The last day of the clinic was non-stop and a good finish

We went continuously from the time we started this morning until 5 pm when we were loading our equipment and supplies into a pickup truck.  We saw 426 patients and the day literally flew by.  We said our heartfelt goodbyes to our old and new friends after a challenging day of figuring out what to do for the people as our stock of lenses, frames, reading glasses, etc. dwindled, as they always do at the end of a trip.  The last half hour of the day was filled with taking inventory of our various supplies, packing a locking up our footlockers and making sure we had not forgotten anything.

I am currently packing up for an extra 4 days here in Kenya, mostly doing wildlife safaris with a concentration on birds, first at Samburu, which has nearly 700 species and then at Nanyuki, another good game park.  We hope to have dinner with Catherine on Tuesday afternoon before heading to the Nairobi airport for our flights home on Lufthansa.  I may or may not have good Internet for the next few days, so don't quit looking here.  I will catch up and begin posting again on the journey home and will get a nice album of pictures together of the clinic and then of our nature subjects as my time permits.

Cynthia and Alex will be going to Lake Naivasha with one of the teams from Trinity Klein tomorrow and will fly back ahead of us on Sunday night.

Blessings until I can post here again!

After a rainy start, the Thursday clinic picked up steam

Here is what greeted us when we arrived after rain overnight:

I wouldn't have given us much chance of a good day at that point, but it usually dries out pretty quickly after the rain stops.  It stayed pretty muddy but we made due.

This is Alex with his new friends.  All of the young men of the congregation are first class and have a great sense of humor.  They need to because I fire each of them three times a day or more just to keep them on their toes.  It's a running joke.

We begin each day with some wonderful a Capella praise and African songs. It is very moving, the harmonies are delicious.

Bill, Alex and I each gave a personal testimony to people in the tents waiting to get into the clinic on Wednesday. Today, Bishop Bakari Kea asked her to share her gift of music with the clinic and the whole place came to a stop as she did a full on rendition of two verses of Amazing Grace. Thunderous applause followed.... Bishop is filming it with his phone and I'm sure she's gone viral by now and a recording contract can't be to far behind!

Alex helped this Muslim man get some pretty powerful glasses and he was very happy with the results.

This patient got some glasses with some of our most powerful lenses and was overjoyed!  

The day actually turned out about the same as the previous two day's clinics with around 320 patients being seen.  I've never seen such regular numbers, but we did have a Muslim holiday, rain and other complications that probably held our numbers down.  But we did serve everyone the Lord brought us and that's the best goal to have.

Well, it's been a long day and we have the giant task of running a clinic tomorrow, performing an inventory on our supplies and then packing everything up to be shipped across town to our storage facility.  Bill and I will also be packing up for our extra days here on wildlife safaris, we head out Saturday morning for Samburu, a national game park with nearly 700 species of birds.  I guess I had better get to bed for some rest, I'll need it!  Thank you Jesus for such a good clinic to this point!

Wednesday Clinic and a word or two about our prayer ministry here

I am very happy with our clinic today, we saw almost exactly the same number of patients as yesterday even on a national holiday and with the Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.  We only saw 8 Muslims for care, so my feeling is the clinic would have been much bigger without those factors.  I am bracing myself for tomorrow, it may be very big and we are running full blast all day as it is.  Pray for strength for us and for us to continue to treat every patient as if they were the only person in the world.  These clinics are great for teaching you the discipline of living in the moment.

Speaking of prayer, each of our patients is prayed over individually before receiving the services we provide, such as custom made distance glasses, reading glasses, eyedrops or medications for their eyes or even being referred for cataract or other surgeries.  Once we determine the physical needs that we might be able to address, we ask our Christian clients if there is anything we can offer up in prayer for them.  For people of other faiths, we usually ask if they have any questions about the Gospel presentation they heard before entering the clinic.  Many do have questions and we tell them about our faith, many times with personal testimonies of what the Lord has done for us.  After that conversation, we offer to pray and almost no one, regardless of their faith walk, refuses to be prayed over.  They feel it is special that someone has come halfway around the world to pray for their specific needs.  You hear many heartbreaking cries for help ranging from whole families without jobs, sickness in the family, failing marriages, parents that worry about their college educated children that can't find work, the list just goes on and on.  Almost everyone over 40 years of age that comes to us needs reading glasses and always describes their eye problem as "I can't read my Bible."  That just recharges me, could you imagine hearing almost everyone in our country being as hungry for the Word of God?  For those folks, I always also include a prayer that their faith may be strengthened by being in the Living Word and that they may be a light to their families and to their communities.

