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To see some of Glen Smith's best photos, a professional photographer who visited the clinic one morning, click the link below:
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Our week at the clinic started out slowly, but that's normal. Unfortunately, we were missing our bullhorn, or as our Kenyan friends call it, our megaphone. Kiambu is in an area where many people work on the tea and coffee plantations during the day or at other jobs in the area and they are more spread out than it is in the slums in Nairobi that we are accustomed to working in. In the slums, we have local radio ads for the clinic and, due to the much higher density of the population there, word of mouth spreads much more quickly to greater numbers of people once the clinic is up and running. Catherine was able to finally procure a megaphone for us from our team out in Rongai and it arrived Thursday morning. We immediately sent Barrack out with Allan in the popup van to announce the clinic and our daily patient totals for Thursday and Friday nearly doubled as a result. Note to self: we need to make absolutely sure that the next time we field a clinic in Kiambu that we have a megaphone on day one! The only other minor glitch we experienced was that our box of Bibles was mistakenly taken by one of the other teams on their way out to the mission field Sunday morning and we didn't get them back until Wednesday morning. These Bibles are handed out at the discretion of our Pastors and evangelists, usually being reserved for new believers or people who have decided to join the local congregation. This was actually a blessing in disguise, because we were able to promise Bibles to people if they would only come back later in the week and we thus got to form stronger relationships with them than otherwise might have been the case. By week's end, we had seen nearly 1300 patients in the clinic, had referred 30 people for cataract surgeries, had been involved with getting 2 young boys setup for sight-saving surgeries and nearly 2000 people had heard the Gospel message. Thank you, Jesus!
As has become my custom, I always give each trip a little bit of time to sink in before I write a wrapup detailing what stood out for me about a particular mission. In the case of our April mission to Kiambu, there seem to be many more spiritual highlights and interesting stories to chronicle than usual. Before saddling up for each of these trips, it has always been my practice to fervently pray what my Pastor Dave calls a "use me" prayer, in which I ask the Lord to strengthen me for what lies ahead, to use me in whatever way He chooses, and to please let me know that it's Him working through me. I don't want to be out there doing what I think is the right thing to do without his guidance, since His plan is always perfect and my plans are, at best, just so-so. And there is no way to know in advance who He will place in my path or what situation I will fall into. On most of these missions, we as a team are able to discuss what kind of "God things" we have been a part of during the work day at our evening mealtime. We had other groups of incredible Christians staying at Africa Heart and sharing the dining room with us on this trip, so we shared some things with each other, but also got to experience what amazing projects that the others were doing. One group was working on shaken baby syndrome, educating doctors and parents alike that it's not OK to shake a baby and what symptoms medical professionals should look for. Another group was operating dental clinics throughout Kenya and performing an occasional operation far afield from dentistry or maybe assisting in the birth of a child when the situation presented itself. Others were doing marriage encounters in the local churches. One group of youth pastors was there to teach local church workers about ministering to the next generation. The list went on and on and changed nearly every day with each group that was passing through. What a blessing it was to encourage and to be encouraged by other people who had gotten out of the boat when Jesus called them.
It has been my experience over the 9 trips I have now made to Kenya since November of 2009, that there has always been one outstanding occurrence or encounter with someone that fits the category of being a real "God thing" for each member of the group. Maybe I'm growing in my faith, maybe my eyes see things they didn't before, but I need more than one hand to count the things that happened on this trip that I was personally involved in. I know that each of the others had multiple encounters with the Divine on this trip as well. Some of the following stories have been discussed previously in the daily reports on the blog and are expanded on here while others are being told for the first time.
Our first experience of God moving in our lives on this trip started on the way back to Nairobi from our first day's outing to Lake Naivasha for a safari. Our driver, Edwin, thought we could take a more scenic route back to town through the tea and coffee plantation country just north of Nairobi, near where we would be serving in Kiambu. As soon as we began to see lush fields of tea, Edwin spotted a small driveway and turned in. This stop was not part of our planned itinerary, at least not mine! After about a quarter of a mile, we saw a very nice white mansion with incredible grounds, including numerous plants, a lush lawn and many birds, all backing up to a forest. A maid came out from the house and spoke with Edwin for a minute. She went back to the house and conferred with a man we would later come to know as Joseph and even though they were closed for the day, they decided if we wanted to have tea and biscuits (British for cookies), they would accommodate us.
