We made it to the clinic in only about 40 minutes using a shortcut Catherine had recently found. All of the heavy traffic was going the other way and our lane looked like the parting of the Red Sea. Cool. We greeted our volunteers, and the clinic was ready to go in what seemed like an instant compared to Monday. We had a brief devotional time with Scripture, a couple of songs and me thanking the team for the good start on Monday. I stressed that we needed to continue to handle each patient with love and caring from the first one of the patients in the clinic on Monday until the last one when we finish this coming Friday. I also mentioned that we could see a large number, since word of mouth from our Monday visitors would spread very quickly.
I turned out to be wrong about that. By 1pm we had only seen 51 and we ended the clinic at 101 for the day. If this was my first effort at leading a team, I might have panicked and caught the next flight home! This is the only time in 22 previous vision clinics that each day was not bigger than the last. Perhaps the holiday made Monday a little better, maybe people were back to work today, perhaps our location which is a little off the beaten path was too hard to find or maybe enough advance advertising had not been done. I did find out that another group had done a successful vision clinic in March nearby, maybe the market was not ripe for another one just yet.
I was able to meet with Catherine for a while after dinner tonight and we may be able to use a truck with a speaker to canvas the neighborhood tomorrow, inviting everyone to the free clinic. Free is a powerful word. As a first resort, rather than the last thing we try, we will all be praying tonight that the Lord would bring us many more people, in my experience devout prayer is an incredible thing.
As always, there was good camaraderie during the day, the congregation at Ongata Rongai has been very hospitable, everyone is friendly and quick to laugh, and all have a deep faith. Our doctors and evangelists are first class, and we have had wonderful lunches of native foods prepared daily by the women of the church. Breaking bread together is a wonderful tradition that leads to many good things.
After lunch, I was told I needed to see someone out in the Evangelism Tent. I arrived to see a woman I had met in the clinic. She was totally blind as a result of glaucoma. She arrived at our clinic on the back of a "bota bota" which is a motorcycle that you hire as a taxi. That alone was amazing. She had seen our doctors already and understood her situation well, but she wanted to make a request of me. Using Braille on her smartphone, she is able to send text messages but needs a specialized screen reader to read replies to her. I called for my friend Carol who works with our doctors and is very diligent in helping the least of the people navigate the health care system. There is company in the USA that makes such a device and they had shipped some to Kenya. Their shipment was stolen, and the phones were for sale online. She is a serious Christian and did not want to be a part of the thievery, so she has not tried to get one yet. It nearly brought me to tears when I thought of the selflessness this woman of faith has. She had the phone number of the company representative, and it was a 214 area code, telling me it is in the Dallas area. I am going to pursue procuring one for her when we get back to Texas and will likely send it over with the next member of our project rather than take a chance on another theft. Lord, please use us in a mighty way to help her and to glorify your Holy Name! Amen.
There was also a family that had several members who need cataract surgeries as well as one family member who needs cataract surgery and breast cancer surgery. Carol will shepherd them so that all of these moving parts happen in the right order so that they can care for each other as they heal.
I can't say that I am happy with the numbers of people we have seen, but they are the ones God has sent us and His plan is perfect. Perhaps these two stories, among others were part of his purpose for us today. Lord, continue to keep us in your will, that we might overcome all obstacles that are put in our path. Amen.
Four of our team, Amanda, Elizabeth, Sarah and Arron went with Catherine out to the school in rural Kongasis today. They were well received by the church and presented our gifts of the solar generator, two laptops and a printer that we had purchased with the help of Redeemer friends and a generous $10,000 donation from Sara and Dick Rathgeber. Teachers will be able to be paid more; students will be able to do the distance learning that the federal government requires and construction on the school office building will be able to be completed. Thank you, Jesus! Many pictures and video of this happy day were recorded and much of that will be posted, probably after we get back. The group arrived back in Nairobi in time for dinner and shared what a wonderful day it was, how thankful all of the teachers and students were and how much the children loved them. Amanda took cards and hand-written notes from our students to theirs and read the heartfelt letter that one little Redeemer girl wrote to all of them. There was not a dry eye there!
Well, time for bed, more to report as time permits. We are having a nice team dinner tomorrow night, so the next post may be rather short. Blessings everyone!
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