Saturday safari and more...

We got up bright and early for a 6am breakfast and were on the road to Lake Naivasha with our driver Humphrey.  He pointed out many interesting things along the way and took us to a different lodge than we had ever set sail from before.  We were pleasantly surprised that the entry fee for each of us was only 2,000 Kenyan shillings or about $25.  We saw many birds, nesting and in flight, and Linda and I both used our DSLR cameras to the max.  All of my practice with the new camera really paid off in what I know are going to be some high quality photos of hippos, zebras, wildebeests, water bucks, many more animals as well as birds in flight.  I was a little surprised to see that I had taken nearly 1,000 pictures, a new daily record, but I did do many multiple shot action sequences, which accounts for a lot of shots that will more than likely end up on the cutting room floor.  Pictures will hopefully begin to trickle up to the blog over the next couple of days as time and Internet availability permit.  As always, about 2 weeks after we return to Austin, I will have many of the very best of the best photos linked into the blog.  We had a nice lunch at the lodge that costs us another $25 or so each, which offset some of the savings from the safari.  Still, a very affordable, enjoyable day trip was had by all.

Our ride back to Nairobi found most, if not all, of us dozing off on occasion.  This was due both to sleep deprivation and travel jet lag but also from being out on the water in the wind and the sun all morning.  Upon arrival at the convent where we are staying, the St. Joseph Spirituality Center, Pastor Kevin and I were immediately summoned to a meeting of all of the team leaders with Catherine, Shara and leaders from the Central Diocese who are hosting our clinics.  We were welcomed warmly by all of our friends and we discussed our partnership in sharing the Gospel as effectively as possible. 

We worshipped with the other teams, since many will be traveling long distances and will not get the opportunity to worship on Sunday with the congregations they will be serving.  One of the blessings of doing urban ministry within Nairobi is that we worship with the people we will be working with during the week, renewing old friendships and starting on new ones.

Worship was followed by a very good dinner of chicken, rice, greens and watermelon and pineapple for dessert.  We all turned in fairly early, since the coming days will be very busy indeed.  Next up, worship in Kawangware on Sunday and our other activities…

London to Nairobi and safely at our lodgings

We got away from the gate in London right on time and headed east towards Continental Europe.  Our flight path has taken us past Bosnia, over the beautiful mountains surrounding Sarejevo and Montenegro and we are now just about past Greece in our southward trip towards first north Africa and finally Kenya, which is on the east coast of Africa straddling the Equator.  We expect the weather to be around 80 every day for a high and in the low 60’s at night.  Our missions always coincide with the rainy seasons in the spring and the fall, this is why our airfare is lower than at the high tourist times, such as spring break for European college kids.  If the pattern holds true to form, we will be in jackets in the morning on the way to work at the clinic, the clouds will burn off by 10am and it will be warm the rest of the day.  The rains usually come late in the afternoon.  More than once, a torrential late afternoon rain has cut our clinic short for the day, since people don’t go out in that kind of weather or will be scrambling home to try to prevent damage from flash flooding, etc.

We are a little more than 5 hours away from Nairobi at this point and have just had lunch.  I had curry chicken with spinach and a rice dish.  A small salad, a roll and some chocolate mousse rounded out the meal.  Our first flight was too warm for my liking.  This flight has been absolutely frigid.  Even I, who am always too warm, am bundled up in a blanket.  The hot meal plus a cup of coffee afterwards has helped to take the chill away and it’s now looking pretty likely that a nap is in my future.

I did get some good sleep of a little more than an hour and feel much better now.  I’ve done some stretching and went back to the galley and got some juice and a snack.  The current estimate has us arriving in Nairobi around 9:20pm local time.  I’m sure it will be midnight by the time we get our visas, a t4iour footlockers and other luggage, get everything loaded up into a truck, arrive at our lodgings by bus, unload everything and then get assigned a room.  We will have an early morning because we are going up to Lake Naivasha for a photo safari.  Those of you who regularly follow this blog will know that we’ve been there more than a few times and there were some outstanding wildlife photos captured by Pastor Robert Tiner on the last trip in April.  Those photos made me jealous enough that I got a comparable Nikon camera (D5200) to the Canon (t4i) that he had used.  I consider myself a serious amateur photographer and have worked hard all summer to learn all of the features of this camera and some stunning new photo techniques.  I hope that all of this effort will pay off in some fabulous animal pictures, portraits of the people we encounter and a great landscape or two.  Each safari and each clinic have their own personality, with differing people, weather, places and situations.  My goal is to give you a taste of the incredible variety of flavors we will experience.

We made it through immigration and customs without too much trouble.  Since the International Terminal at Kenyatta Airport burned down in August, they have gotten a pretty good replacement for it up and running in the cargo area.  We were bused from our plane on the tarmac to the cargo area and things did go pretty smoothly.  We then loaded up all of the footlockers and luggage onto a truck and took two small buses to our lodgings in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi.  We got our room assignments and I was showered and in bed by 1am.  I set the alarm for 5:45am and had a short but decent rest before getting up to breakfast and the safari.  More on the Saturday's safari and the rest of the day to follow.

