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!