The mansion
It was nearly 4pm, the perfect time for tea. While we waited for the tea to be prepared, we walked the grounds and got many beautiful pictures of the plants, birds and of the mansion itself. It began to rain heavily, driving us up on to the front porch just in time for our afternoon snack. Joseph asked what we were doing in Kenya and we told him about the eyeglass clinic in Kiambu, probably 15 miles from the plantation. Imagine our surprise when he showed up Tuesday morning with freshly baked cookies for the team, seeking some reading glasses so he could read his Bible.
Joseph and the team
He had taken a matatu, a van that is the most prevalent form of ground transportation, to Kiambu and then began to ask for the whereabouts of our clinic. It's nothing short of a miracle that he found us! A totally unplanned stop at the plantation Saturday had resulted in our new friend Joseph getting the reading glasses he needed the following Tuesday. Thank you, Jesus!
Saturday also brought another huge experience for me. Last May, I was privileged to be the matatu driver for Catherine and her family when they were in the U.S for her son Mark's graduation from St. Paul Lutheran High School in Concordia, Missouri, about an hour east of Kansas City. I spent a week, along with Catherine's many friends in Austin, showing them around our town and central Texas. Her mother, whom I call Mama (the highest term of respect for an older woman in Kenya), fell in love with me and was upset when I couldn't come to her house last November for dinner. I was the only leader on our team then and couldn't find a way to break away during that trip. This time, Pastor Kevin was around to hold down the fort and he graciously gave his blessing to my little outing. Saturday was the best night, because Mama only lives about 5 minutes from our lodgings at Rosa Mystica, but it would have been a drive clear across Nairobi from where we would be staying the rest of the week. During that wonderful evening, I got to meet Catherine's sister, her brother-in-law and her nephew. Mama told Catherine in Swahili that she now has a son, meaning me. I looked around at her walls and saw pictures of her entire family, and then I asked why she had no pictures of her new son!
Catherine, Dave and Mama!
I'm going to fix that, since we took several nice photos that night with Mama and I plan on bringing one of them back, nicely framed, on our October trip. Another big blessing and the work week hadn't even started yet!
On Tuesday morning, a woman in her early 40's approached me and asked if I remembered her. Indeed I did. Her name was Alice and she had come to our clinic in Kiambu in November. Her husband had died some years before, leaving her alone to raise small children. Then, she had gone blind from cataracts. We had paid for her referral to the hospital in Nairobi to have the cataract removed from one of her eyes. She had come to tell us that she now had perfect vision in that eye and was praising God, Jesus, our clinic, our doctors and anyone else she could think of for the miracle of having her sight restored. What a blessing to be with her again! I took her to our doctors right away and they wrote a referral to have the other eye taken care of. I was happy to sign it. This incident with Alice alone made coming back to Kiambu worth it all for me.
Alice
But God wasn't done yet. A woman in her 70's, Salome, arrived within an hour of Alice and the same story was repeated in her life. She was full of thanks and praise for God's blessings and she could also see perfectly in the eye that had been operated on as a result of our clinic this past November. She too will get her vision restored in her second eye. Thank you, Jesus, for letting us be part of your healing miracles!
Robert and his caring father
When Wednesday arrived, the Lord was still hard at work providing more miracles. A young boy named Robert was brought to the clinic in a suit and tie by his concerned father and was diagnosed with keratoconus by our doctors, a disease that would surely lead to blindness without treatment. His father had brought him to us and was looking for help for an operation that could cost as much as 250,000 Kenyan Shillings (about $3000). Our doctors knew of a hospital that could do the procedure for about a tenth of that, which was still out of the reach of the family. We decided to pay for half of the cost and let the community, his family and other resources supply the rest. These are the kind of decisions we have to make sometimes. Do we spend the money on about 3 cataract surgeries for older people or do we give a young boy a chance at seeing and being able to lead a productive life? This one was not that hard, Pastor Kevin and I agreed that the boy needed our help and would get it. Robert and his father came back the next day and they had been able to raise the other half of the money needed and had already been in contact with the clinic our doctors were referring him to.
