Friday morning thoughts

After some rest, I now have a couple of minutes to share from yesterday.  One really cool thing that happened was Alison and I had the privilege of being allowed to see a couple of cataract surgeries performed by our friend Dr. Francis.  He explained what he was doing each step of the way and was actually teaching other doctors as the operations unfolded.  He actually wanted me to take pictures over his shoulder and I got many closeups of the patients eyes during each stage of the procedures.  The first one was an elderly woman, already being operated on when we got there.  They have a cloth over the patients faces, with only the eye being worked on visible.  Alison noticed the woman was breathing shallowly and rapidly and asked if she could hold her hand.  When she did, the woman calmed down.  Wow!  The second operation was on a man in his 30's that had been poked in the ey a year ago.  A cataract formed of fibrous material as a scar.  The doctor removed all of the obstruction and placed a new lens in his eye for him.  I have a much greater appreciation now for the life changing benefits our clinics bring to those who really need this help.  It keeps me going strong!

I was also visited by many friends from around Nairobi including Sylvester Opiyo and Douglas Masheti, both of whom I have known for over 10 years now.  They work with orphans in the slum and are great examples of sharing the love of Christ.  These close friendships are the by-product of our mission philosophy.  We do short term missions, but with log term commitment.  The church is its people and each human brick in this tapestry plays a part, everywhere in the world. 

Time to head down for breakfast, Friday is a very busy day since we will need to take inventory and pack everything up at the close of the clinic. I expect some laughs and some tears as we part company with our friends at Waithaka this afternoon.  Blessings, everybody!

Thursday was our best combined day yet for the clinics

We saw over 600 patients and Kevin's team had more than 500.  Lots of great stories to tell, but it's getting late after a very nice dinner at the Talisman restaurant, one of the finest in Nairobi and it's only about half a mile from our lodging.  I had spicy prawns (shrimp) and calamari stir fry.  Yum!  This missionary life is awful tough!

It's already 9:30 pm here, so I'm going down for the count.  Just wanted to let everyone know we're having very successful clinics and hope to finish strong.  Tomorrow is the Kenyan equivalent of our July 4th, the date in 1963 when they became independent of the British.  We really don't know if we'll have a very good Friday or maybe be sitting on our hands.  I think it will be one or the other, with no middle ground.  More to report after we wrap up the clinics tomorrow.

Blessings everybody!

Wednesday was a big day at both clinics

Pastor Kevin and his team at Pipeline saw over 600 patients today while we had nearly 500.  We had a little hiccup in the morning when there was a peaceful demonstration in our neighborhood and out of an abundance of caution, the police shut down the road coming into our clinic for about an hour.  We were never in any danger and I made friends with a few of the officers while they kept us safe from anything getting out of hand.  Our gracious hosts from the Lutheran Church in Waithaka fed us with a Kenyan dish called Pilau that had rice and meat in it.  It was very tasty and also very filling.  I may gain some weight on this trip that will need to be lost upon my return to Austin!  We have a young 12 year old boy named Noah Okello, the son of my friend and evangelist Thomas, who was instrumental in the coming to Christ of four people today.  He is a joy to be around and only wants to talk about Jesus all day long.  I asked him who Jesus is and he said "my Lord and savior."  I asked who else and he responded with "King of Kings".  I asked if he was also Mighty Counselor and he said "yes".  All told, we went through about 30 Biblical names for Christ and he knew them all.  When I wondered if he wants to be a Pastor, he said "No, I want to be like Jeremiah!"  Wow...

We had a nice dinner after the clinic and shared more stories.  I told about Noah and about an elderly woman that came to the clinic to have bandages removed after we had sent her for cataract surgery the previous day.  When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Will Bach, my team member and friend standing right in front of her.  He's a big guy and she must have thought she had seen Sasquatch or Yeti, because she yelled out "It didn't work!"  We've already gotten a lot of laughs from that story, but imagine the culture shock she must have had.  And don't worry, Will has a great sense of humor and loves this one!

We're beginning to run out of some of our supplies and my team is making distance glasses for both teams and some lens and frame combinations are getting pretty low.  We hope to restock on what we need rapidly.  At the very worst, any order we can't fill will result in the patient getting a prescription for what they need.

