The clinic continues to function well

The registration and evangelism tents were full all morning.

We had a smoothly running clinic once again, now that everyone has been trained in one or more of the stations. We saw 421 patients, many of them were Muslim once again. Word is spreading that we are showing one and all respect and love. It is giving the church a good name. Three different men came through registration this morning saying they were considering becoming Christians. Our evangelists alerted me and we made sure that I worked with each one. After finding out what their medical needs were, I directed each conversation towards what a wonderful church that Springs of Life Lutheran Church is. I told of how I had done these clinics at least six times before here and what a good place to grow their it is. I mentioned the Bishop, the Evangelist and the Chair of the congregation before praying over them. All of them were interested in attending worship next Sunday. We brought Bibles with us to be distributed at the Bishops discretion and I mentioned to him that these new believers might be a good place to begin.  Thank you Jesus!

We helped Bishop Bakari's niece with her vision.

Around 2 pm, Elizabeth and Ken took an Uber to the airport to make a last Dutch effort at retrieving their lost bags. As they got to the airport,  our dear Catherine got a call that Ken's luggage would be delivered today. They spent the afternoon at the Kenya Air desk and when that failed, they tried British Air, since that is where the fiasco started. No luck. They returned to Little Daughters in time for 7pm dinner. Sandra and Elizabeth are now headed to the Hub, a nearby mall to get Elizabeth more clothes. This has been such a shame.  She has been an incredibly hard worker, distributing eye medications and working with our doctors and patients with joy and professionalism. To have all of this happen on her first mission with us saddens me. We have all saved every receipt related to this and will be filing claims, but it doesn't help in the moment. 

We are expecting large numbers of people tomorrow since it's a national holiday.  In my experience,  people sleep but then fill our registration tent by mid-morning.  Pray for us for strength and joy that we will be able to care for the people and live out the Gospel among them.

Stay tuned, I will post next as I am able. We are having our nice dinner with Catherine and Mama, her mother who dearly loves me tomorrow after the clinic. Blessings to all!

The Tuesday clinic ran smoothly

The clinic in operation this morning. 

The clinic was another success today and, compared to Monday morning startup growing pains, it went well from the start. We saw about 360 patients. Yesterday we referred 18 for cataract surgery and 10 today.  I was able to roam a bit more as the leader should, but still spent about half of my time in the triage station, directing traffic and praying individually over maybe 100 or more people, Muslims and Christians alike. We had two people join the congregation, thank you Jesus! I worked with both of them.

Ken and Elizabeth are still missing their luggage. The EU is strict about getting reimbursed for losses due to misrouting baggage. It will be interesting to see how our claims are handled. 

We are all well and have been able to purchase more clothes and other essentials to replace what we needed from our bags. It's hard to feel sorry for yourself when we are dealing with hundreds of people in the slum who have peace and joy in situations we can't begin to understand. 

That's about all for now. More to follow.  Please keep praying for a safe and effective mission as we continue our work here.  Blessings everybody!

The first day of the clinic went well

After an early breakfast we began driving to our clinic and got stuck in a massive traffic jam.  Catherine pulled down a muddy dirt road and took back roads to the church, passing points of interest that don't usually see like a pole club and a different view of the slum from above.

Our clinic supplies were supposed to arrive Sunday afternoon but hadn't and we waited for them before we could open. We arranged pews into the different stations of the clinic. We had the usual first day glitches getting started but by the end of the day had seen over 400 patients.  A good number for our initial day. Word of mouth is king, so if the weather cooperates, we will have an outstanding week. In addition to glasses, we dispensed meds and I signed off on quite a few cataract surgeries and surgeries for little children. 

Time to call it a night to get rested up for tomorrow.  Blessings!

Back to Nairobi and worship in Kibera

We arrived for the breakfast buffet and both had the chef prepare omelets for us. There was a Argentina selection of fruit, breads, sausages (chicken or beef) and complementary coffee and juice. We dropped off our keys and were on our way at 630. We made good time and were able to stop at Little Daughters to freshen up. My luggage had arrived but I only had time to get a room and stow my stuff since my suitcase was literally encapsulated in plastic. We still are waiting for 2 pieces of luggage. We quickly drove across town to Springs of Life Lutheran Church to worship where we are going to be serving. 

