Time to Wake Up?

We went over the weekend to Joy Village to visit with the children and their Momma's.  We arrived with bags full of activities and gifts and dreams of playing and cuddling with the children.  And of course, all of that happened.  Our many treasures were a huge hit with the children and we found ourselves making friends quickly.  The warm feeling that comes from doing things for others was flowing in abundance.

We were guests of individual families and given beds to sleep in, good food, and pans of hot water for bathing.  As I sunk into the life of Momma Peninah’s family of nine children, I had an opportunity to observe how she did her job, which is a 24 hour endeavor.  She cooked numerous nutritious meals from scratch, cleaned, helped with homework, administered medications, supervised the children’s chores, led them in prayer and song, and even took time to make an awkward guest feel welcome and at home. I will always remember her checking to see if each child had a clean handkerchief before they went off to Sunday School.  “Ah,”  she said, “now is the time for myself for an hour.”

Peninah and I also had time to talk without children present for a while.  “This is my calling, not just a job.”  She related to me that she had tried many careers: selling second-hand clothes was one of many.  None of them had worked out for her. “I was always a failure!”  She said she had a dream of taking care of children even though her children were grown.  She had talked to her pastor about this and he talked to her about following a calling to do what she was meant to do.  When I watched Peninah pouring out her love for those children and changing their lives with every minute of the day, I knew that I was watching someone following their calling.

We went off to church together which is an adventure to describe another day.  However, during a long and spirited sermon the pastor said something that intrigued me.  “You should go to a place where you will wake up” (He had been busy holding up the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane as a bad example.)  I had traveled a very great distance to be there and I had experienced so much for the past week but there now seemed to be a huge question.  Was I awake?  Was I just having an amazing journey leaving me with many stories to tell or was I alert to what God was telling me?  I suppose it’s the sort of thing that time will answer one way or another whether I work at it or not.  What I do know for sure is that when Peninah ventured toward where God was, she quite definitely was awake




.Dawn

JUST ONE TOUCH

As we walked to the Allamano school today, we had an addition to our team.  His name is Jim and he’s 4 years old. We met Jim a few nights ago when he came to our porch.  If there are people at the guesthouse, the children who live in the Nazareth compound come to the porch of the guesthouse to color, do puzzles, and play games. Jim comes as soon as he’s able and stays until it’s almost dark. A rule we operate by is all are home before dark, even the adults.  We said good night to Jim a couple of nights only to discover he was still on the porch without much light left.  So Nicole escorted him to the end of the road and pointed Jim toward home with another goodbye.

So as we left for a fun-filled afternoon with the kids at Allamano, it was no surprise to find him on the porch. He grabbed Yvette’s hand and off we went. I was talking and walking alongside Jim when he grabbed my hand.  Just one touch, Jim’s touch, but also God’s touch.  God used Jim’s touch to lift my spirits and mine to lift his.  This touch was special because I’ve been operating with compassion fatigue, something I wasn’t cognizant of, for a while.  In his book, “A Mile in My Shoes,” author Trevor Hudson says compassion fatigue can arise when we “care overmuch”, neglect self care because it appears selfish, and focus too much on pleasing others.  Through Jim’s grabbing of my hand, God renewed my heart and allowed me to be available to others again in a caring way.

I’ve discovered by God’s grace that while I want to be a blessing to others while here in Kenya, God is also using his children in Kenya to bless me. 

Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. – Luke 18:16

A Child is Born

Briskly driving through rolling hills, on county roads that find themselves reduced to two tracks, we spotted the client’s homestead with no road to enter.     Our community health worker, Winnie, and the social worker, Maureen, hopped out of the car and started walking across the rolling hills.  We quickly followed.  A woman came out to proudly greet us and welcomed us in to the large area that surrounded three dwellings.

These unpainted, wood slat houses were the size of a modest travel trailer, maybe 7 by 10 feet. Their entrances were covered by blankets; there were no windows.  This was surprising as we had been told that the Masai usually had larger and more decorative homesteads than those of other Kenya tribes.  This homestead was very modest.

