Early Sunday morning November 16

Alarms began going off starting at a little before 6am, which was what mine was reset for after being up for a while in the middle of the night.  It’s dry this morning and I’m thankful for that, since we’ll be helping the other teams pack up for their journeys to their clinic locations after a 7am breakfast.  Even though I a had a bit of a rough night, I’m pretty well rested and I’m comforted by knowing that on my last few missions to Africa, I usually got a pretty sound sleep on the first Sunday night.  Definitely something to look forward to.  Sometimes it’s the little things in life!

The Redeemer team is scheduled to leave for the church in Kawangware around 9:15.  Pastor James has lost some of his voice, so or friend Emmanuel is slated to do the sermon this morning.  This is good, because if the past is any guide, Pastor James will be needing his voice for the rest of the week.  Best to rest it on the Sabbath. 

I spoke too soon, a steady rain has begun at 6:40, which might mean I’ll get to break out my rain poncho.  I always get a cheap poncho at Academy sporting goods for each trip.  On one of my first missions, one of the old hands told me, “If you don’t use something for three mission trips in a row, don’t pack it again, with one exception.  Your rain gear.”  True words, when you need one here, especially in Nairobi, you really need one.  Many times, we’ve had a beautiful day until about 4pm.   Then, late afternoon clouds will come into the elevated city, which is from 5500 to maybe 6500 feet above sea level” and a downpour of Biblical proportions will ensue, just as we are packing up and needed to get to our vehicle.  At that point, a $4 poncho is a great investment.  More to follow after we get moved over Rosa Mystica, our lodgings for the rest of the week.  

Saturday afternoon, lunch and an excursion to see crocodiles and more! November 15

Ben was able to procure a van so they we could ride in comfort with him, Maggie and their two young daughters. It was still drizzling when we pulled into the dirt parking lot of Nairobi Mamba Village, a wild game display attraction that has numerous crocodiles of all ages, some very large giraffes, some large turtles and a small lake that is home to cormorants and other water fowl.  We were nearly the only ones there, so Ben checked on the prices and it was about $10 apiece for each of us and $3 for residents’ of Kenya.  We decided to wait and see if the rain was going to burn off and went to the Veranda for lunch.  Each of us had a great meal, some had sandwiches, some had chicken dishes, Howard and I had fried shrimp and fries, while Ralph got a hollowed out avocado filled with shrimp and an avocado sauce.  As we were eating our leisurely lunch, sure enough, the sun broke through and things began to dry out rapidly. 

By the time we returned the Mamba Village, only about 10 minutes away, the parking lot was nearly full. The mud and the puddles were already drying out nicely.  Howard treated the group to admission to the park and then we were greeted by Francis, who was to be our guide for the day.  He was a very knowledgeable young man about the many birds and wildlife throughout Kenya and had a very deep knowledge of each species he show us.  Our first stop was a pond that was surrounded by many large crocodiles, sunning themselves, apparently dead or maybe replicas.  I couldn’t detect any breathing or other signs of life.  He took about a six foot piece of4 inch diameter PVC pipe and poked one of the larger crocs, and we all jumped back at how suddenly and violently the crocodile reacted.  We got quite a few good pictures of several of them with their mouths open, looking very menacing, from only a few feet away.  Francis showed us a lot about this species, including the fact that it has no tongue and that they keep their mouths open when they are warm to help regulate the heat, since they don’t sweat.  Our next stop was a baby alligator pond, and some of us got to hold one that was about two and a half feet long.  Francis showed us a crocodile egg and we also learned that if the eggs are incubated at less than 70 degrees, the offspring will be female, above that, male.

Our final exhibit inside was several large and small turtles.  We learned about their lifespan, how to tell male from female and lots of other facts.  Some of us held a medium sized one for another great set of photo opportunities.  Nothing like a selfie with a giant turtle, I always say!

Once we got back outside, we started to take a walk around one side of the small lake that was there.  We saw some folks floating in boat, waterfowl in and around the water and signs for Egypt, Libya and other African countries.  Each area had plant life from that region.  As we wound around the lake, we came to a small field inhabited by several very large ostriches.  We have seen them before on photo safaris from a distance, they are quite large up close and personal.  Francis broke off a piece of lantana from a nearby bush and fed one of them through the fence.  He absolutely loved this treat!  My close-up pictures revealed they have eyelashes that most women would die for! 