Travel from Houston to London - we're at Heathrow now!

Well, I have my first funny story of the trip.  There was heightened security while boarding Flight 194.  After we were already heading down the gangway to board the plane, we were stopped in groups of 15 or so, told to get against the right hand wall side by side with our luggage in front of us.  The next thing I knew, there was a nice lady in a police type uniform with a German shepherd going down the aisle, sniffing each set of carry-on bags.  It spent about two to three seconds on each bag until it came to me.  The dog showed heightened interest and wouldn’t leave my bags until ordered to do so.  One lady in my group had a similar experience and we were both ordered to go to a table where all of our stuff was thoroughly searched.  I thanked the TSA personnel for what they were doing and they said most people get upset.  I said I was glad they were doing a good job and that my guess was the dog was either fascinated by the smell of my long-haired Calico cat or wanted some of my snacks.  It was probably a little of each, as they said the dog had a sweet tooth.  I always bring some Payday candy bars and some bags of Teriyaki Beef Jerky with me to tide me over during our busiest days at the clinic when we may not be able to break for a proper lunch.  Sure enough, everyone got a good laugh when they saw cat hair on my camera bag (Fluffin likes to lay on it for some unknown reason!) and when the snacks were uncovered.  I thanked everyone again for taking our safety seriously and was one of the last ones to board the plane.  Pastor Kevin and the rest of the team liked my story about the sniffer dog with a sweet tooth.  I am writing this at 35,000 feet as we pass over Little Rock Arkansas, a little less than an hour after a 4:36pm takeoff.  We’re on a newer British Air plane, with USB ports for charging up small devices and a nice interactive entertainment system for the 8.5 hour flight.

We just finished dinner, the choice was between a beef dish and pasta.  I took the pasta, since I had eaten a huge Swiss cheeseburger at the airport around 3pm.  We are now approaching Toledo, Ohio at about 2 hours into the flight.  Soon, it will be lights out in the cabin so those that wish to sleep can do so more easily.  I just discovered that this plane also has power taps, even back here in the cattle car section.  This is the first time I’ve ever been able to both use and recharge my devices in economy class.  I am an American Airlines frequent flier and have occasionally been bumped up to business or first class on fairly empty flights, but this is a new level of amenities for the common man.  Three cheers British Air!  I am hopeful I’ll get a wifi signal in the morning at Heathrow so I can post what our travel experience has been so far.

We’re about an hour out from London now.  I was able to get maybe 2 hours of sleep total over the last 7 hours or so.  Flight was very bumpy, especially over Nova Scotia and not very conducive to slumbering.  It was much more just resting my eyes with an eyeshade on, listening to music and various podcasts and a little pecking away at this blog than sleep.  I’m afraid I’ll end up napping a little too much on the next flight as a result and the first night’s sleep in Nairobi may be fitful as a result.  Oh well, it is what it is.  We just were served a breakfast of a croissant with strawberry jam, a granola bar and some Craisins, which are sun-dried cranberries.  It was actually much better than it sounds and a step up for British Air.  We used to joke about their tasteless cardboard biscuits for breakfast on past journeys.  I chased it with some black coffee and will be asking for some juice or water soon.  On these long travels it is very important to stay hydrated, particularly since our final destination will be at about 6,500 feet of elevation.  This is similar to traveling to the mountains in Colorado, but includes the extra kicker of the ease with which you can get behind the curve on hydration during two long flights.  I’m always like a mother hen on these trips with my team, driving them nuts with asking when was the last time they had something to drink.  It beats altitude sickness.  Over the years, several people have fallen ill on these trips that haven’t kept up on their fluids, but never on one of my teams.  The proof is in the pudding!

We’ve made it to Heathrow with about an hour to spare before our gate opens.  Everyone is freshening up or trying to send a quick email to family and friends to let them know we’ve made it this far.  More to follow from Nairobi.

We have cleared security in Houston

We have made it through security at Bush International and now we have nothing left to do but get something to eat, phone our families one last time before we leave the country and visit with new team members we have yet to meet from the other churches.  Our flight, British Air 194, is on time and we should be flying out at 4:20pm for London.  Pastor Kevin and I had an uneventful drive down from Austin and he had a surprise for us.  He was able to get AISLE seats for all of us.  What a blessing, since veteran travelers know it's good to get up and move around on a regular basis to avoid various medical issues and to arrive in better shape.  We will try to sleep for much of the flight to England and then will force ourselves to remain awake for most of the trek to Nairobi, since we arrive around 9pm and want to be tired so as to get some sleep the first night there and begin to adjust to a time zone that is 8 hours different than our own.  More to follow as I have electricity and Internet access.