There were only women home.  We saw the great grandmother in beautiful, traditional Masai dress, watching closely.  A young woman and three children stood by the homes.    The grandmother could hardly contain her excitement as she led the two health care workers to the smallest home and shut the door to visit.

Inside was a mother with her four day old baby.  Both parents were HIV positive.  They could not tell his family or she would be removed from the household. The couple used their prescriptions as directed and, when she became pregnant, she followed those too.  The baby was born HIV negative.

With the exam complete, the curtain was opened and the grandmother proudly invited each of us in to hold her four day old grandson.  The baby was so very tiny and perfect.  Such a blessing.  The extended family will never know the blessing that God has brought them through the Tree of Lives, which helps provide HIV medication for those unable to afford it .   

–Beth McBain

Hands and Feet

In my few days here in Kenya, as I’ve been walking alongside the Tree of Lives staff,  I’ve  witnessed the “hands and feet” of Christ in action.  From our group conversation with Michael, Director of Holy Family Clinic, I saw his pride and joy of sharing that a large percentage of HIV+ mothers delivered HIV- babies.  This pride and passion continues with Mary and Eric, Social Workers, who go daily to visit clients in their villages.  I was privileged to walk along with both on a day’s visits.  They go to build relationships, monitor adherence to a strict time table for the medicine’s needed to combat HIV and gently prod them along if needed.  Some clients are succeeding and living a healthy life while others are struggling.   During one visit a client asked if we could provide funds for surgery. I knew this was to be a pilgrimage of pain and hope and I left with a broken heart. She did accept our gift of prayer.  The next visit was one of hope, a mother who is healthy and a son who deeply loves her.  He said he now loves his mom because he knows God and because of this knowledge he wants to be a minister.

Posted on the door of Mary Ann’s office, who is the Leader of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Program, is this vision statement:  a world in which babies are not infected with HIV/AIDS and where mothers with HIV/AIDS live long and healthy lives, caring for their families and having hope for the future. She is passionate in bringing vision to mothers because she is a healthy mother caring for a 5 year old son.  Her love bounces off the walls!

As I began rounds with Linet, Pastoral Care Counselor at Nazareth Hospital, we entered the TB ward .  My mind was racing and I was thinking “I don’t really want to be in here (we later learned that they were on meds and not contagious).  Then a nudge to my brain said, “you are being prayed for by a multitude of people, don’t worry.”  Linet has an enormous and compassionate heart that empowers her loving hands.  She brings comfort, counsel and listening ears to those who need it.  We visited with Margaret, who will be going to hospice.  We listened as she shared about her family, her business, and prayed with her.  We were deeply touched when she prayed for us.  She was grateful for our visit and warmly sent us off with a God Bless You!  Pain and Hope rolled into one person.

Vinton, Pastoral Care Counselor, also a person with a compassionate and enormous heart, spent the evening sharing with us about Kenya and its people.  We learned about the tribes, customs and other interesting facts about his country.

Each morning I’ve been greeted by small talk and laughter from Beatrice and Lucy. These two friends work side-by-side to make our time here more meaningful. Their hands keep our sanctuary organized, cleaned and stocked with food. What a joy it is to have their laughter in this place.

Ruth, Director of Joy Village, oozes love for the children under her care.  My sense is that she would have every sick and hurting child in this world at Joy Village if space and money weren’t factors. She is continually seeking ways to bring healing, hope and joy to these children.

  .

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.  Yours are the feet with which he walks on earth to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.”   -Teresa of Avila

I know this to be true here in this place called Kenya.

Massi Community Road Trip

I had the amazing privilege to visit the Maasi community with social workers from the Holy Family Center.  The social workers go out into the towns and villages to visit clients in their homes.  The clients who receive these home visits have shown some difficulty in complying with the treatment regimen given to those with HIV. 