                One of the many choirs 

The service was officiated by Bishop Bakari Kea and Evangelist Thomas Okello. There were many dear friends in the congregation today including Sylvester Opiyo and Emmanuel Mungami. It was Pentecost and the Holy Spirit blessed the service, music and preaching.  Before I knew it,  church was over. It had been three and a half hours of beautiful praise.

Our friends in Kibera had seen that Redeemer prayed over us as we were sent and after Elizabeth and I greeted the congregation, the Bishop received us with a powerful prayer. After church, I met with the Elders and showed them my desired layout for the clinic. We will arrive early tomorrow to tune things up. 

We had a late lunch with Catherine before going back to Little Daughters for naps. Catherine picked us up to shop for clinic supplies and returned us in time for a light dinner. 

We arranged for a 6:30 breakfast tomorrow so we can get an early start and get the clinic setup. Typically, we are up and running by 9:30 or so and there will be kinks to work out. By noon on Tuesday,  clinics are beginning to run very smoothly.  It just takes some patience and training,  particularly in another culture.

That's it for now. Any pictures during this week will probably be unedited and I'll come back with better versions after this trip. Blessings everyone!

Great day at Lake Nakuru

It was great to be out in nature again. I slept great after all of the trials and tribulations so far. We had a nice buffet breakfast at 6:30 am and then drove through the game park until about 12:30. We saw all of the usual animal and birds and were blessed by seeing a Leopard sleeping on a tree branch, wow! We had lunch, took naps and went back out at 3 pm and got back around 6:45 pm. After some freshening up, we had dinner and checked out of the lodge early, since we plan on being on the road around 6:30 after a pre-arranged early 6:15 breakfast. We will be going straight to church in Kibera and are hopeful our luggage will have arrived in Nairobi. I know this is a brief post, but there are more details to work on before I can hit the sack.

Blessings!

Luggage woes in Nairobi

 After landing pretty much on time in Nairobi, we made our way through immigration in pretty good time.  That is, until we went to find our luggage at the carousel.  Ken and Sandra beat us to that step and had searched high and low and their bags were not to be found.  Elizabeth and I took a look and came to the same conclusion.  We spent the next hour filling out paper work designed to find the luggage and then have it delivered to Little Daughters.  This did Elizabeth and I little good, since we were leaving for days of safaris and only had our carry-ons.  After meeting our driver, Willie, we went to The Hub, a mall near our lodgings and we each bought underwear, sox and some tops to get us through the weekend.  We returned to Little Daughters where the sisters provided Elizabeth and I each with our own room to clean up in.  Once we were done, we headed to Lake Naivasha, a national game park famous for its hippos and for birds of all types.  Once there, we took a boat ride and got some great looks and photos of African Fish Eagles, Hammerkops, Hippos. Ibises and others.  We had a nice lunch and headed for Catherine's school on the way to Lake Nakuru.

What should have been a 30 minute ride turned into about an hour and a half of very bad dirt roads, numerous calls to Catherine and the school and finally ended with one of the teachers tracking us down on a motorcycle and leading us for about half an hour to the school.  Even though we were late, the students stayed after school and sang and danced for us.  After each if the teachers introduced themselves, and we did the same, Catherine's sister Susan invited us in for a quick meal.

The students needed to get home and we needed to be at the Lake Nakuru Game Park before sunset or risk losing not only the drive back to Nairobi, but also forfeiting what he had paid for being there Friday afternoon.  My drivers talked to the lady ranger who was just getting off duty and somehow convinced her to let us in and to pay in the morning.  Wow, the first thing that really went right in over a day and a half on the road!

Elizabeth and I sampled from the dinner buffet and it was all quite good.  I'm ready to hopefully sleep through the night after all we've endured since Wednesday morning and will be getting breakfast at the lodge tomorrow at 6:30 before heading out on our morning safari.  Blessings everybody!

