiful drive through the Western Kenya tea plantations, stopping again at the Tea House for some wonderful tea overlooking the beautiful hotel and gardens…Kenya is actually in the top 5 in the world for tea production, as a former British colony…

The Great Rift Valley

The Team at the Equator

Light rain greeted us for the rest of our drive, and we could tell that our drive tomorrow will be a challenge: the streams we passed were flowing with pretty high water levels, and we anticipate a muddy camp and potentially washed out muddy roads on the way to Sakwa early tomorrow…

Unlike last year, we have already completed our medicine packaging, into small plastic packs that we can easily pass out to our patients…Thanks to Jeff Nekoba for his amazing organizational abilities, and to the whole team for getting the pills packed in record time.  Debra Merrill then helped lead the planning session for tomorrow’s camp, which will focus primarily on the children attending Hope Educational Center and their teachers.  We can’t wait to focus on “our kids”, then open up the camp for the rest of the community for the rest of our 3 day mission…Pastor John ended the evening with sharing the story of Jesus blessing a disabled person at the pool of Bethesda, from John chapter 5, reminding us that we can help to provide the conditions for healing, but it is God that actually does the healing…we need to remember to invite God into our camp with every person we see over the next 3 days…

As one of the Docs who had the awesome pleasure of participating in last year’s camp, I am fascinated to watch how quickly our whole team is coming together once again, united in our solitary purpose to love on the people of Sakwa, tangibly representing God’s love to this wonderful group of people…Praise God for all the blessings he has already given us as we have prepared to serve the people of Kenya…

RJ – Mommy is doing fine and she loves you. 

Love to you all.

The Mission Team

My hope is that each of us on the team carves out a substantial piece of time to “get ready” with the Lord. We desperately need the fruits of His Spirit! We need His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control to get through this journey!

SpiritHome.com describes the Fruit of the Spirit in this way: “When Christians speak of the work of the “Holy Spirit”, they are speaking about the operations of the Spirit of God in the material world we live in, and within us. But God the Holy Spirit isn’t here just to hang out, or to do a miracle or two for sport. The Spirit is there to cause things to happen in peoples’ lives that bring them more in tune with God’s purposes on earth (and beyond). When the Spirit starts changing someone, it shows as a growth in character, a change in their way of life that is good for the people they live among.”

If we stay focused on Him, then no matter what we have or what we might forget to take, we are ready!

Kenya Mission Team 2010

Front Row from left to right: Robert Levesque, Stephanie Halvorson, Barry Phelps, Debra Merrill, Amber Ostrup, Gracie Wiersma, Sarah Lindegren, Richard Sheridan, Liz Leavenworth.

Back Row from left to right: Jeff Nekoba, Bill Shugarts, Faith Majette, John O’Brien, Roger Bick, Stu Mentzel, Amy Ashley, Kim Leavenworth, Diane Nothnagel, Pastor John Speight.

Not Pictured: Sarah Lloyd, Tony Jones, Denise Page, Wally Edens, Jen O’Bryhim, Jason Coleman, Vito Brown.

Rewind to last year. We had never done a medical mission and had no idea how to get medicines, plan for logistics, had no idea how many people we would treat or what we would treat them for. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. One month before we left, we had very, very little in the way of supplies beyond the 1000 bandaids, 1000 packets of antacid and 1000 alcohol wipes that were donated. And we prayed.  When we actually took off for Kenya a month later we had more than enough to care for 3000 people and a surplus to leave behind.

This year I have been part of a small group Bible study that examines when and how God answers prayer. Did God get our medicines? Will God get our Army providers the permission needed for them to go? Or does God answer the prayer by giving us the peace and confidence to keep our heads about us and calmly, diligently keep working the problem because we know we are on His mission? My life experience is starting to lean toward answer 3.

I am starting to see again and again that what God gives as His answer is the strength, peace, mercy and grace to work through the challenges that life throws at us. His grace is what fueled us last year to walk through the crowds of thousands and set up camp like we knew what we were doing, to work hour after hour without stopping for food or rest, to have energy to work all night to pack the next day’s medicines, and to laugh and cry with each other as if we had known each other forever, though we were only recently strangers. That’s what God does. He calls us, prepares us and enables us to do His work – when we are willing to be servants.

So, 16 days and counting. And we are praying. We are hoping that our Army brothers will be able to join us. But we are praying that God will enable us to go, work and be successful even if they can’t.