Empowerment through Healthcare

We currently have a team from Lambs Fellowship Church here with us in the village. Half of the team has been working on some very special medical projects in conjunction with our clinic staff. Their main project was an outreach to our local primary schools. The team started with an educational preventative-health presentation about sanitation. They then assisted the clinic staff in providing medicine to de-worm (kill intestinal worms) for approximately 1,000 children in our community! They also were able to provide free-treatment for around 200 sick children from our local public school. They also hosted a medical conference for our staff AND assisted in furthering our ultrasound skills. Here are some highlights from their time here:

Clinic staff member Margaret carrying supplies for treating sick children at the school

Team member, Craig, assessing a child

Joyce and Catherine providing wound care

Dr. Larry with Shadrack interpreting to treat a sick child

Craig training our staff in more advanced techniques on our ultrasound machine

Catherine giving a lecture at the medical conference for the clinic staff

The Gift of Sight

We have been super-blessed with some amazing teams and interns who have traveled from the USA to assist us in our work. In June we were able to host a team from Kingsburg, CA who came to assist us with some optometry outreaches. We have never done more than two medical outreaches from the clinic in any single month before. But while the Kingsburg team was here we did FOUR in just ONE WEEK!! It was a marathon. Over 350 patients were seen and treated at four different locations where patients have little-to-no access to eye-care. Here are some pictures to give you some of the highlights. The above picture is of the Kenyan and American teams who joined forces at our outreach to the community of Sosiani.

Packing up equipment at the clinic in preparation to hit the road

Patients waiting patiently to be seen

A grandmother from the community testing out a prescription to see if it will work for her

Excitement over the realization that the world is so much clearer when you can see!

On one of our outreaches we lost ALL of the lug-nuts on the left, rear tire. The tire came off as the team was cruising down the highway. Thankfully no one was injured. We were all glad that we had prayed for protection as we started the day.

Here I'm working the phone to try and arrange alternate transportation to our outreach site. Where is AAA when you need them?! The team took the whole situation in stride and we shared stories as we waited on the roadside for backup.

These ladies were styling in their new sunglasses!

It felt good to sit down for a breather in the midst of so many patients!

Blessed be Your Name

Shortly before I moved to Kenya the Holy Spirit really put the song "Blessed be Your Name " on my heart. It was a wonderful time in my life when everything was going as right as it possibly could. I had graduated from UCLA, was fulfilling my life-long dream of moving to Africa and then preparing to marry the love of my life! I sang the words to that song with a heart full of joy.

And then it was like I heard a whisper in my ear "Right now you are in the land that is plentiful; will you still bless me in the desert place?" And I suddenly had this vision of some difficult times ahead. In that moment I chose to answer back "Yes Lord, I will bless your name!"

Yesterday a dear friend of mine went to be with the Lord. I sat in the hospital and held her sister's hand as they wheeled Betty's body past us to the mortuary. The tears were streaming down both of our faces. And suddenly the chorus began to run through my mind.

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say "Lord blessed be your name"

It was a holy moment. Truly. Holy.

Many of you who have visited us in the Kipkaren area have had the privilege of meeting Betty. I had the great honor of calling her my friend. She was one of the greatest jewels I have had the blessing of knowing in this life. Betty was redeemed by her Savior from a dark past. She chose to live each day for that Savior. And she has touched the lives of literally thousands. She allowed God to use her HIV/AIDS to glorify Him.

In the past she asked me to pray for her sister. She told me "Michelle, she is living in darkness. She doesn't know what she is missing. Please pray with me for her." Well that same sister has been at Betty's bedside during her recent physical decline. During the course of Betty's illness, she has made a decision to follow the Lord.

For the last few weeks I have known in my heart that Betty was preparing to make her debut in heaven. Yesterday morning I was hoping to spend some time with her at the hospital before we brought her home to say goodbye. Unfortunately as William and I were getting in the car to leave, we received a phone call that she had passed away.

As we pulled into the parking lot at the hospital Betty's sister met us. We threw our arms around each other. She looked me in the eye and told me "Two hours ago, the angels came for her and she flew to heaven with them!"

There are always mixed emotions when faced with the loss of a brother or sister in Christ. I have NO DOUBT that Betty is happier and more full of joy than she has EVER been before. Her infectious smile is lighting up in the face of her Father. She is dancing and so full of joy. And it honestly makes me picture heaven a little differently than I ever have before. There is something so right about picturing her there.