No sooner had we taken care of this boy on Wednesday, than another father and his young boy came in with exactly the same condition, only his eyes were also in a bad way from allergies, possibly infected or worse. We also are going to give him the help he needs, but his eyes will need to clear up before anything more can be done. Our doctors gave him some eye drops, and if they work, then he also has the possibility of getting the sight saving procedure. We won't know if either boy will get treated, it is up to the hospital to do more screening and then their doctor's decisions will determine the final outcome in each case. Please keep these two young men in your prayers. I pray that we learn of a good outcome for both of them when we return in October.
Pastor Kevin hears the needs of a woman
On Friday, as I alluded to in my daily blog posting from Kiambu, I was blessed to work in the triage station for most of the day by Pastor Kevin's side. We worked on determining the eye treatments each patient would get based on the eye chart screening, autorefractor readings and self-reported eye problems. More importantly, we were also there to talk to each person about the Gospel and to pray over each one individually. This is a very powerful aspect of our ministry. In contrast to some of our earlier clinics that have been held in heavily Muslim areas in the slums of Nairobi, the overwhelming majority of our patients were Christians already and were thankful for the human care ministry we were doing. We met some people who wanted nothing more than a prayer of thanksgiving for all of the blessings in their lives. There were far more who were broken in one way or another. Some had abusive husbands, others had able bodied family members who could not get a job. Many had health issues themselves or family members who were terribly sick.
Dave praying over a woman
That final Friday of the clinic, we treated 439 patients, so I'm sure that Pastor Kevin and I prayed with more than 200 people each. It's amazing to me that in each case, the Holy Spirit supplied just the right prayer for each person's needs. A man named Peter that I worked with stands out as yet another encounter I had with God's will during this mission. When I asked him if there was anything that I could pray for, he confided that he had just completed a 90 day alcohol rehab program. He said that he wanted to be a better father to his children, a better husband to his wife and that his employer had shown mercy on him and had kept his job open for him while he had been in treatment. He didn't feel that he had the strength to beat the addiction even though he had the best of intentions. The Spirit gave me an incredible moment of clarity and I told Peter that God had sent me halfway around the world to share that exact moment with him. I told him that there was a lost 25 years in the middle of my life that paralleled what he was going through and that I, too, had felt that there was no way that I could change a thing, even though I knew I needed to and I wanted to. When I was at my lowest point, I had a close encounter with Jesus. I cried out to Him and told Him that I couldn't carry the load anymore, that it was way too heavy for me. I'm convinced down to my bones that He laughed and wondered why I had taken so long to bring it all to Him. From that moment on, He has carried all of my burdens and I have worshipped and served Him and Him alone. I have a peace and a joy since that time that is indescribable. People who knew me before this defining moment can't believe it's the same person. I told Peter that I would not pray a small prayer, only asking for strength to beat his demons. No, I was going to pray big and ask that Jesus perform the same miracle in Peter's life that He had given me. A new beginning. A second chance. No looking back. A life of service to Him and to others in His name, which is what God designed us for. When we had finished praying together, we were both crying. It was beautiful. It was crystal clear to me that all of the suffering that I had gone through earlier in my life now made sense. God's purpose for it all was so that I could pay it forward for people like Peter. What a blessing it is to stumble every now and again onto an answer for why God has allowed some seemingly bad thing to happen in our lives. Thank you again and again, Jesus!