Well, it's about time for bed here.  We make sure we get our rest and try to stay hydrated in order to serve others in the best way possible.  Blessings everybody!

First little trouble overnight

After the wonderful meal at Darry last night, I'm sure that everyone turned in early.  I noticed the power was out in the middle of the night, but thought it was a brief rolling blackout, not uncommon here.  I got up early and checked the circuit breakers on our floor and they were all fine.  I tracked down one of the sisters here and before long, the generator was up and running.  Unfortunately, we depend power overnight to recharge our autorefractor batteries for the clinic and each one takes from 6 to 8 hours for a full charge.  We will probably not catch up from this the rest of the week, since each of our four machine has 4 batteries.  We can plug in 4 at a time and maybe get 8 batteries to full strength in a good night.  We are essentially starting out where we left off yesterday.  We will work around this setback, I'm sure.  Pray that all goes well!

Both clinics continue to roll!

Each clinic was in striking distance of seeing 400 patients today.  There were many more touching moments than I can fathom at the end of a long day.  One surprise was our Evangelist Thomas' little son Noah.  He jumped into the triage station and was giving little sermonettes to anyone that would listen.  He's a pastor in the making!  While we saw about 50 more patients than yesterday, none of us were near as tired as we were after the first day.  Several people that had received cataract surgeries on Monday as a result of our clinic came back to have the bandages removed and it was a joyous occasion when they could see again.  I will probably get to go and witness a surgery in the next day or two, since the clinic is very close to our location.

After working at the clinic, we came back to Little Daughters and freshened up before going out as a group for a nice meal at Darry, a fine restaurant.  I had been there in November of 2016 for lunch, they have beautiful spacious grounds, peacocks walking around and water features with many places to eat outside.  We were inside and had entrees from the menu ranging from various kinds of fish and chicken to steak.  A good time was had by all and we've just returned home to get some much needed sleep.  More to follow as the week progresses.

A very successful day at both clinics in Nairobi

I just got done with dinner with the whole team and we all had a great day.  Each clinic saw over 300 people (not shabby by first day standards) and we know that lots of groundwork by both congregations and the dedication of dear friend Catherine Wangari played big roles in it.  Plus, we're doing the Lord's work, so He played the leading role!  We shared some of the high points of the day.  Alison told about working with a 22 year old Muslim man in the triage station, patiently going over the Gospel with him.  He told her he was a Muslim and after she said "I know", he said that he would one day like to be a Christian.  She said "Why not today?" and he said "OK".  After spending some time with Pastor James, he was baptized and I had the privilege of being there and getting some photos of the happy event.  We all welcomed him as a new brother.  Wow!  I also saw my friend Patrick early this morning and he said he would be around the clinic later.  He brought his grandfather, who couldn't see and it was unbeknownst to me at the time that one of the surgeries I authorized during the day was for him.  As we were boarding our van for the ride back to showers and dinner, Patrick approached me with an old man and to said his grandfather had already had the cataract surgery in our field surgical unit.  He had a bandage on his eye and they both were so happy that they would each be able to see each other again.  Thank you, Jesus!  They promised to visit me once the bandages were taken off.  How blessed we are to be a part of so many things like this that happened on the first day and we're just getting rolling.

Based on previous trips, I will not be more tired than I am right now.  Getting things running smoothly is quite an effort, but it pays off the rest of the week.  I'm ready for an early night and an early morning.  Blessings, everybody!

Sunday worship and other happenings

Both teams had a chance to worship with their respective congregations this morning.  We had a wonderful service in Kawangware and about half of our team joined the children for their Bible study while the rest of us took in the full adult service.  It was great seeing old friends and making a few new ones.  Our team got to Java House around 1:30 pm and all had great meals.  We shopped for bottled water and snacks for the week at the nearby Karen Hub mall, then got some time to freshen up or take a short nap. I did both.

The Pipeline team was fed a very good meal after their worship by the congregation.  They are wonderful hosts and I'm sure their clinic will be a great blessing to their neighborhood.

This evening, Pastor Kevin and I worked with our teams before and after dinner to get everyone up to speed on how the clinic will be set up and will operate.  I trained the folks from both team after dinner in using the autorefractors to examine eyes for distance vision.  It's been a very long day, I'm heading to bed to get recharged before a very full week.  Blessings everybody!