Getting to the Maasi community was quite a hike, taking two hours in a Toyota Land Cruiser.  Eric, the social worker from Holy Family, had been making visits to this community for about eight months.  He explained that the incidence of HIV is on the increase amongst the Maasi due to a number of reasons, including lack of understanding about the disease, a reluctance to receive HIV testing, and the insular nature of the community.  Unfortunately, even when someone has received a positive drug test and begins treatment, the rate of noncompliance also is high.  And so Eric’s job this day was to try and encourage the patients to take their pills as prescribed, reminding them of their good prognosis if they do.

The first patient we saw was a widow in her 30s. Her husband had died a year before of diseases related to AIDS.  She had a young son and a teenage daughter.  And it was clear during the interview that she hadn’t followed through on her previous promise to take her pills faithfully.  She even told Eric she couldn’t locate her treatment card, upon which she was supposed to be recording her daily drug taking ritual.  After the visit, Eric remarked that the Holy Family Clinic is hoping to find someone in the Massi, preferably a male, since it is a very male-dominated society, who will be open about their HIV status and encourage others to get tested and treated.  Eric noted that another Maasi would have much greater success in helping other Maasis do what is necessary to combat the realities of HIV.

In reflecting on my experience, I was deeply touched and impressed by the commitment of the social workers at the Holy Family Center who go out into these homes several days each week, trying to do what they can to help save lives.  The social workers clearly are committed to their work and deeply care for their clients.  I am so glad that Tree of Lives makes the work of the Holy Family Clinic possible through its ongoing support.

At another level, Eric’s example and comments got me thinking about how God has responded to the deadly condition we all share, no matter where we live or how much we have.  In the Old Testament, we find God setting before His people the ways of life and death.  “If you honor me and keep my commands, you shall live a blessed life; but if you turn away from me, death rather than life shall be the result.”  And yet, despite God’s repeated attempts through the law and the prophets to impress upon us the importance of maintaining faith and obedience, we habitually were noncompliant to what the Lord commanded us to do.  We did not do what would lead to life, but followed the ways of death instead.

And so God did in a grand and universal way what Eric hopes might happen medically in the Maasi community—God came to advocate for us as one of us.  In Christ, we see God no longer sending messengers; He himself came to us in human form, offering us something even more important than medical intervention for an incurable disease.  He came that we might come alive in the fullest possible way as we become eternal sons and daughters of God.

In Christ!
Bryan

There's no place like home.

We had an opportunity to accompany Mary on four Holy Family Clinic patients' home visits today.  To say it was overwhelming is an understatement.  The living conditions were very different than that with which we are accustom.  However, our purpose wasn't to note the conditions.  We were there to ensure the patients were well and they were keeping up with their medications.  

Each person we visited welcomed us into their home to talk about their lives and their health.  It was outstanding to witness the love Mary poured into the patients as she talked with them about how they were feeling and progressing on their medications.  She displayed such grace and compassion as she listened to their stories.  She openly expressed her concerns as the patients shared their trails and  celebrated their accomplishments as they shared their progress. 

Our first patient was in considerable pain and needed medical attention though has no funds to pay for it.  She can't work due to her condition and her family is trying to raise the needed money.  Her youngest daughter dropped out of high school to work in hopes of earning enough to help pay for her medical needs.  All of this has come up short.  She is currently existing on the support the Tree of Lives programs provides though it too is not enough.  My heart went out to her seeing her pain and knowing all I had to offer were my time, ears to hear, and prayers.  All of which she gratefully accepted as we left her house.

We moved on to visit with our second client who was a delight.  She was supervising the construction of 7 apartments in her compound.  She was happy to have us come in and talk with her.  She's doing well, though she is under quit a bit of stress due to her youngest son, Peter.  Nonetheless, she's been following her medical regimen and it's showing.  We learn she has 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls.  Two of her children are in university; one is in medical school and another is in business school.  Her youngest son dropped out of high school and her youngest daughter is grammar school.  She sells clothing she makes at a local market.  Given the civil unrest in these days her sales have decline.  She is making due with the resources she has been given plus the support she receives from her children.  