We finished the afternoon by walking back towards the park entrance, with Francis continuing to point out various birds and other creatures.  I got several chances to take rapid fire photo sequences of larger bird in flight, one of my hobbies.  I hope some of them turn out well.

We went back to our compound, Little Daughters of St. Joseph for well-deserved naps, prior to worshiping with the rest of the team members that still remained in Nairobi.  The team going to Kitui left after lunch for Kitui, so they could worship with the congregation they would be serving there on Sunday morning.  We had about 20 of our team left and we were outnumbered by our many friends who included church leaders, evangelists, volunteers from Nuru (the Lutheran Hour Ministries in Kenya) and an adult choir that came from the church in Kawangware to provide the music.  It was great renewing old acquaintances and introducing first time team members to our friends that we had served with on past missions.

Our services were followed by a buffet dinner and we all called it an early night around 8pm.  I started writing this post and then went to bed around 10pm.  I am now finishing it up at 2am after getting up when I couldn't sleep.  I took a shower to save time in the morning and to make sure I got hot water, sometimes a precious commodity when we have large numbers of people wanting the same thing in the morning or in the evening.  It’ll be back to bed after publishing this.  Stay tuned, I will hopefully have both the time and an Internet connection Sunday afternoon (we’re 9 hours ahead of Austin here) to bring you up to date.  Also, I hope to have enough bandwidth to post a picture or two, sometimes this works out, sometimes we just have to be patient until a few days after we get back to the States. Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission.  Blessings everybody! 

A rainy Saturday morning, November 15th

As predicted, our group arrived just before 10pm in Nairobi and we were bused to the international cargo area, which has doubled as the arrival terminal since the airport fire in August of 2013.  They had a scanning system as we entered the building that was looking for passengers running a fever.  My understanding is they had previously been taking temperatures individually, this was a high tech beam of what appeared to be infrared light that everyone passed through.  They are taking the threat of infectious disease very seriously here and we were glad to see that. 

It’s 7am here.  I was supposed to go on a photo safari to the Nairobi Game Park near the airport.  Our original group of 14 dwindled to 9 hardy souls, mostly first timers, because it has been raining all night.  I really didn't want to subject my nice camera to those conditions and I have had several experiences in the past of needing to help push vans when they had gotten stuck in the mud.  I’ll leave that adventure for others!

The four of us had breakfast at 8am and were able to contact our friends Ben and Maggie. They are coming to pick us up around 10:30 or 11 to show us around a few sights in Nairobi and get some lunch.  We will be worshiping here at the convent at 5:30pm with the other teams, followed by dinner.  More to follow!

Friday November 14th Travel

Our experience in flying out of Austin was a dream come true.  We all arrived at ABIA at 3pm, Pastor Kevin helped get all the footlockers into the terminal and we were checked in and had cleared security by 3:30.  We had plenty of time to eat in the food court and make last minute calls to friends and family.  I even fixed one of my customer’s computers by phone.  The only disappointment came when the front row seats that Howard and Martha had reserved at extra expense had been given to a young family.  I’m hoping they can get a refund for this.  British Air Flight 190 was one of the 787 Dreamliners.  They have a very nice touchscreen entertainment system that allows you to pause, rewind and play just like a DVR.  There were USB jacks for keeping your phones charged up and for displaying pictures from smartphones on the display.  Each seat also had a 110 volt power tap underneath it, handy for laptops and other devices.  We all were able to get a little sleep on the flight after dinner, which was a choice between chicken curry and vegetable pasta.  While it wasn't the greatest food, it filled us up and it was way better than British Air’s food used to be.  We were awakened about an hour before touchdown for a light breakfast and hot tea or coffee.  We had a good jet stream at our backs and arrived in London about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