Finally ready to saddle up for Kawangware

After many fits and starts, not the least of which was the tragic attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi  couple of weeks ago, Pastor Kevin and I are heading to Houston this morning to lead a team to the church in Kawangware for an eyeglass clinic.  This is the church where we helped build a water well and we are looking forward to seeing our friends there again.  Due to security concerns, we have not been back there, where we got our start with the Vision for Kenya Project, since November of 2011 when Pastor Dave and Risa joined us.  Stay tuned for stories and a picture or two as our mission unfolds.  As always, many more pictures and reflections will be added shortly after our return from Kenya.  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission in which many people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  And check back here often...

To God be the Glory!

We pray for Kenya and our friends in Nairobi

To everyone who has expressed concern about our upcoming mission trip to Kenya, at this point we are living our lives as if we are still going to go. Our tickets are bought, our medical supplies are packed up and ready and our team has been trained. Our hearts and our prayers go out to the Kenyan people, particularly those who have lost loved ones or know someone who was injured in the recent attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi. Safety and security are our number one priority on these trips. We are only out during the day, only travel as a team with experienced drivers that know the safest routes and are in gated, guarded compounds at night. None of us is interested in becoming a martyr, quite the opposite, our motivation is to share the love of Christ through our human care ministry of doing vision clinics in the slums and other relatively impoverished areas.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are ready to serve wherever God places us this time around and we are also fully prepared to continue to serve in our own communities if the upcoming trip is not to be.  We hope to know within the next few days what the outcome will be. Stay tuned. Blessings to everyone who reads and takes this blog post to heart.

Clinic summary and personal reflections on the April 2013 mission to Kiambu

To see the latest additions to the photo album from the trip, click the link below:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103425019225851329391/albums/5855216623996007105?authkey=CLD_kqXR3_HC5wE

To see some of  Glen Smith's best photos, a professional photographer who visited the clinic one morning, click the link below:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103425019225851329391/albums/5879400265795982609?authkey=CPLqzfamr-ftXA

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. 

 

Care to join us on our next mission to Africa from October 3-13, 2013?  Contact Pastor Kevin Westergren through Redeemer Lutheran Church in Austin, TX at 512-459-1500 or me,  Dave DeVore at 512-323-5343 for more information. I will personally guarantee that you will not look at the world in the same way after serving with us. God will break your heart in one way or another and will put it back together again in a markedly better way. How do I know this? Because after 9 trips since November 2009, I have seen this in not only myself, but also in every single short term missionary that has participated in the Vision Kenya Project with us.  This incredible experience completely stretches any comfort zone you may have had before and it prepares your heart and soul for serving the Lord even more enthusiastically than ever in most any setting.  As our own Pastor Dave likes to say, you will be so in tune with God's plan for you that you will see the world through "Jesus eyes". In my own case, I have been more active than ever in local human care ministries than I was prior to these evangelism missions. So, to those who think that involvement in short term international missions and serving the Lord locally are mutually exclusive, I reply that it is not an either/or proposition but a both/and kind of animal. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer teaches in his landmark book, The Cost of Discipleship, faith leads to obedience, which leads to stronger faith, which in turn causes stronger obedience and so it goes during one's walk with Jesus. It all begins with faith, which is a gift of God which none of us deserves. This obedience or sanctification is our joyful response to this free and gracious gift, a gift that was bought at a terrible price by Jesus that all might be saved. I'm well aware that not everyone is called to the foreign mission field, nor are all physically, financially or otherwise in a position to join in our efforts on the front lines in Kenya, as we witness to all whom God places in front of us. We know we are blessed to have heard the Lord and been able to answer His call. However, there aren't very many people that can't serve in some way within the context of their own lives. This might include supporting a mission such as ours through prayer, helping to recruit more team members or via financial gifts. This particular project definitely requires far more people behind the scenes than just those of us on the front lines. If your heart isn't moved to action by this project, my advice is to find a way to serve others that is near and dear to you that you can become genuinely passionate about. You will discover a wonderful paradox that those of us that have abandoned our comfort zones learned long ago. You can't out give God, you will always be abundantly blessed far more than any blessing you can ever give. It's such a profound truth that I have to question my motivation before each mission. Am I going to serve others in answer to God's call on my life or is it for the many blessings that I know, based on past experience, that I will receive? If I'm brutally honest, it's both and that's fine. My plea is that you just do something for somebody else. Are you afraid of making a mistake or not having the right words? I've noticed that the only people that don't make mistakes are those that don't do anything, and if I think about that for a while, that in itself is a big mistake. The options for service are endless, ranging from helping with ESL classes, building ramps for your homebound neighbors, volunteering at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, delivering Meals on Wheels to shut ins, starting a Bible study at work or in your home and on and on the list goes. Redeemer members, including our mission team members, do all of these things and many more. Come on in, the water's fine! The Lord will grant to you a joy and a peace that surpasses all understanding if you do.

To God be the Glory!