Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursday evening

We indeed did eat at the Trump's last night, after serving around 385 patients in the clinic. Pastor Preece spent Wednesday in Kisumu visiting a clinic that had been setup by his congregation, Zion Lutheran Church in Dallas. Bishop Bakari was in Kitui on ELCK business, so 2 of our most effective evangelists were doing other good works. Kay had a great experience with a 14 year old girl and her mother.. The daughter had very bad vision and the mother had given up hope that here daughter would ever see and have a normal life. When our distance glasses actually allowed her to read much of the eye chart, the mother was beside herself with joy. A picture of this will most certainly appear online once we return home. We stayed busy right up until we had a brief devotion with our team and the volunteers while it poured cats and dogs outside. We left for the suburb of Karen, where we stay, and were anticipating the usual 35-40 minute ride home. In addition to the rain, there was a bus vs. pedestrian accident not long before we left the church. The ride became an over two and a half hour ordeal that everyone handled with good cheer. After all, we had just been proclaiming the Gospel to all who came to the clinic. We arrived before 8pm at the Trump's and Krista had a wonderful appetizer bar set with sugared nuts, bread and homemade cheese. The rest of the fare last night was also homemade and included Caesar salad, manicotti and bread sticks. This was followed by a homemade chocolate cake topped with strawberry slices served with homemade vanilla ice cream. Did I say everything was homemade? This can be a struggle for Kirsta, since she must oftentimes substitute for items that are in short supply, recently butter and cake flour being only two examples.

I had written up most of what is above while waiting for breakfast early this morning, then disaster struck. While saving my several paragraph long posting, it completely disappeared as my Android tablet locked up. Not good... I hate rewriting something I've already spent a good deal of time on wordsmithing. Especially when I knew I couldn't possibly come close to what I had written during the morning before work. And I'm sure I'm right, since trying to match a sharp early morning mind with efforts made after a long day are doomed to fail.

Our day today was much better, with an easy ride into the clinic. We saw 422 people today, putting us on track for possibly 2,000 patients before the clinic ends at 5pm tomorrow. One of the high points was a woman that came to the clinic that we had referred for cataract surgery last year. Dr. Stephen, one of our local eye doctors, remembered her and made sure she got a thorough exam. While her other eye is not good enough for surgery to be successful, the one that had been repaired was working well. Thank you, Jesus! Our clinic day concluded with a devotion led by Pastor Preece. He worked an evening devotion from the Lutheran Hymnal into a short sermon on what had been accomplished today. Giving light and sight to a world that needs a Savior. He led the Redeemer team in a very nice rendition of the Doxology after our Kenyan friends had serenaded us with a great Swahili song used to celebrate the end of the work day. We really sounded pretty good for zero practice and Pastor Bakari liked it so much he had us do it again. The second time was magical, soft and loud and bold at the right places, with very good Lutheran four part harmony. It had all of the heart and joy that the much different music our Kenyan hosts have gifted us with possesses. I will never forget it. We will lose Pastor Kevin tomorrow evening, as he heads home for Austin to preside over confirmation on Sunday. We still have Saturday to go after he's left and it looks like most of the team will travel to Lake Nakuru to see the wild game park and to stop and enjoy the view from above the Great Rift Valley, either when coming or going from the safari. More to follow as I am able. Praise God for another great day. Amen!

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