Presentation

The Kenya team will have a presentation of their time in Kenya on Sunday evening, September 20, at Calvary Bible Fellowship Church, Main Street, Coopersburg, PA. We will begin with a covered dish at 5:00 p.m. and have the program at 6:00 p.m. You are invited! Come to both or just to the program if you cannot come to the meal.

Answered Prayer

I just took time to read again the daily prayer calendar that we handed out to our congregations before leaving for Kenya. Many of you had it and used it. It was a joy to read over the requests again and reflect on how God indeed answered what was written and will continue to do so. What a great and mighty God we have who is above ALL, powerful in all His works and hears and answers the voice of His children. To Him be praised! How humbling to be called His children!

A Few Pictures

Most of us took many, many pictures. Trying to post them all or even a majority would be impossible. Maybe this will give you a glimpse. We hope to give a full report on a Sunday evening in September. Stay tuned!

HOME!

We made it......all 15 of us back in the States, and into Coopersburg by late afternoon. We wish we knew how many miles we covered and travel time spent in these last 2 weeks besides all the air time. We had more great flights since leaving Nairobi to London to Newark, and all bags home safe and sound with us. We missed seeing cows, donkeys and goats along the road from Newark to Coopersburg! :-) They've become our routine. Some of us did see a doe and two fawns though....to remind us where we were. :-) We continue to reflect on the team that God brought together...each with their own distinctive abilities and personalities, that meshed and worked well together. We are so thankful and give Him all the praise and glory. Dr. John particularly has a passion for sharing the Word of God, and God honored that and gave him the opportunities to do so. Pray for people who heard the Word through him and through the devotionals presented each day. That God's word will not return void and will take root in the hearts of those who heard, and give the area pastors many more opportunities to minister. The needs are vast.

Please pray for everyone to get well rested tonight, and pray for each person as most get acclimated back to their work schedules on Tuesday! Again we thank YOU for also being part of the team....for interest shown, following our BLOG, praying with us and supporting us.

Hershey or Giraffe?

If someone asked you what you would prefer....a Hershey Kiss or a Giraffe Kiss, what would you say??? Some in our group would tell you even tho' they love the sweet, chocolate Hershey kiss, they would prefer the wet, slobbery giraffe kiss. :-) It happened today. Most of us had the fun of visiting the Giraffe Centre of Nairobi. What a unique experience to see beautiful, graceful giraffes up close! REALLY close! We saw them in the distance, we saw them walk toward us and we had them eating out of our hands. Yes, Jen and Steph both got a big, juicy kiss and loved every minute of it. Jen said it made her year!!! I think she took over 70 pictures at just this place!! We also heard a lot of interesting facts about these beautiful creatures created by God.....did you know they have 4 stomachs, and as a result eat a lot, and a large heart which has quite a job, they are about 16-18 feet tall, gestation is about 15 months, but if there's a drought, the mother can wait up to another 3 months to deliver!! We also got to walk on a nature trail which made us really feel like we were out in the wild. It was so refreshing to be outside walking! Traffic in Nairobi is many times worse than NYC!! We got to have some lunch and experience Kenya shopping and bartering. A few visited a fish farm and learned a lot there too.

It is hard to believe that on Sunday night we'll be boarding a plane to return to the States. The time has gone quickly. God has blessed us together as a team. There's been unity and we have worked well together. We had a time of reflection tonight. Here are just a few comments given:

"I've seen what real compassion is."
"It's been a wake up call of real reliance on God."
"One pastor says that he and his family go without a meal 50% of the time, but he doesn't want others to know. He says, "But God is good."
"We at home must learn to separate our needs from our wants."
"I want to be more sensitive to needs around me and to life together in the community of believers."
"I want to be more quick to give praise and thanks to God for all He has done for me."

Over 500 pair of glasses were given out. Pastor Osenya said one woman came over 125 kilometers to get to the clinic. Another left her home at 2 a.m. to get there. People "treked" many miles. Dr. Hentosh was able to make a connection with a doctor who will see two very needy patients at a fraction of the cost. Pastor Benard who some of us met when he visited the Lehigh Valley and lives in a nearby village, will probably get these patients to this particular dr. as he has a car, and one of the patients is his mother-in-law. As I said before, God has orchestrated more than we could imagine.

I know I said I was not going to do any more posts while here, but I just had to share this much again. Tomorrow we will worship in another Kenyan church, and this little team who are not singers will probably be singing in front of the church for a 3rd or 4th time! Flexibility is the key to a missions trip! ;-)

Let me share the verses I read today.....I praise God for the fruition of them in our lives these days.

"With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that BY HIS POWER He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the GRACE of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1:11-13

Indeed the acts we've done have been prompted by our faith, and we trust Jesus to be glorified through it all, and we stand in awe that He chooses to use us, and we know it's only by His grace. Praise Him with us, and know that we pray for you too as you worship on Sunday!