But a part of me is seriously grieving her loss. I'm realizing that I can never sit and visit with her again. Those sparkling eyes won't light up in my presence. I have some regrets. I didn't get to give her a hug goodbye. Her sister said that she was crying and screaming in pain in the final hour of her life. That hurts. Badly. She wanted to die at home. And that is what we wanted for her. I really can not understand why God allows things like this. And the fact is that in this lifetime I never will.

But I do know that our God is a loving God. I know that He used Betty to touch countless lives. I know that she has left a legacy behind that will not be forgotten. I also know that she is rejoicing and worshiping at the feet of her Jesus. I know that she is shaking her head with a smile at how simple the things that used to baffle her really are. She has that eternal perspective and understanding that one day those of us who have also placed our faith in Christ will share. And with that knowledge I will lift up my head and say "Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

*This gorgeous photo of Betty was taken a few years ago by another dear friend, Adele Booysen. It's getting a workout this week as we all remember Betty together.

Matope (Mud)

I only started driving in Kenya this year. The highway used to terrify me. And never having lived in snow, ice or mud prior to moving to Kenya, tackling our muddy roads has been a bit much for me. But today I braved the elements to pick up our newest clinic intern from the airport. On the way home I made the mistake of taking the short-cut road. It becomes the super-long-cut during rainy season due to the mud. I managed to get us really really really stuck. As in the car actually bottomed out in the mud. I had to call William to come and rescue us. Even he wasn't able to get the car out. And that was with people pushing. We finally had to have it pulled out by a large truck. Fun stuff! And welcome to the village Renee!

Monday

Okay let's face it, Monday is not most people's favorite day of the week. But this morning I woke up very much on the right side of the bed. Spring is here in Chebaiywa and everything is turning from brown to green. I can feel life in the air. I just wanted to share a few pictures from my morning.

These ladies are neighbors who come to get clean water from our home every day. We are blessed to be able to share disease-free water for them to use in their homes.

My friend Victoria stopped by the clinic with the two youngest charges from our neighboring ministry, the Living Room. Victoria is pictured holding Chepchumba. Purity and I are in the next two pictures. She is four years old. A while back I referred her to the Living Room for severe malnourishment. She is really starting to thrive as she loves to laugh and play!

A Helping Hand

Just over two years ago MIT Sloan School of Management sent a team of grad-students out to our clinic to do an assessment. They were working in partnership with the Global Health Delivery Project. They did an assessment of the clinic and helped with ideas on how to improve customer service. At that time they also made some reccomendations in regards to strategies that the clinic could implement to increase our self-sustainability. (In layman's terms they gave us ideas of how we could generate more money for the clinic and become less dependent on donors from the west.)

This week we were blessed with a follow-up visit from a student who is about to graduate from the program. Her name is Lillian and she has been a joy to have around. I have to confess that I was a little nervous about the follow-up visit. Would there be a noticeable difference from early 2009 to now?

We reviewed the report from two years ago and then evaluated the differences between now and then. I was blown away by how far we have come. Maybe because I'm here on a day-to-day basis I don't always see the changes as big. I'm also not a big numbers/stats person. So I do what needs to get done but don't dwell on it. But as we began to crunch numbers we found that the clinic is now 53% less dependent on outside funding than we were two years ago. And not only that, but we have added 4 staff members to our clinic since the initial survey! So we are now employing more Kenyan health providers, at the same time as we are requiring less in donations from the USA to keep the clinic running. It was a very exciting discovery!

We were also able to look at some areas that the clinic can continue to improve. Things like how to best utilize our staff during the down-seasons when we have a slower patient flow. As she made some recommendations I felt my creative juices starting to flow.

As Lillian and I sat in my office she asked me to share some of my dreams and visions for the clinic. We talked about how to use business strategies to continue to improve quality of care. She is planning to advocate for a future team or possibly even an intern to come and spend some more time in our clinic. Very exciting!

Picture Update

Jambo! Sorry I've been absent from the blog lately. Sometimes life just gets so incredibly busy. Add that to the fact that we are expecting and I'm battling pregnancy nausea and fatigue. Anyway, enough with the excuses! Here are some pictures of what I've been up to.

Our last sewing meeting was held on Saturday. We had a guest speaker come and talk about what it means to run a business. We had over 150 ladies and ran out of chairs for them all!






I've been putting my new ultrasounds skills into practice. And hopefully further developing them as I practice. I realized it was time to start passing the knowledge along. One of the nurses has been shadowing me whenever I scan patients. So this week I had her put her hands on the scanner and try a few herself. It reminded me of the old saying "See one, do one, teach one!"