Finally heading towards Nairobi

Our British Air Flight 440 from London to Amsterdam also provided us with some drama. After sorting out our options with British Air, which included a 10 GBP (British pound) food voucher good anywhere at Heathrow, we went in search of lunch. Nothing was less than 15 GBP anywhere. We settled on a restaurant called Giraffe and ate before we stationed ourselves in chairs near a big flight display.  Over the years, I have gotten used to the drama of keeping an eye on the estimated departure time as well as the Heathrow habit of assigning gates at the last possible minute. I wrote the previous blog post during this wait and kept nodding off mid-sentence! I think they play these games with gate assignments to combat bad guys. We eventually got a gate and had to quickly make our way there, only to find the plane had been late in arriving and was still being cleaned well after the takeoff time. Luckily, Amsterdam is a short hop, but we did cross over a timeline and being an hour later than London time meant we had barely an hour layover. That was cutting it too close for me.

I am writing this at 39000 feet over north Africa,  having just finished a good chicken dinner on Kenyan Air. Our start was a little late, but we are on track to land around 6 am Nairobi time.  It's 12:30 am now, so if I can get some sleep between now and touchdown,  it will be a good day out in the countryside tomorrow  (Friday). Stay tuned, more adventures as I am able!

Trouble in Paradise!

It looked like we would land at 8:09 am in London,  but looks can be deceiving. I was watching the in-flght map during our descent to Heathrow.  We actually landed closer to 9 am and came to a stop out on the tarmac. Buses were supposed to pick us up to take us to the terminal but seemed to take forever and when they did arrive, it was one slowly at a time. No way to unload a full 777. By the time we got to security and scanned our boarding passes, it was already too late and the automatic system said we had to see an agent.

All four of us saw a great gate agent. There were no more direct flights to Nairobi today, but after disappearing into a back room, she came back with an alternative plan.  We could fly to Amsterdam this afternoon and then on to (Nairobi tonight, arriving around 6 am Friday local time. Not ideal, but I have done worse, going by way of Istanbul one time.  Also, she got our luggage rerouted. We talked to Catherine via Whatsapp and she will have showers and breakfast for us before we start our day. More to follow as things develop.

Ready to head to London

On the plane ready to leave the gate on time. 

Correction: we left the gate on time, taxied for 35 minutes and there was a problem with our runway. We taxied, along with about 40 other planes, to a different runway and finally took off an hour and twenty minutes late. Our captain has done a good job of making up a lot of that lost time. I am in the very back row, up against the bulkhead,  not prime real estate.

While we were at JFK, we had just enough time to hit a NY food court with Italian favorites and other iconic foods.  I had 2 slices of NY style pizza and it was quite good. 

Once we were airborne,  dinner was served a couple of hours into our flight. I had chicken with mashed potatoes and it was unexpectedly good compared to previous British Air experiences. 

While we were taxiing endlessly,  I was able to strike up a conversation with one of the crew. He too, is a drone pilot, had recently crashed and also had a very good experience with DJI rapidly issuing a replacement. He liked hearing about our mission. We just had the equivalent of an Egg McMuffin for breakfast and it was also way better than the past. While my crew friend was serving the food, I expressed concern about our connection since we are all in the back of the plane and won't have more than an hour and a half to get through security and board. He assured me that we will probably be nearby our next flight. Over the years, during massive construction at Heathrow,  we have had to walk great distances and take busses from one terminal to another. I feel better now and will know soon enough as we are less than an hour from touching down. We're praying that my next post doesn't include missing our flight!

Enroute to New York JFK

American couldn't get me an aisle seat for this flight, but I'm having a great time anyway. I met a nice young woman named Isabel that just graduated with a law degree from the University of Texas and is traveling back to her native Argentina. She will be representing the people as a defense attorney. We compared notes and she too must bring gifts for friends and family.  We talked about different cultures and the mission trip. I really don't believe in coincidences or accidents too much anymore, I think the Lord is always in the midst of these "chance" encounters. 

On my other side, a young father and mother from India were traveling with small daughter and I helped entertain the older one. The toddler bounced back and forth between joy and blood-curdling wailing. The joys of travel.

Our team is doing a good job of staying hydrated,  an hour into the flight we have all heeded nature's call. It's important  to be drink, drink, drinking all the time since long distance air travel dries you out and we will be staying at a mile high or more during our stay in Nairobi.  Thirst under these conditions is a lagging indicator. By the time you thirst, you are already behind the curve. It's particularly important in my case, since I developed a vein bruise or  persistent blood clots in my left leg last summer. It could have been partially due to the flights on last year's mission to Waithaka, or a 3200 mile road trip in late July for my high school reunion or perhaps my 3rd Covid shot. Whatever the cause, I've been on an expensive blood thinner for 10 months and regular venous Doppler studies show no improvement. Also, I have a history of kidney stones so I'm drinking at least 3 liters of water per day under normal circumstances to prevent more of them. I'm trying for a little more than that on this trip. That's a lot of water! A big benefit is stretching when I need to get up and keeping blood flowing through that leg. I'm wearing compression socks also as a preventative measure. 