The early arrival was a good thing, since we had to take a bus across the rainy tarmac in 50 degree weather to Terminal 5, where we found that we needed to go through security, even though we were flying out of the same terminal.  We were waved into the longest lines, even though we pointed out we had a tight connection, with only about 45 minutes to go before our gate would close.  Martha was able to get the attention of a different agent and we were sent to the Fast Trak line, only to wait forever for our carry-ons to be screened.  Martha and Howard made it through, but Ralph and I got diverted, me for my laptop and he for his suitcase.  We sent the Faskes ahead to the gate to let them know we were on the way.  They swabbed my laptop for explosives and tore Ralph’s carry-on completely apart and spent quite a bit of time examining each and every item.  I walked away, I was afraid I’d say something, cause an even bigger problem and we’d miss our flight to Nairobi for sure.  Once Ralph was free to go, we dashed through the airport, got to the Departures display and it said our gate was closing.  We got to the gate and were pointed to another bus, which took us and about 30 other latecomers to our waiting plane.  We climbed the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief once we were seated.  After we were airborne, the meal choice was the same as the night before, so we all got the opposite of our previous selections!  I am writing this with about 4 hours to go until we arrive in Nairobi. Another group of ours will arrive an hour before us, flying from Houston to Amsterdam via KLM.  Our plane also has a team from Dallas and one from Illinois.  We get to Nairobi about 10:30, so after going through customs, getting our visas, loading up our footlockers and taking the 45 minute ride to ur lodgings, I’m counting on bedtime being no earlier than 1am after a much needed shower.   We’ll be staying the first two nights at Little Daughters of St. Joseph convent in Karen, a nice suburb of Nairobi.  Following church on Sunday, we’ll move to Rosa Mystica, another convent a block away from a nice shopping center.  We’ve stayed there before, we’ll have individual rooms with breakfast and dinner provided, although we expect to go out a couple of times for supper.  That’s all for now.  This will probably be posted sometime Saturday afternoon after activities of the day.  There is a 9 hour time difference, so this blog post will probably be available before noon Austin time.  Check back here often as our adventure unfolds!  

Head 'em on out! November 13 is here...

The day has finally arrived.  As I write this, I am about half an hour from Pastor Kevin arriving with his pickup truck full of footlockers.  He's going to take me to the airport here in Austin, where we'll meet Ralph, Howard and Martha for the flight to London.   British Air just added direct flights to Heathrow last April.  This will take the place of driving down to Bush International in Houston, paying for long-term parking and reversing the process at the end of the trip.  It should knock nearly a day of travel out of the total.  Our only concern at this point is that we only have an hour and a ten minute layover in London.  Even though we will be flying into the same terminal, Terminal 5, that we will be departing from, we will almost certainly have to go through security.  I'm praying that our flight from Austin makes good time and there will be some British Air employees on the ground that can shepherd us through the whole process.  If we miss our flight, we will be given vouchers for a Kenyan Air flight later in the day, but wouldn't get to Nairobi until 5am Saturday, rather than 10:30pm Friday night as originally planned.  I'm supposed to help lead a group in two vans on a local safari early Saturday to the Nairobi Game Park.  Should be interesting, to say the least, if we're on that other flight.  I know I'll sleep well Saturday night if that happens!

More to follow as I have time, Internet and electricity.  All three can be in short supply at times!  If we miss the flight in London, you'll see more written from Heathrow.  If not, it may be Saturday or even Sunday before the next entry appears here.  We'll be staying at Rosa Mystica, a Catholic convent, during the week and will be a block from a coffee shop called Java House that has good wifi.  So, I should be pretty regular during the week in telling tall tales about our adventures in and around Nairobi.  Blessings, everybody!

Almost time to saddle up for Nairobi again! Some thoughts on ebola, our safety and more...