Peter and His Mom
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Our second client's son, Peter referenced above, joined our conversation.  His story moved me beyond words.  What our client doesn't know is her son dropped out of High School to care for her.  He shared his grades with us and we all chided him for dropping out especially because he has a very strong academic record.  He shared that he spent time angry with her for being sick.  He's gotten over his anger and now he just wants to help her and that's what he's doing.  His dream is to be a Minister and minster to gang members in Southern California.  He's convinced that when he shares God's word with them, they will walk away from the gang life and follow the Lord's ways.  Until that time, he needs to be with his Mom.  He did ask our advice and we told his school can be hard, and isn't always fun, but it is required for him to do all he said he wanted to do.  He accepted our advise and agreed to come in for counseling to help him while he is in transition. 

Our third client was struggling.  Tree of Lives programs have helped her with a number of medical issues she'd had in previous years and she id quite thankful.  She doesn't work in the winter months which began in early June and runt through August.  In sharing what was going on with her, we learned she wasn't taking her medication as prescribed.  She has no food to eat and stopped taking the medication because it make her sick when taken on an empty stomach.  Wow, what can/do you say to that?  Mary found the words of encouragement and got the client to agree to try several different options.

Our forth and final client of the day broke my heart.  She had a beautiful healthy 6 month old baby girl; however, she was on a downward spiral.  She was sick, not taking her medication, and her house was in a squalor.  Mary had to give her some tough love to get her to understand the gravity of her situation.  The client seemed unphased.  All we could do was look at the baby and pray that the mother loved her daughter enough to do something different.  

When we finished that visit, we asked Mary what happens next.  Do they debrief clients?  Yes, they do and it starts all over again.  We asked how she emotionally manages all that she encounters in a day.  We were drained after just 4 visits, we can only imagine how she must feel doing this all day every day.  Her response was quick and simple.  My children erase the pain and worry away.  I come home to them running up to hug and kiss me.  That washes away a lot of the emotional toll.  

As I said when I started the blog, there's no place like home.

Yvette

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Beads and Friendship

Today we ventured into Masai land to do home visits with HIV patients.  Health workers funded by Tree of Lives go to the homes of patients to ensure that they are taking their medications properly. HIV medications need to be taken on a very strict schedule which may be a difficult task for someone not used to thinking about the time of day on a regular basis. Since anti-retroviral drugs need to be present continuously in the patient’s system, the person must learn to adjust if they are to get better.  An entire day was spent by our new friend Eric and his driver to check up on two Masai patients.  There is no way to call the patients and let them know he is coming so just venturing out is an act of faith.  This health ministry to the Masai people is less than a year old and he is trying to establish good relations with the few patients they have in order to build a rapport and reach more patients.

We drove for several hours to reach the area where the Masai live.  It is a hardscrabble cattle country, sparsely populated where people make a hard living.  We ventured down narrow and occasionally paved roads to dirt roads; followed by washed out roads and ultimately to a narrow rocky track.  We arrived at the home of Josephine, a widow with children at home.  She greeted us enthusiastically and led us to seats in the yard.  Eric asked for her health card and pills so that he could count the pills to see how she was doing.  It was soon apparent that she had been missing doses of her medications and was doing all she could to distract him from the subject.  She ventured back and forth from house to yard, telling him jokes and claiming she could not find her health card so there was no date to start the count from.  She brought us all beaded bracelets to wear in lieu of offering us tea which she did not have since she didn’t know we were coming.  She put the bracelets, which were like hers, on us while chatting away.  Eric was not happy with her compliance with the drug protocol, but kept it light while cajoling her to do better.  By the time we left, we were all laughing together and had met her daughter, young son, and brother-in-law.  Come again they all said.

We headed down further torturous paths to Eric’s next stop; a large family with three wives and many children.  We soon discovered that the patient was not there as she had gone into town to visit the clinic!  Eric was undaunted and said he would return next week to check on her.  He never stopped smiling through what must have been a very frustrating day.  What faith he has in his call and the importance of his mission…….and how glad I am that Tree of Lives is there to support him!