The choices for food for purchase on this flight were big snack packs or a couple of kinds of salad in a jar. I got an Asian chicken salad and it wasn't bad other than being $11. They did bring some free pretzels, cookies and a choice of water or soft drinks. I know we won't eat again until we've taken off for London,  so I am thankful for salad in a jar with a screw off lid. I do have some granola bars and peanuts in my carry-on,  but this was something different. 

About a other hour and a half til New York and I'm streaming live TV on the free wireless on the plane. There is power for every seat and USB as well, so my phone is topped off! They have the new larger cargo bins overhead. You put your carry-on in wheels first and then tip it up on it's side. Plenty of room for everybody.  I read about the guy who invented this, an engineer who was frustrated when he had to check his carry-on.  Many 737s like this one have been retrofitted. I'm sure the cabin crews like it! More to follow as I am able.

Getting ready for takeoff! Let the adventure begin!

We all made it through security without incident, but Elizabeth and I are having trouble getting seat assigments for the British Air flights from New York to London and for London to Nairobi.  We'll just have to deal with that at JFK at the British Air counter.  I always say "Anybody who thinks that International travel is glamorous hasn't done it!"  We have a four hour flight to New York and only a two hour layover, which might sound like a lot, but JFK is huge and I'm sure we'll have to go from one end to the other to get to British Air.  Pastor Kevin and I did it once and I wish I had counted the number of escalators and elevators we took in the process, it seemed like 20 or more.

Once onboard and flying to London, we'll have dinner and then it's always a good plan to try to sleep as much as we can to get acclimated to the eight hour time difference we will have in Kenya.  We attempt to stay awake from London to Nairobi, so that we'll be exhausted and might sleep the first night after we arrive around 9pm and make it to our lodgings around 11pm or midnight.

We only have a two hour layover in London as well and that may be a scramble, so I might not be able to post again until possibly Friday sometime.  I usually write blog entries on my phone during the flights and send them out whenever I'm in wifi range.  Keep us in your prayers for travel mercies and an effective mission.  More to follow! 

The church sends us

Getting commissioned for the trip Sunday morning by Pastor Kevin

 Only one more day and we head 'em out!  As usual, there have been way more last-minute computer repairs and other distractions as I slowly but surely get packed up.  Yesterday was a good example of that.  I took my friend Bill Henderson out on my bass boat in search of birds on Lake Georgetown.  We had a wonderful morning, seeing several Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Painted Buntings and others birds up close and personal in outstanding early morning light.  It was calm and in the high 60's when we started and we saw a very nice, but subdued, sunrise.  We kept up a nice conversation all morning and I was pretty happy with how our Gilligan's Island 3-hour tour had gone.  That is until after I had gotten the boat ready and was trailering out of the park and immediately had a flat tire on the boat trailer.  I counted my blessings, it had happened at about 15 miles per hour and I wasn't out on the Interstate going 70 miles per hour.  It could have been much worse.  About a year and a half ago, I'd had a flat on the boat trailer and had called my insurance to get roadside assistance.  I learned that tires on my truck we covered, but the fine print said no to trailer tires.  That little adventure cost me $85 for the tire change plus new tires.  I did need help that time because where I had pulled off of the road would have been to dangerous to use the scissors jack that I had in the truck.  This time I was on level ground and proceeded to break the lug nuts free and was sizing up where to place the jack when a work truck passed by and did an immediate u-turn.  Out jumped a guy in a neon green work crew vest asking if he could help me.  I told him a better jack would be a good thing and he said he just happened to have one.  I told him with a good jack we were ten minutes away from having the flat tire changed out for the spare.  During the next ten minutes, I learned his name was Hassan and even though I tried to pay him or buy him lunch for his trouble, he wouldn't take anything and just remained a cheerful, friendly guy.  I asked him again what I could do for him and he said "Pay it forward!" I always do the same myself, so we hit it off famously.  I explained the mission trip that was only 2 days away and how things like this always slow you down when you probably need it.  We shook hands, and we promised to keep each other in our prayers.  I wouldn't have encountered such a beautiful soul without some trouble.  Thank you Jesus for always letting "chance" encounters like this to happen!