We’re now about a month away from our next mission trip to Kenya. We’ll be back in the slum of Kawangware, in Nairobi, where Redeemer got its start doing these vision clinics.  We will have a team of 4 this time, just like last October, when the Westgate Mall attack had all of our friends and families showing heightened concern for us.  This time, the buzz word is ebola.  You can’t turn the TV or radio on, or pick up a newspaper without the words Africa and ebola occupying the same sentence.  This has proved to be a hindrance in recruiting a larger team, but many blessings flowed from having a smaller crew last fall.  Among these was the empowering of our local volunteers, because of the necessity of them taking responsibility for larger portions of our vision clinic than ever before.  Everyone involved rose to the occasion and it was a joy to see the sense of accomplishment as our friends at the church in Kawangware truly shined while doing the Lord’s work.  It also humbled us quite a bit, as we realized we are not nearly as important or necessary as we would sometimes like to think.  The only thing that saddened me as one of the leaders of our group, was that we only had veterans of previous missions with us, which will be the case this time as the team will consist of Ralph Genz, Howard and Martha Faske and myself. One of my great satisfactions in life is to take newcomers with us on these missions.  I always wait to see when it dawns on them that they are really in Africa. Many times, it’s when we are on an early morning safari the first Saturday, after arriving in Nairobi late Friday night.  Up until this point, all they have seen is airports, airplanes and a late night ride through a very large city with billboards and neon signs in English that could be anywhere in the world. When they see their first giraffe, zebra, monkey or lion, the light bulb goes off.  We veterans feed off of the energy and enthusiasm of our first time team members, while our role is to keep everybody safe, show them some of the sights that we have come to love and make sure we have an effective clinic, both from a medical and from an evangelism standpoint.  Ralph and I will each be making our 12^th foray into Kenya, while the Faskes are not too far behind.

You might ask yourself, are we incredibly brave or incredibly foolish, making this trip during the ebola outbreak?  I have pointed out several factors to our concerned friends and loved ones when bombarded with variations on this question recently, sometimes with folks begging us not to go.  First, the continent of Africa is huge, well beyond what most Americans realize.  You could put 3 continental United States into Africa and have some room left over.  Second, the ebola outbreak in west Africa is from 3,000 to 3,300 miles away from Nairobi.  Check it for yourself, just Google how far Monrovia, Liberia is from Nairobi, Kenya.  We currently have a case of ebola in Dallas, only 200 miles from our home town of Austin, fifteen times closer.  Third, Kenya and other east African countries closed their borders and airports to people from west Africa earlier this year.  I would maintain that they are doing a better job of this than the United States is at this point.  I am probably more concerned with possible exposure to ebola or any other emerging infectious disease when we will be at London’s Heathrow Airport or some of our other teams go through Amsterdam, each are airports where people from all over the world get connecting flights.  The claims we hear in the U.S. is that you need contact with bodily fluids, that the virus doesn’t live on surfaces like jet plane seats or restrooms and is not transmitted through the air.  I’ve seen conflicting reports on each of these claims, and I’m sure we’ll be diligent about washing our hands and taking other precautions.  None of us is in any hurry to be a martyr, and each of us trusts our dear friends in Kenya when they say that it is safe there.  We have been guests in their homes and they have visited us in Texas as well.  I would be the first to recommend canceling this trip if I thought there was undue risk, but we follow the international news daily and I don’t think it is any less safe than it’s ever been for us.   Finally, my thought is that if we live our lives in fear, we are not really living, and the forces of terror and disease have robbed us of the abundant life we have been promised in the Gospel.  We would never take unnecessary risks, in fact, we always travel in groups, are out of the slums well before dark, always hire drivers that know the safest routes to take and stay in gated, guarded, secure lodgings every night.  We sleep very well.  I want to thank everybody for their heartfelt concerns for us, they are much appreciated.  My hope is that what I have just written has calmed some of those fears.  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission as we take vision care and the lifesaving message of salvation through Jesus back to the slum of Kawangware this November.

If you want to know more about our mission trips, past, present and future, please go through the summaries, the daily posts and pictures from our many experiences right here at this blog.  If you feel called to join us next Spring, we hope to take 2 teams to Kenya from Redeemer, since we will be leaving on the first Thursday after Memorial Day, later than we ever have gone.  This should allow couples with kids in school that couldn’t come before, as well as teachers and others that usually have more free time after the school year to make this incredible journey.  For more info, contact Pastor Kevin Westergren at pastor@redeemer.net or me, Dave DeVore at dave@mrpcaustin.com.

Stay tuned to this blog, much more material will be added here as the trip approaches and of course, during the mission itself.