Allan and I were reunited the first Sunday morning
Two other personal high points of this trip for me are intertwined between the story of my travel Bible and our friend and driver Allan. Allan has been one of the keys to our teams functioning so well on the last two trips. You might ask yourself, “How important can a van driver be?” Let me count the ways. First, a joyful, easy going but hard-working driver such as Allan can, along with the team leaders and each team member, play a large role in setting the tone for the whole week. He always had a good word for us, told our new team members many things about Kenya and was a marvelous straight man for my bad jokes. Next, no matter what the team needed, he knew where to get it promptly and did so. Also, while many drivers will sit in the vehicle, reading the paper and waiting for us to send them on some errand, an outstanding driver like Allan actually takes part in the life of the clinic by helping with translation, traffic control and many other tasks. Another facet of being a caring driver is that he will go out of his way to point out local sights to newcomers and he explains the history or significance of what is being seen. When it comes time for a nice dinner, a daytrip activity or just knowing where the best place to shop for supplies or souvenirs is, a solid driver is right in the thick of it. And, of course, there’s always the actual driving skills, such as knowing the best routes, the right times to be on the road to avoid the heavy traffic and always keeping our team's safety number one. Our LCMS liaison and good friend, Catherine, always gets us top notch drivers and vans, but she has outdone herself with Allan. I know other team leaders have their favorite drivers to work with as well, and I have a short list of 3 or 4 others that I would like to work with again when they are available, but for me, it’s got to be Allan. Our teams have loved him. When the first Sunday morning rolled around, I had been told Allan would be out in the countryside in Namonga, with another team. When I saw him at the top of the hill at Rosa Mystica by his van, I ran to embrace him and wish him well in Namonga. It was then that he told me he had found a way to trade places with our intended driver. What a moment of pure joy, the picture above pretty well says it all. During the week, he taught me Jambo Bwana in Swahili, a welcome to Kenya song, and we regaled the team several times singing and dancing to it together. He always wore a different hat every day and the running joke (a carryover from November's trip) was that I would try to buy his hat from him from morning til dark, which he always refused to let me do. The last Saturday morning he brought me a dark blue beret as a parting gift and I presented him with the powerful Bible, in which I had prepared a personal inscription. The team took a picture of us, him with the Bible and me wearing the hat. He wouldn't let me buy one of his hats, but he had brought me one anyway! He also blocked out the time that we will be in Kenya in October in his calendar, so this makes me look forward to our fall trip all the more. Our growing friendship is a high point of this or any other trip for me.
Me in my new beret and Allan with his Bible
Now, about my blue travel Bible, the "powerful Bible" mentioned above. On this trip, Pastor Kevin had preached out of it on Sunday morning, Pastor Robert had used it on occasion in triage, Pastor James had read it to several people as they were coming to Christ, our evangelist Immanuel worked with small groups from it, our congregational elder Michael talked with people one on one with it open in his hands and I had delivered our Friday morning devotion from it for the team and our local volunteers. Pastor James called this particular Bible a very powerful book because it was in the midst of so many blessed occurrences during the week. I pointed out that God's Word is always powerful, but he seemed to think this particular Bible had its own special powers. I could tell he would have really liked for me to leave it for him, but I had to tell him it was already promised to another friend and I had already inscribed it. This Bible had been my Sword, as my Baptist friends like to say, and had accompanied me for all nine of my trips to Kenya. Allan had taken a liking to it one afternoon during the clinic. I told Allan how special both this Bible and he had been to me and that I wanted him to have it. I did promise Pastor James that I would bring him a Bible like it on our October trip. I asked him what color he wanted, and he wanted one exactly like it, and it HAD to be VERY POWERFUL! I have a feeling there will be a few more Bible stories to tell in my future.
The Spring 2013 Kiambu Team
The final big blessing for me was our team. Before this trip ever got started, Pastor Kevin and I were wondering if we would have enough team members to field a clinic. At one point, it looked like we had 7 or 8 people, including ourselves, ready to go. Then, as always seems to be the case, God had a different and better plan which tested our faith. This happens so often that you would think we would be immune from worry by now. We lost 2 team members when an unexpected medical situation arose. But we were blessed when 3 team members from Immanuel Lutheran Church in Giddings answered God's call. Pastor Kevin and I had done a presentation during their fellowship hour in October of 2011 that bore fruit on this trip. It's amazing how seeds that we plant, when the Lord waters them, seem to bloom at just the right time! Our other area for a little bit of concern was that Pastor Kevin and I would be the only "veterans" on this team. Again, no need to worry. Just like every other mission trip I had been a part of, things started out slowly enough Monday that we were all able to get our bearings in the posts that we had been trained in and were also able to get our local volunteers up to speed. Even though we saw increasing numbers of patients every day, peaking at 439 on Friday, each day seemed easier than the previous ones because we became more adept at rotating team members into clinic areas that were bottlenecked. Pastor Kevin and I both really enjoyed the energy that the new people brought to our team, the sense of awe and wonderment that they exhibited when they saw their first giraffe or zebra and it fully hit them that "I'm really in Africa!" It was my joy as well to be able to take the group on daytrips and to places that Pastor Kevin had never been before. After the numerous trips both he and I have made, it's pretty easy to get a little jaded after experiencing some of the same things over and over. While we definitely missed the camaraderie and inside jokes that have developed among our usual veteran team members over the years, it was a nice change of pace to field a brand new team. To a person, I heard each of them say that they would love to come back again, since these missions provide experiences that stretch and grow your faith beyond anything you could have imagined beforehand.
To God be the Glory!