New Friends

Eric asked if we could visit and we were soon meeting the large extended family and invited to tour their home.  We were swarmed by the little girls who lived there and were passing out little gifts, shaking everyone’s hands, taking pictures, and getting to know one another.  I remembered the bracelets just given to us by Josephine and some friendship bracelets in my pocket that had been made for me to bring by the children in my church at home.  I tied one on a little girl’s wrist and told her how a friendship bracelet is made for a friend and tied on their wrist as a symbol of that friendship.  Could we be friends?  Yes!  Soon all the little girls were sporting these bracelets and they made me tie each one on.  I marveled that our two very different cultures used a similar symbol to express affinity.

Up to this point on our journey I had been struggling, when meeting people in pain and need, not to keep seeing myself or my own children in their shoes.  While this is a sign of empathy which encourages a giving heart, it was preventing me from seeing the value of the people I was meeting and seeing them from their perspective.  How do you make friends and get to know someone you are feeling sorry for?  It makes it impossible to see the strengths and purpose that God has given their lives when you are all wrapped up in your own discomfort.  I know there is a hard life ahead for these girls and one look at the picture of the girls as they were getting their bracelets says so much about their poverty.  Yet, they were so pleased to see us and show us their home.  They asked about where we came from and the oldest girl we met expressed an interest in visiting.  They were bright and beautiful with hopes and dreams and for a while that is what I was seeing as I made friends in Masai land.

Dear Saints:

We've arrived safely in Kenya. Our flight was a couple hours late leaving Detroit, but fortunately we had a three hour layover in Amsterdam so we were able to make our flight to Nairobi.  When we arrived, we had a welcome team who had arrived at 7:30 pm to pick us up.  While our plane landed on time at 8 pm, it took about 2 1/2 hours for us to acquire a visa and get our luggage, so those poor folks waited patiently for 3 hours for us to emerge from the terminal. 

Guest House

After getting to our rooms a little after 11 pm, we had a good night's sleep before getting a tour and orientation regarding the many ministries taking place on the site where we are staying.  Ruth, the director of Joy Village, which is home now to 41 orphaned boys and girls, stopped by to give us an update on the Village.  The children living there are under the loving care of several house moms.  These moms have made a long term commitment to care for the 8 or 9 children living with them.  Last year I met four of them and was so deeply touched and impressed by who they are and what they do.  Since I was here last year, Joy Village has added another 8 children and hired another mom.  Eventually they will have around 60 kids and 7 mothers.  We will be heading there on Saturday, spending the night, and returning on Sunday afternoon.

Children in the tea fields

After Ruth stopped by, Michael, the director of the Holy Family medical clinic came by and gave us some information about the work they do.  The clinic provides care for over 4000 people with HIV.  The care they provide includes making home visits to patients to monitor their compliance with their treatment programs.  

Later, Vinton, one of the pastoral counselors at Nazareth Hospital gave us a tour of the hospital and grounds, including the Alamano school, where children attend whose parents make a living earning $2/day picking tea leaves in the nearby fields.  After that we had the afternoon to ourselves for napping and then taking a long walk through the tea fields. 

At this point, we are so grateful for the deep generosity we have been showered with.  Tree of Lives ministries has surrounded us with great care by arranging to have Nicole Lock, an ordained minister from the Atlanta area, here with us to tend to our practical needs.  Vinton also arranged to take two weeks of leave from his job at the hospital so that he too can help in any way he is needed. Sister Clara, the head administrator at Nazareth Hospital, was at our guest house last night at 11 pm to greet us.  Other folks from First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia, including pastor Jim Wood and Rudy and Kate Miller did a lot of work organizing our schedule while we are here.

Kenya Mission Team

So our first day draws to a close with all of us feeling deeply blessed and grateful for the welcome we have received.   Tomorrow we begin our work, with Keith, Beth, and Dawn doing hospital visits and Lisa, Yvette, and I going on home visits with the Holy Family Clinic.
We are grateful for your prayers and sense that we are being carried by the grand mercy, grace, and love of God.

In Christ,

Bryan