To God be the Glory!!!

A Great Mission! Final Reflections on the Spring 2014 Kenya Trip

This is the summary blog entry for the Spring 2014 vision clinic mission to Kibera and Kericho.  As has become the custom at this space, the link to the final set of pictures is directly below and it's time to reflect on what this mission trip meant to me and the other team members.  The captions for the photos are still being worked on, a few more pictures will be added to the mix and I still need some help with identifying people, birds, animals, places and things from our various adventures.

Click here to go to Kenya Spring photos

One great blessing and joy for me has been, as always, to introduce new members of the team to our mission work in the wonderful country of Kenya and it's people, places, wildlife and flowers.  It was a pleasure to have Michelle join us this time as she got to travel with her father, Charles.  She had intended to come on one of our previous trips to Kiambu, but was unable to make it due to an emergency appendectomy shortly before we left.  She had tried to talk her doctors into letting her come anyway, but it was just too soon.  She fit right in, loved the people we worked with and is already talking about coming on a future trip.

Michelle and Charles at the Great Rift Valley

We were also blessed by the addition of Caroline Bullock to the team.  She has taught at Redeemer and has a huge heart for children.  She served in Kericho with Ralph and Louise and I'm sure she's already shared stories with the preschool kids at Redeemer that she works with.

Caroline at the clinic in Kericho

Finally, Merrilee's friend Shirley joined us on the Kibera team.  They met on a Paul Maier tour of the travels of St. Paul several years ago as roommates and have remained friends since.  She fit right in with all of the veteran team members and was a lot of fun to have around.  She told us amusing stories at dinner of having danced on Broadway and her life in Aspen, Colorado.  Our volunteers loved her little dance steps she would suddenly perform when she was overjoyed!

Merrilee and Shirley

For me, the renewing of old friendships at Kibera after a two year absence was very exciting.  We had finally been allowed to go back to the Nairobi slum of Kawangware last October after two years of security concerns which had required us to serve in the more rural area of Kiambu just outside of town. We only took a team of 4 members on that trip because it was just after the Westgate Mall incident and some of our prospective team members and their families were quite understandably nervous and canceled out, some after already having purchased plane tickets.  That was my tenth mission to Kenya and it taught us all a strong faith lesson as we were forced to completely rely on God and our local volunteers for the first time in my experience with these clinics.  Neither God nor the volunteers let us down and we had a very successful mission any way it could be measured.  In fact, the volunteers were overjoyed that they had been allowed to step up to the plate and be responsible for almost all of the functions of the clinic.  To see more about last October's mission, read the blog entries for that trip.

Worship in Kibera

Back to our recent Kibera trip.  We were glad to see our old friends and make new ones.  It was a joy to worship there on Sunday, the service and the music are at a whole new level.  The Holy Spirit was definitely present that morning!  Our Nairobi teams are particularly lucky because we get to worship with the congregations we will be serving, while other teams that go to outlying areas of Kenya must use their Sunday for travel.  Thus, we always get a head start on building relationships with our volunteers and the Pastor.

Springs of Life Lutheran Church, Kibera

A great deal of the credit for the success of our mission to Kibera lies squarely with the preparation that the local congregation at the Springs of Life Lutheran Church did prior to our arrival.  When I first saw Pastor James on Sunday before church, I had asked if any of our friends from the other Nairobi churches where we have served in the past would be supplying us with volunteers.  He was adamant that the whole clinic would be staffed only by volunteers from the local Springs of Life Lutheran Church.  He said some of our friends might pay us a visit, but that this clinic would be a partnership between our team and this church.  I was saddened at first, because I wanted to see my other good friends.  But, after some thought, I realized that this was a large step for the people of this flock, since they had never been able in the past to entertain a clinic without some outside help.  Not only that, when the volunteers arrived Monday morning, all of them were in medical scrubs, a nice display of the teamwork that had been instilled in the young people since our last visit two years ago.  The high volume of patients we treated very efficiently is a direct result of the commitment and dedication of the Pastor, the elders and the congregation members showed throughout the week.  