Final day and back in Nairobi

This morning I read from Colossians 1 ..."we have not stopped praying for you...."and just those words made me pause and reflect on all the people praying for this team. It was necessary, and by God's grace many, many prayers have been effective. We saw and tried to help literally thousands, and we know that some will be getting further care because of recommendations given and contacts made by our doctor. We continue to stand in awe of the strength given, and the way God has orchestrated so many things. Paul continues to pray for strength and endurance and patience.....all things we needed this week and things that were given to us.

Our last clinic on Thursday was difficult in a lot of ways. It was chaotic and again hundreds of people came. We probably saw about 600 again, and turned many away as it started to get dark and there was no electricity. Our hearts were torn. When we got there in the morning students were dismissed from their classes. They were excited....we thought b/c they were getting out of class, but it was because most of them had never seen white people! Because the rooms were rather dark the dental station had to be set up outside. This made for interesting times, as people crowded around to watch everything....there were even kids up in trees to get a bird's eye view! We had the help of the two medical students again. These were men met by our doctor quite by "chance" when they were doing a rotation at LVHC. They expressed how much they appreciated helping us and truly felt it was God ordained. They were joyful to be around, are quite good, and were a great help. They hated saying goodbye as well. They saw things that they only hear about in textbooks, so they were glad for the experience.

When we closed the clinic and packed up our stuff we had a short time of thanks and prayer with the interpereters and organizers, and then returned to Dorcas' mother's home to have tea with her and other family members. She was so happy to have us there.

Today we went to Dorcas' home and met some of her husband's family, and then had a tearful goodbye. From there we stopped at the home of her husband's uncle and had a delightful visit with him....a very godly man. One thing he said to us was that what we have done was not done in vain, because even if one life is changed it is worth it....someone, some day will remember what was done for them in the name of Jesus and it will make a difference. We appreciated that perspective, because when you see all the needs and are in the midst of it, it's easy to lose that kind of perspective. We finally began our 6 hr. drive to Nairobi. It was a sunny, cool day, low humidity and we enjoyed beautiful countryside. We stopped around 5 p.m. for lunch/dinner, and finally arrived here at the guesthouse around 9 p.m. Tomorrow will be a day of relaxing, and Sunday a time of worship. Pray as we have some down time together. We have a lot to process. We have learned how quick the Kenyans are to praise God and to greet and welcome people. Dorcas' uncle said today that they have much to learn from Americans, but we said we have much to learn from them......things of value.

I doubt there will be any more posts before we return home. Praise God with us, pray for our safe travel home, and we look forward to seeing all of you!

A Busy Team

A cool morning; beautiful day; lovely grounds; nice, large church; functional rooms for each station; chai breaks; many interpreters; warm greeting from Phillip and Dorcas' uncle when we arrived; many, many people; hours of waiting; unusual cases; frustrating cases; many eye drops and eyeglasses; lots of tooth extractions; weary to the point of tears; feeling spent; feeling helpless at not being able to do more; joyful in helping people from Phillip's church and beyond; collaboration of about 6 churches; thankfulness and appreciation of people; approximately 600 people in one day....yes, 600; seen by our team only...not with help of medical students...all by God's grace; worked until nearly 7 p.m. and had to turn some away.......sooooo difficult; encouragement by God's Word sent on little slips of paper with some of us by a woman from church....and all using it to be uplifted; 4000 ibuprofen and 2000 tylenol and many more meds later, and the day ended about 7 p.m. with tea and praise with the pastors and translators after that; God's sufficiency and adequacy through it all. This gives you a glimpse of our day. It is truly amazing what God is allowing to be accomplished. Our hearts are full of praise. The team is doing well together and encourage each other as needed. God also knew what a respite this new place of lodging would be for us and we praise Him for restful rooms and good food when we return very late evening. When you read these posts in the afternoon or evening, pray that we get well rested on this Wednesday night and be prepared for another busy day on Thursday. We will go to the home area of Dorcas and Phillip's parents and our clinics will be held in a school. We are talking about doing some things a little differently to continue to learn to be efficient and organized. It's also exciting to see the two worlds of Dorcas and Phillip meet.....they get excited to have their "parents and brothers and sisters" from Calvary be with their biological Kenyan family. It gives us joy to serve them. They have been so helpful to us.

Phillip dreaded telling people that we just had to end the day and wouldn't be able to see everyone and was afraid people would be upset. After all there were only about 20 left, but we just couldn't do it as there were many more in line whose info we obtained and were waiting to see a nurse or dr, and it was almost 7. One man's reaction surprised and touched Phillip. He turned and said to the people, "We have come so close to the doctors but didn't get to see them. Let's believe we will be healed. Let us go home in faith." Pray for these dear folks too.

"Therefore stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58