One of the most powerful prayers I was part of on this trip was a man that asked the I pray for the hatred he had in his heart for someone.  It was really troubling him and we talked about how hate just eats at the one who hates, many times the other person doesn't even know anything about it.  I prayed fervently with him, laying hands on his shoulders and when we were done, both of us had moist eyes.  I feel that the Lord moved in his heart during the prayer.  Thank you Jesus!

We just got back from dinner at a Mediterranean Restaurant at the mall across the street and it was a very relaxing meal with a lot of good conversation around the table.  Even though we are small in number, I love this team and how incredibly focused each of us has been at the task at hand.  We always keep it light with humor and there is a good chemistry to this group.  I would serve with them anytime, anywhere again.

Just about time for bed, we need to keep our strength up to finish the week strong before Bill and I leave next Saturday for four days of wildlife photography, mostly birds.  Please continue to keep us in our prayers that our mission lead many to the Lord and heal many of their eye maladies.  Praise God!

Tuesday clinic was bigger but...

Our volunteers opened the day up by singing several hymns and praise songs to set the mood for the day.

The volunteers sing praises

We got a good start this morning, but then quickly realized that it was the last day of Ramadan, so it looked like our numbers of patients would not increase dramatically on the second day of the clinic as has historically been the case.  Tomorrow is a national holiday and that will either be very good or very bad for us, time will tell.  Anyway, we were blessed that several nearby schools sent children over for eye chart screening and we were able to squeeze a pretty large number of them in, which might not have been possible on a normal clinic day.

By the end of the day, 340 people had entered the clinics and 331 of them got treatment of one sort or another and almost all of them were prayed over individually.  I worked several different jobs in addition to trying to do the usual team leader stuff.  The day goes quickly when you don't stop for anything!  One of my favorite moments was when I was working in our triage unit and a 75 year old man who appeared to be about 50 came to me for treatment.  He said that our project had done cataract surgeries for him 2 different times over the years and now he needed glasses, which we were able to provide.  He was a joyful gent and it really lifted up my spirits to know that we do has had such an impact on one life.  Bill Goodoff handled a large share of the triage job during the whole day and I know that I also worked with and prayed with well over 100 people when I could chip in.  It's an amazing experience to be used in this way by the Lord, it's almost an out of body experience in which you feel like you are observing what the Holy Spirit is doing through you as if it is another person you are watching praying over people.  There really aren't adequate words for it, but it multiplies your faith in leaps and bounds.

That's about it for now.  We are all well and making sure we get plenty of rest and are getting hydrated as much as possible.  Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

The latest Kibera vision clinic is up and running!

We arrived at the Springs of Life Lutheran Church grounds a little before 8 am and proceeded to rearrange pews for about 20 minutes to match a diagram that I had drawn for the team Sunday night to give them an idea of the setup that had been successful there in the past.  Pastor Kevin and I had tweaked it over the years to minimize bottlenecks, keep noise to a minimum and generally create an environment for an effective mission, both from the vision care perspective and to enhance our  intentional presentation of the Gospel in our acts and words.  Next came arranging all of our supplies and tables where they belonged for each station.  Even with a small team, we were in pretty good shape in about an hour.

Bishop Bakari Kea summoned the team and the local volunteers to the outside of the church where our first patients had been patiently waiting for over an hour.  A choir from the school and a youth choir from the church each performed for us.  Then the Bishop shared several scriptures with the crowd stressing the urgency of living in the Lord and how fleeting our present circumstances are.  I was blessed when he asked me to pray over the people and the opening of the clinic and the wonderful ministry that will be done over the coming week.  I won't soon forget what an honor and at the same time humbling experience it was.