The Kericho Team

Redeemer had 11 members ready to serve on our team.  A good size for a team is 7 or 8, although, as mentioned above, with veteran volunteers a clinic can be fielded with as few as 4 of us.  Salem needed reinforcements for their team that was going to be serving in rural Kericho.  Ralph and Louise have always had a heart for serving in new and exciting places, so they, along with Caroline, went there with them.  From everything I have heard, it was a wonderful experience for both our team members and the local volunteers that they worked with.

Everlyn and me enroute to Nairobi

After every trip, I do a recap of the "God things" that I was personally involved in or witnessed.  On this mission, some of my "God things" actually began to happen before we ever got to Kenya.  As I wrote previously in the blog:

I thought I was going to have a whole row to myself for the trip to Nairobi.  God had a different plan.  Just before the doors were scheduled to be closed, a woman arrived at my row, carrying a large bag that would barely fit under one of the seats.  She was breathing hard and was obviously relieved to be on the plane.  If she had missed our flight, she would have spent a day in London waiting for the next one.  We made small talk and I learned her name is Everlyn and that she works for a large bank in Nairobi.  More importantly, once she and I had discussed our vision clinic for a minute or two, she let me know that she was head of the women’s ministry at a large Baptist congregation that worships more than 10,000 on any given weekend near where we would be staying.  Each ministry in her church is expected to do a mission of some sort and they are very strong on discipling their members.  Does this remind anyone at Redeemer of our Vision 20/20 blueprint? Also, her sister lives a short distance from Kibera, the site of our clinic.  By the time we were done with the first of a few wonderful and uplifting conversations about our respective walks of faith, I had given her my business card so she could follow this blog and she was planning to come to our clinic for some eye problems she is experiencing.  She plans on bringing some of her family and friends to the clinic as well.  She had begun her trek in California, we had started our travels in Texas and the Lord made sure we met in row 43 on this flight from London to Nairobi.  It is so amazing when a "God thing" is happening right in front of your eyes and you actually know it at the time.  Thank you, Jesus!

Dr. Chris performs a distance vision exam

Some members of Everlyn's family

The story didn't end there.  Six or seven of Everlyn's family, including her husband, came to the clinic during the week.  She was supposed to bring her father for a possible cataract surgery referral, but that didn't happen.  Also, I was hoping to see her and her husband for lunch on Saturday, but due to a mixup on my part, that also didn't happen.  I would love to make contact with her and see her again on our next trip to Kenya in November.  It was truly a pleasure to meet her and her remarkable family, what a deep faith they have.  It is humbling, especially when you already think you are a mature Christian, to meet people that inspire you to take your walk with God to the next level of faith.

Waiting tent and registration table

One day, during the heat of the afternoon, Howard and I were on the porch of the church looking over at the waiting tent, the last stop before registration and entry into the clinic for our patients.  This tent has about 150 plastic chairs that we rent, along with all the tents.  As several people would be summoned to the registration table, everyone would move over two or three seats as they inched toward the front of the line.  A person might move fifty or more times in the course of a half hour to forty five minute stay in the tent.  As we were watching, Pastor James and several of our evangelists passed in front of the tent and an old man leaped out at him.  He was very angry, had his walking stick raised in his hand and had to be pushed back down into his chair.  The crowd became pretty restless and I was beginning to think that things were about to go up for grabs.  All of a sudden, the old-timer became very repentant and asked for forgiveness.  By this time, several other elders of the congregation had arrived and before you knew it, they had all raised both arms to the sky over the man and were praying a blessing on him.  We found out later that the heat and being around too many women and children had been more than he could take!  We promptly got him registered for the clinic.

Waiting for eye drops to work

After an eyechart exam, Howard shepherded him to the doctors where he was treated for itchy, scratchy eyes, a common ailment in the slum.  

Howard helps test out the new glasses

After a manual distance glasses exam, we made new Coke bottle glasses for him.  He needed lots of help with his distance vision and he could see just fine when we were all done.