Next, I called the Discount Tire near my house 20 miles away and they were out of my tire, but one 2 miles away in Georgetown had what I needed.  I called them and they said to come and drop the boat off.  Being a Monday, they were real busy but they got me in.  The guy who checked me in was named Antowan, and I noticed an accent.  I told him I was going to Africa and wondered where he was from.  "Jamaica mon!" I said "Cool" and told him a bit about the mission trip.  He was fascinated and said he'd love to come with us. Another "chance" encounter, another new friend.  I think my cancer survival saga that I wrote about at my other blog has really taught me to always look at the bright side of things.  I went back to Austin, got a haircut and attempted to repair a last minute computer issue for a client unsuccessfully and then was waiting for word that the boat  was ready.  I found out it would be about 4:30 and traffic is horrendous coming and going the 20 miles I needed to travel.  But not yesterday!  It was like the Red Sea parted.  I had my boat back in storage just before 5pm and was still able to spend some time with my girlfriend and Pete, our old, old Dachshund.  I didn't get quite as many things accomplished as I had planned, but God's plan was far better.  

Today has been spent getting brand new $100 bills, 2017 issue, because they have anti-counterfeiting measures in them, starting to pack and taking care of last-minute details like putting timers on lights, alerting the police I'll be traveling, getting travel notifications to credit card companies and the like.  I will be writing daily during the trip as possible.  I am not always near a good Internet connection and power can be spotty at times.  Please come back often to learn how the vision clinic and other aspects of the trip are going and, of course, keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission.

Blessings everybody!

Preparing to Saddle Up for Nairobi again!

 Thanks for following our progress as we get ready for another Vision Clinic in Nairobi.  I will be posting as much as I am able when we are on the ground in Kenya.  Sometimes power or Internet connections are a little iffy, but I am usually able to write about our experiences on a regular basis so that you will know we are safe and will know what to pray for as we face inevitable challenges.  This will be my 21st trip to Kenya, I have grown to love it there.  The people have a faith I can only hope to emulate and a joy, even in some pretty dire circumstances, that I strive to imitate in my own life.  I always return home completely energized.

This time, we will be serving at the Springs of Life Lutheran Church in the slum of Kibera, partnering with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya and Nuru, the local arm of the Lutheran Laymen's League.  I have served at this church multiple times before and we have always had cheerful, hard-working volunteers from the congregation to help make the clinic run smoothly as well as doctors from the Ministry of Health who have become dear friends over the years.  I am really looking forward to this mission trip.  Covid got in the way in 2020 and we served in Waithaka in the slum of Kawangware last year, so it has been at least 4 years since we held a clinic in Kibera.  I feel like we will have a very large impact this time, seeing maybe 3500 or more patients from Monday through Friday.

More to follow as our planning, ordering of supplies and recruiting any last-minute team members continues.  Which reminds me, we had a solid team of 7 ready to embark on this mission only a month ago and a series of circumstances have dwindled us to 4, including me.  Luckily, 3 out of 4 of us have done this multiple times and I have led a successful clinic with only 3 team members from Redeemer in the past.  The secret is empowering the local volunteers to do a good job and concentrating on the bigger picture of the logistical and spiritual aspects of our work.  We can still accept applications to come with us and would welcome the help.  It's a life changer, you will come back with a different and better perspective, I can guarantee that.  It's what has made me a "repeat offender"!  The cost is your round-trip airfare, which has hovered around $1500 for this trip and $500 for on the ground expenses including lodging and meals at a very nice compound called The Little Daughters of St. Joseph in the Nairobi suburb of Karen.  Only a little more money for souvenirs and incidentals like bottled water, snacks for the clinic and any sightseeing is extra.  In my experience, friends, family and groups you belong to can be very generous sources of funds, so please consider joining us from May 24th to June 4th.  An application and more information is at www.redeemer.net/kenya.

Here is a picture of our team in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro last June.