The school choir

The youth choir

The first hour and a half of the clinic was functional, although several pieces were not up and running right away, such as the autorefractor station where we use battery operated devices to examine patients for distance glasses if they have failed an eye chart exam.  It didn't matter because our experienced team of Kenyan doctors was able to keep up quite nicely until that section was operational.  

We worked steadily throughout the day and it threatened to rain but never did, possibly holding the crowds down.  Nevertheless, by day's end we had seen 275 patients and all were given the best eye care we could muster, had the saving grace of Jesus shared with them and had been prayed over individually.  

Considering we have only 4 team members from the US, the smooth start of the clinic is a testament to the dedication of our local volunteers, our Kenyan doctors and our wonderful workers from the Lutheran Hour Ministries in Kenya who are called Nuru.  Thank you Jesus!

A Big Sunday in Nairobi

The teams that were heading out into the field for Trinity Klein were staggered, with the first one leaving after a 7am breakfast.  I got the best Saturday night's sleep ever, I must have been exhausted from the huge safari and other Saturday activities plus the short night on Friday night after our travel.  I managed to sleep all but about a half an hour between 10 pm and 6:30 am.  I had breakfast with the early team and took a group picture for them with one of their phones and with one of my cameras for good measure. 

I visited with other teams and continued having some coffee while Alex had his breakfast.  Cynthia started having stomach problems on Saturday and we all agreed it would be best if she just took care of herself rather than joining us for worship.  It proved to be a good decision, since the church service from beginning to end was three hours and fifty two minutes and it was all incredible.  I saw my old friend Bishop Bakari Kea before church and when he had Alex and I introduce ourselves to the congregation, he said there was no need to introduce Dave because everybody already knew him!  He loves to give me a hard time.  Alex said a few words about himself and we were greeted warmly by the congregation.  During my remarks, I said it was good to be back home, since Kibera was the first location I was a team leader for back in 2010 and I have always been treated like family there.  As usual, the music was outstanding and included children's choirs, several women's and inter-generational choirs and everything from standard hymns to African music to praise songs that people in our 10:45 service know by heart.  And it all was absolutely excellent.  A guest preacher delivered the sermon and our friend Isaac with Nuru Lutheran Hour ministries translated into Swahili for him. 

Alex being blessed

During one phase of the worship, people were called to be prayed over by Bishop Kea, Isaac, the preacher and our evangelist friend Francis.  It was very moving, each person, including Alex, was prayed over individually for several minutes.  I'm sure when Alex looks back on this trip, this will be one of the signature moments for him.  It was very moving for me because I saw many people who have become life long friends through these mercy missions.

After church, we went to the Junction Mall and had lunch with Isaac.  Cynthia joined us and at a light meal.  After lunch, we went to the large store in the mall that is similar to a Super Walmart and bought the incidentals we would need for the clinic like paper towels, glass cleaner, hand sanitizer, water for our personal use, etc.  We got back to Rosa Mystica a little after 4 and had free time to relax until a 7 pm meeting we had to discuss the layout of the clinic and what it would take to get it up and running as efficiently as possible Monday morning. 

At the meeting, I used a layout I had drawn that we used during our last clinic at Kibera that had worked well and explained step by step the workflow that we usually followed.  Bill Goodoff from Salem was also there, having arrived from serving on a mission last week near the Tanzanian border.  He is joining our team and is a valuable addition as he is also a veteran of many clinics and can do most any job needed.  It will be like having a second leader to help out and use as a sounding board.  He will be joining me for several days of wildlife photo safaris after the clinic, something I'm really looking forward to.  He had some good input on when to send children directly to the doctors and other ways of doing business that I'm sure will pan out nicely.

Well, it's nearing bedtime and tomorrow will be a big day, the opening of a clinic is always a minor miracle in itself.  Things won't run very smoothly at first and we will be correcting problems with paperwork and traffic control for the bulk of the day after physically getting the clinic set up.  Luckily, it's been rainy lately and the first day is generally the slowest, allowing us to iron out snags as they arise before we hit our stride as the week progresses.  More to follow after the clinic tomorrow!  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission as we care for the vision and spiritual needs of the people the God brings to us this week!