Aloise shares a lighter moment

On his way out of the church grounds, the man encountered Aloise, a caretaker, usher and elder at the church who has an incredible joy about him at all times.  We all have come to know and love Aloise over the years we have been coming to Kibera.  They shared a laugh a two and the man was so happy with his new glasses and new found friends at the church that he jumped up, leaning on his cane and clicked his heals together before dancing a little jig. What a difference... Thank you, Jesus!

Dr. Milliam, Esther, Catherine and me

Another "God thing" that I was privileged to be a part of was when Catherine brought a woman wearing sunglasses into the clinic on Friday morning, the last day of the clinic.  The woman said "Dave, do you remember me?"  This happens at every clinic and it comes as no surprise to me that people know my name.  After all, I wear a name tag!  But yes, I did remember her as Esther, a  woman that had been referred for cataract surgery at a previous clinic.  I told her that I bet that she had come back to get the other eye taken care of and we would be glad to do it, since this has happened many times in the past.  I was ready to take her right to the doctors.  But Catherine said there was much more to this story.  When Esther had gone for the cataract surgery, they found fast acting cancer in the eye she was to have treated and an immediate decision had to be made to remove it.  She had come to thank us and was praising God for saving her life.  And, she had just one more request.  She removed her sunglasses to reveal the eye socket that had now healed.  She wanted a prosthetic eye so she could quit wearing the sunglasses.  We bring a budget of $1500 on each trip for cataract surgery referrals and other procedures that our doctors deem necessary that can be performed at a hospital or clinic in Nairobi.  Cataracts surgeries cost about $50-$65 each.  I had already approved 34 cataract referrals and several other possible procedures, so the budget was already more than gone by that Friday morning. I knew that an artificial eye cost maybe $800-$1000 in the U.S.  What could we do?  That's when Dr. Milliam went to work, calling labs in Nairobi that she has connections with.  She was able to write a referral for the glass eye that would only cost about $60.  I would have gladly paid it out of my own pocket if I had to, since we had started with Esther and needed to finish the job.  Redeemer is amazingly generous and I was confident we would find a way.  We always do.  The Lord provides...

This is the kind of encounter that keeps me coming back to Kenya time after time.  After reflecting for the last month on this woman's wonderful faith, I know that if I had been in Esther's shoes, I might very well have shaken my fist at God for the misfortune of losing an eye.  It's a natural reaction and being immersed in the me, me, me culture of America, it would have been totally understandable to say "Why me, Lord?"  Instead, she had a marvelous attitude of thanks and praise that through our clinic her cancer was discovered and her life had been saved. Not only that, her plea for an artificial eye was so humble and sincere that it still gives me chills and brings a tear to my eyes just thinking about it.  I wish I could bottle up the deep and wide faith that I run into everywhere I look in Kenya.  I wish that we here in the States could pray and believe that our loving Father will take care of us in the same trusting and child-like fashion.  There is much to learn when the Lord places people such as Esther in our paths.  It reminds me that our walk of faith is just that, a journey and not a destination.  Thank you Jesus, for teaching us through others by placing them in our lives.

Lions in the soft light of dawn

Our old friend

As on previous mission trips, we were blessed to have Saturday morning to spend as we wished, as the other teams were returning from the field.  Some of the team decided to sleep in late and do brunch and a little more shopping at the Junction Mall near Rosa Mystica.  The rest of us hit the road bright and early for one final photo safari at the National Game Park just on the outskirts of Nairobi.  We used to venture farther out, but when our van broke down two hours from town several years ago and we were lucky to make the flight out of Nairobi, things changed! Now that was an adventure.   I like to call these safaris worshiping in God's big church with no roof.  Being surrounded by the wonders and variety of His creation is a great way to decompress after spending a week in the slums with His children that He brings to us.

The Kibera team with Pastor James

Our next mission trip is tentatively scheduled for November 13-23, 2014.  If you would like more information on how to join us on that trip, please contact Pastor Kevin Westergren at 512-459-1500 or pastor@redeemer.net or me, Dave DeVore at dave@mrpcaustin.com or 512-323-5343.  We would love for you to share in the abundant blessings that we have been called to give and in the abundant blessings that he always bestows on us when we get out of the boat, having listened to His small still voice calling us and having responded "Here am I.  Send me, send me!"

To God be the Glory!!!