Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tuesday was more of the same


To a person, we all had a GREAT night’s sleep after the first day of the clinic on Monday.  We all got to get comfortable in one or more stations of the clinic and started getting used to the wonderful ways of the Kenyan people that we served.  We also had surprise visitors on Monday, our LCMS missionary who oversees 5 east African countries, Pastor Shauen Trump and a husband and wife missionary team from Ghana who share our friendship with Woodie and Margie Arp.  It was a rather full day until we got driven out of the clinic by a torrential late afternoon rain and we had to close up shop around 4pm.
We arrived at the church, got setup in record time and then had a brief devotion led by Pastor Robert.  He read from the Genesis account of Adam and Eve having been formed from dust and then asked us how much we would pay for a handful of dust.  None of us would pay anything.  He then pointed out that God paid with His son on the cross for creatures made out of dust.  It was a very powerful, thought provoking couple of minutes. 
Our Tuesday very nearly mirrored our Monday, seeing a similar number of patients,  Since Tuesday is a market day, many of our patients spread the word about their experiences at the Monday clinic and were able to tell their friends about the care they received and that the clinic is indeed free.  A number of supposedly free clinics turn out to be ripoffs, so people are rightfully leery when they hear "free" and "clinic" in the same sentence. 
We have a new team of doctors with us this time.  Our friend Milliam is out in the country with the Trinity-Klein team.  We have our old friend Lillian with us and two other wonderful doctors, Francis and Patrick.  They have all been most attentive to every patient and every problem we have brought them.  Pastor Kevin and I got to bond with Patrick Monday afternoon when his car was stuck in the mud.  We pushed him out, and while backing up with his front wheel drive car, it suddenly gained traction and sprayed both of us with mud.  Our driver, Allan, accused me of looking like a warthog.  I'm sure he meant it in the kindest sense!  Patrick was very apologetic, but we told him "no worries", it was our welcome to Kenya.
We always have "God things" that happen to us during the day that we share over dinner.  Usually one of the team has some outstanding experience that could only have come from God.  We had 3 of them happen within the space of an hour that the whole team knew about as they occurred.  The first one involved a man named Joseph who came up to the registration tent and marched right for me.  He asked if I knew who he was and I recognized him as the gracious host who had served the group tea out on the tea plantation after our Saturday safari.  The first part of the God thing was that we had not even intended to stop on the way back to town because we were running late for worship services with heavier than expected traffic.  But our driver, Edwin, came into town through the tea and coffee plantation area anyway and turned into a narrow long drive that ended next to an old mansion with a beautiful lawn, flowers and tea fields.  We sat for a minute in front of the house and a maid came out, talked to the driver and before you knew it, Joseph came out and explained that they were closed but he would open up and make us tea and biscuits anyway, there just would be no time for the tour.  We told him about the clinic, and lo and behold, there he was today.  He had taken a matatu, a public transportation van, to Kiambu and then began asking people where the clinic was.  Eventually he found the needle in the haystack.  He brought us fresh home-made cookies and we were able to fit him with reading glasses.  What a blessing!
Joseph with the team
 
Our next two God things happened within minutes of Joseph's having said his goodbyes and blessings over us.  Alice, the woman pictured below, came to clinic and was overjoyed thanking everyone for her sight.  She had come to our clinic in Kiambu last November.  She had lost her husband when she had two small children several years ago and was really having a hard go of it.  We had provided her with a referral for cataract surgery for one of her eyes and now she could see very well out of it.  She was back to have the other eye done, for which we supplied her with the proper paperwork.  It was so nice to see the results of our efforts here bearing good fruit.  Another woman in her mid-70's, Salome, came into the clinic immediately after her, also thanking the Lord and us for restoring sight to one of her eyes through cataract surgery last fall and we also sent her to have her second eye done.  Thank you Jesus!
 
 


Alice
 
Well, that's about it for now.  We have several thousand pictures to sift through upon our return to Texas and I expect to have the best of the best available for viewing within a week or 10 days of our return, so keep coming back for more reports and images of what is starting out to be an outstanding clinic. To God be the Glory!
 

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