Saturday safari, etc.

I was able to manage about 4 hours of sleep between 1 am and 5:15 am, not bad for being all wound up from travel.  Our flights were great this trip, mostly smooth, friendly cabin crew, interesting people to talk to sitting with me, good food, etc.  Unfortunately, the theme of this trip from the start has been long lines in very hot rooms with cranky people.  It began in Houston and carried over to our arrival at Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi.  We arrived right on time at 8:10 pm and then proceeded to take nearly an hour to get through the visa line.  We picked up our luggage pretty quickly after that since it had already been off loaded from the conveyor belts due to how long the visa process took.  Next, we found out that they had implemented at new system for customs, scanning every bag that was leaving the place of folks that declared nothing to claim on their forms.  That line was the better part of an hour and all three of us got flagged by the x-ray machine for our suitcases with the clinic supplies in them.  A customs agent tore us apart and was trying to determine the value of our supplies so that we could pay a duty tax on them.  Even after I protested that it was all for donation, he still insisted we must pay.  I was very tired and a little grouchy, so the next thing I knew I was his office, one on one.  I knew other teams had paid as much as $400 to enter the country and I told him I might as well get on the next plane home if they couldn't let us serve the Kenyan people at our own expense.  Then, I decided since we were alone, I would play the humor card.  While he was putting figures in a spreadsheet on his computer, I told him that this was my 19th trip to Kenya and I wanted to marry a Kenyan woman so I could become a citizen.  The only problem was that all of my Kenyan friends had told me I was not strong enough for a Kenyan woman.  We both laughed until we almost cried and when he finished his figuring, the possible $400 duty had become 3,280 Kenyan shillings.  At first I thought he wanted $3000, but quickly realize that he had magically reduced the cost to about $30.  He walked me over to the currency exchange and I paid the tax on the spot and made a new friend.  I even got a receipt and may not turn it in, but frame it instead since it's such a good story.  I'm sure he was so used to upset people that I caught him off guard with my joke at my own expense.  All's well that ends well except for all the waiting.  We finally got to Rosa Mystica after 12, I got a shower and was finally in bed around 1am.

We had an early breakfast a 6 am and were on the road to the game park by 6:30.  That's when the curse of the long lines kicked in again.  Catherine, our superstar project coordinator, had already wired Friday to the park office to pre-pay for our safaris so that we could drive right in.  The money didn't appear on the other end, so we waited for over an hour while our 3 drivers stood in line to purchase our entry to the park.  Even so, we had one of the best mornings of animals and birds I've ever seen and were done by about 12.30 pm.  Stay tuned here and on my Facebook Page, pictures will begin appearing shortly after the trip.

We had lunch at the Veranda, a nice outdoor venue and then went back to Rosa Mystica for much needed naps and showers.  Our day ended with a worship service of all of the team members, Catherine's Pastor delivered a nice message, I got to do a devotion, we had a Kenyan Choir sing for us and by 6 pm or so we were done and heading for dinner.  That's about it for now, I'm hoping to sleep well tonight, but it's usually Sunday or Monday before we're really in the groove.

Blessings everybody!

Pre-safari Thoughts on a Saturday

Hi Folks!

Just a quick note at 5:30am as I get ready to head to breakfast and then off to our safari at 6:30.  Our prayers were answered and we had a safe and relatively uneventful last leg of our trip to Nairobi, until we got to the airport.  We arrive at 8:10, right on time, but then had another two and a half hours dealing with Immigration and Customs as we gained entry into Kenya and picked our bags up.  I hope to post again after our safari and before we have a 5pm worship service along with the teams from Trinity Lutheran Church in Klein, TX.

It has been rainy lately in Nairobi, so I expect the animals to be spread out and a little harder to spot, since the grass will be much taller and the wildlife won't be concentrated near water features so much as they are during drier times.  Catherine's son Mark is going to join us, along with Barrack, another birder that will join us on our after trip, and our driver for a total of 6 in our van.  I think it will work out fine as only a couple of us are avid photographers.  More to follow later!

The beginning of our first day in Kenya.  Thank you Jesus!

Blessings everybody!

Frankfurt to Nairobi

We only had about  2 hour layover in Frankfurt and we did have to clear security there. By the time we had walked nearly a mile to our next gate, according to Cynthia's fitness app, I  only had enough time to post the blog entry I wrote on the first flight, send a couple of emails and post to Facebook.  The boarding process went smoother than in Houston but we're on a much smaller plane, the Airbus A340-300.

We took off pretty much on time and will arrive in Nairobi a little after 8 pm local time. We were given a new form on the plane from the Kenyan customs authority wanting us to declare everything we are bringing into the country. I have no idea how to value our vision supplies or my cameras and laptops.  I'm sure it's just another way to tax us. I just hope it goes smoothly on our arrival.

Our lunch on the plane was a choice between a chicken or a beef dish. I chose the beef and it was good. We're all trying to stay awake on this flight so we might be able to get some sleep overnight before an early morning safari.  I'll get to be with my friend Barrack for the safari and for lunch afterwards. It will be good to catch up on each other's lives.  We always do an early morning  trip to the Nairobi National Game Park on the first Saturday for several reasons. Since some of our team members may view this mission trip as a once in a lifetime event, it's good for them to see some of the  countryside and the abundant wildlife and flowers. Second, if we can stay active and be pretty exhausted over the weekend,  we'll naturally get better sleep and will be almost acclimated to the 8 hour difference from Austin to Nairobi by the time we begin the clinic.

After we get our luggage and clear customs, Catherine has arranged for a van to take us to Rosa Mystica,  the  convent we will call home while we are in Kenya. My first order of business will be a hot shower,  you can get pretty grungy when you travel for 24 hours or more!  Next I'll try to let folks know we arrived safe and sound.  Finally, I'll attempt to get some good sleep. On my first few missions, it was Monday or Tuesday night before I got a good night's rest.  These days, Saturday night or Sunday are possible. Never on that first Friday night though. You're still wound up from the rigors of travel, it's a short night and you are anticipating the morning photo safari. But you still have to try, even if it's just laying there, which is still way better than an airplane seat slightly leaned back.  That's it for now. We're about three and a half hours from touchdown.  The next post will probably be short and sweet just saying all is well.  We've been blessed with relatively easy travel so far with only the expected minor inconveniences. Thank you Lord for travel mercies!

Travel from Houston to Frankfort

My day started around 5:30 am and I finished last minute packing and finished up some business like scheduling my sales tax payment for my computer and photography businesses.  As I was taking some items out to my truck, who should I see but Pastor Kevin waiting for me.  Alex arrived shortly thereafter and Kevin prayed over us.  It was a special sendoff from my Pastor, friend and the leader of our global mission efforts. Thank you Jesus for putting him in our lives!

I drove Alex and our supplies and baggage to the Houston airport, where we met Cynthia. She has a friend that lives near the airport who is keeping her car for her. She's going to drive Alex back to Austin after our mission, since I will be staying a few extra days for wildlife photography with my friend Bill from Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball. That will work out well since Alex's car is at my house and she lives about a half mile from my place.  Once I had dropped my truck at long term parking, Cynthia took a team selfie and we got through security fairly quickly.  Our flight to Frankfurt was supposed to depart at 3:55 pm,  but the plane wasn't even boarded by then.  It was very warm in the terminal as the team and 800 new friends waited in a snaking line reminiscent of the most popular rides at Disney World! We took off about an hour late and we still never heard what the cause of the delay was. Once airborne, the pilot assured us that he could make up most of the lost time. I hope so, we only have about a 2 hour layover in Germany before our flight to Nairobi. At least the next flight is also on Lufthansa. I'm not clear on whether we will have another security check or not.

Our plane is the biggest one I've ever been on, an Airbus A380-800 that holds 800 souls, 500 downstairs and 300 upstairs. It was supposed to have power and USB in every seat, but not where we are. That's OK because after dinner, it is best to sleep the rest of this leg of our journey to make getting acclimated to  Nairobi time, which is 8 hours ahead of us, easier.  They do have wifi for $20 for this flight or $34 for the next 24 hours, but it is slow and limited to 500 MB per flight. I'm writing this on my phone and will try to post to the blog from Frankfurt. I might get the wifi on the next flight, but with all the sleeping on this one,  it just wasn't worth it.

Dinner was a choice between chicken teriyaki and pasta. I opted for the chicken and it was quite good.  It came with a salad,  rice and a chocolate fudge brownie. Once fed, I took.some Ibuprofen PM to help with sleeping and I managed to get 4 or 5 hours of on again off again shuteye.  We did hit about 20 minutes of pretty strong turbulence, possibly as we headed out over the Atlantic ocean. I was in the bathroom when they forced everyone back to their seats. I hope that was the most excitement for me this trip!

It's time for some breakfast and then about an hour to go until Frankfurt.  Breakfast was also very good. Scrambled eggs with steamed mushrooms and tomatoes, a fruit cup and a biscuit with strawberry jam. British Air could learn a few things about food from Lufthansa!

If I can post this during our layover, it will be around 9 am in Germany and about 2 am back in Austin for you night owls! Thank you Lord for keeping us safe thus far!

Time to saddle up for Kenya again!

As I sit in my living room writing this, my mind drifts off to past mission trips to Kenya.  There are so many friends, so many stories over the years that it is kind of mind boggling as I gear up for my 19th journey to this wonderful country.  I could never have imagined back in 2009 when I made my first trip to Nairobi, that our project would have touched over 300,000 people by now with both vision care, and more importantly, with the saving message of the Gospel.  Each of these individuals has been prayed over personally.  Only the Lord knows how each of those prayers was answered, but I believe that they all were in their own way and in God's own perfect timing.  Many times, not as we imagined at all, but always in His better way.

Here are some photos from our being sent as missionaries last Sunday morning.

Explaining this mission to our congregation

Pastor Kevin adds more to the story

Being blessed to be a blessing

We will be serving at the Springs of Life Lutheran Church in the large slum of Kibera, in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.  I have conducted our vision clinics there several times before and the benefits of our mission philosophy for this project, "Short term missions with long term commitment" will certainly be obvious as we are greeted by life long friends and as we make friends with new volunteers from the church.  We rotate locations around Nairobi and have been concentrating on a couple of new church plants for the last couple of years.  I will be going back to my roots, since Kibera is the first location that I was a Team Leader for in the Spring of 2010.  I have been blessed mightily each time I have been back.  The church has a thriving parochial school and a vibrant congregation.  I can't wait to worship there next Sunday.  The Holy Spirit is present full blast in the music and in the order of service.

We leave for Nairobi on Thursday May 30th and will arrive at Jomo Kenyatta airport at around 8 pm local time Friday night.  We will be flying Lufthansa out of Houston with a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany.  This time all of our flights will be modern planes with power and USB connections in every seat, making for a little less stressful travel when you don't have to worry about your laptop, tablet or smartphone dying on you.  This has become more important over the years, as our travel tickets and visas are now capable of being displayed at security checkpoints on our portable devices wherever we go.

The downside of all of this technology is that the world has become so much smaller that we have grown used to being connected at all times.  Particularly our young people.  Some of the other teams in our project have practically had to take phones away because their people had their heads buried in their screens during cross country travel as incredible scenery and wildlife were in plain view.  I'd hate to miss what might be a once in a lifetime experience that way!  These are much different times than when I first came to Nairobi in 2009 and we were only able to contact our loved ones via a burner phone that the team shared for about 25 cents a minute.  We might call home every second or third day and I would do my best to get a blog post out every day with iffy Internet connections.  Now there is fairly decent wifi everywhere and we can use Skype, Facetime or Whatsapp to do a video call to any phone in the world for free.  Wow!

That's about it for now, I'm still doing last minute things before the trip.  I'll try to post at least daily from the mission field and there may be a few pictures.  Sometime bandwidth just doesn't make uploading high quality pictures feasible, but there will be a photo album available within a couple of weeks after the trip.  I am staying over for an extra 4 days for photo safaris with my friend Bill Goodoff from Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball and, if past history is any guide, I will probably have 5,000 or more photos to sort through from that!  So many pictures, so little time!  Blessings everybody!  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission.