Final Thoughts

Please  accept my apologies for being so delinquent! Time just flew by after our family arrived at Tenwek and I was often busy at night typing blogs for my grandchildren to send to their schools.  So much happened that I really do not know where to begin.  Each year is a different experience and this one proved to be no exception.  I did not have as much to do in nursery as in years past but my relationships with the nurses continued to grow and thrive. They love hearing about life in the U.S. and they help me understand their lives as well. We lost 4 babies and had several very sick ones in the NICU. I bonded with the mothers of two of the babies, Poline and Susan, who both lost their little girls.  The shock of an illness, the journey towards reality, and finally the acceptance of death is so difficult. This is especially true when you are far from family and facing it alone.  I am so thankful that I was able to befriend these sisters in Christ and perhaps help their journey a bit. I know that they enriched my life.

Mudding a house was truly fun! It was also so wonderful to share this experience with Penny, Mimi and Preston.  Those little ones were very brave and open to being a minority among a sea of black faces, many of whom had never seen a blonde child before. During that experience   I believe that my grandchildren learned that we are all God's children. I relearned how big and inclusive our God is.   What joy we felt to be able to build a strong home of mud for a woman who had lost her home in a fire.

The cow blessing was so powerful. I hope that you saw the pictures on the blog. The Forum class at First Presbyterian, Wilmington presented this black and white cow to a widow with seven children. It is a beautiful cow, part Friesian(Dutch like the Hages!) which made it extra special.  The class donated two other cows as well but we were only able to actually see one.  I know that that two others will also find good homes.

Penny , our daughter in law, is an occupational therapist and worked very hard in the clinic for disabled children. These kids are often the forgotten little ones in third world countries.  She was thrilled to be able to have a special chair built for little Enoch who had never been able to sit up before!  There were lots of tears when we all saw that life changing event for him and his family.

Our son, Bill, an orthopedic surgeon, was challenged with many surgeries unlike those he has seen in the US.

Mimi and Preston loved meeting the children of missionaries and formed fast friendships! They also loved visiting the orphanage and seeing their school as well as their dormitory.  Each day was a learning and growing experience for them.  In fact, Mimi thinks that she wants to be a missionary now!

At the end of our Tenwek stay we went on Safari as a family. Seeing the beauty of God's creation through the eyes of our children and grandchildren was a memory we will always cherish.

Now we have spent a few days in the Netherlands finding our roots! It has been fun but we are ready to come home to our family and friends.  Thanks for sharing this journey with us!

Miriam, until next year, Lord willing

Memorable Kenyan Moments

Mudding Power

Cow Blessing

Finish Strong

Mudding Hands

“Finish Strong”  has been a mantra in our family since the days of competitive swimming, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, etc.  The idea seems appropriate as we approach the end of our time this year at Tenwek.  We still have another orphanage to visit, cows to bless and patients to see.  What can we say about this short time we have spent here?

First, it has been a bigger experience…more patients seen, more friendships rekindled, more prayers, more support, more educational  challenges, more graduates, more new interns and more vision for Tenwek and its mission here in Kenya.

Second, I have been blessed to see the world through new and younger eyes.  These eyes include at least two younger generations,  They have shown me again the transformative power of this time at Tenwek.  The youngest have already had an impact in their school and with their friends. 

Third, the realization, (again), that whether in North Carolina or Kenya that God is at work building his Kingdom and he is not finished!

Thanks for sharing this experience with us,

Marvin 

But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you. 

He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you. 

God takes the time to do everything right—everything. 

Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.  

Isaiah 30:18 (MSG)

A Worthy Adventure

….so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:10 (NIV)

“…that without courage, compassion falters, 

and that without compassion, courage has no direction.”

Eric Greitens

This trip to Kenya has felt more adventurous than my memory of prior trips with the exception of my first trip in 1997.  More specifically, this year the “stakes” seem higher.  The reality is that it involves so many more of my family…Miriam, William, Penny, Mimi and Preston.  Our son and his family arrived yesterday.  The perceptions of the risks, as reported by others, seems bigger than in previous years. 

The idea of adventure is a “young” one…uncertainty, risk-taking, thrills, and bungie jumping do not translate to our “older” ideas of something we desire.  But maybe they have it right as we think more about our Christian lives. God call us to “reach out” instead of just “being safe”. 

On further reflection, I think Stanley Hauerwas is right…We as Christians whether “old” or “young” need to pray for and act like our lives can be characterized as a worthy adventure.   What I do know is that your prayers have been like Paul for the Colossians.

Thanks for our young grandchildren and their lives of faith and their worthy adventure,

Poppy & Nana

References

https://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/12/10/christmas-story-kicks-2016-presbyterian-youth-trie/

http://miriam1943.blogspot.co.ke/2016/01/are-you-going.html

Greitens, Eric (2011-04-11). The Heart and the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy SEAL (p. 2). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Frank's Cane

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV)

Rev. Frank Mayes had a vision for our church as a place where healing could be found.  He started a project where medical equipment could be donated or borrowed by members of the congregation.  Our family has made use of this program; most recently by borrowing a cane.  There are many canes in Frank’s closet, but the one I chose had his name clearly attached.  I wanted to borrow that special cane.

A few months later, we decided to take Frank’s cane to Kenya because Micki thought she might need it given her new knee.  Walking in Kenya is different then most of you have experienced. Kenyans here generally walk to all of their daily duties as motorized vehicles are very expensive.  They have less difficulty than we do with the uneven paths, the roads filled with potholes and the 6600 foot altitude.  The cane was a good idea!  We soon acclimated and the cane was put in the corner of our Tenwek apartment.

We don’t normally use canes during obstetrical care, but Tenwek is different.  We see cases of severe pain or weakness with walking as complications of pregnancy..  That happened again and so Frank’s cane found its way to the Edna Boroff Maternity Center!   On that day, I was surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who ran with perseverance.  

Thanks be to God for Frank & Edna and the healing they continue to bring,

Marvin & Miriam

Sorrows and Joys

Mary's Baby

It is a beautiful day at Tenwek, 77 degrees and sunny but my heart is heavy. Another baby has died.  The mother, Susan, was very difficult to reach at first but we have become close over the past week.  Her baby girl, named “Blessing”, was born with a cardiac congenital defect.  The cardiac team was here last week and if anything could have been done the timing would have been perfect.   Sadly, the anomaly  was inoperable.   As I write she is waiting for her husband to arrive.. She is from some distance away so she has been here bearing this tragedy alone.  This is often the case for women at the hospital.   Again words are so inadequate especially with language and cultural differences.   I love the name “Blessing”, for children indeed are a gift from the Lord and a blessing.  This  little “Blessing”, was not with us long but will forever be in our hearts.

On a joyful note, I will tell you the story of Mary.  Mary came into the hospital with malaria and was showing signs of psychosis.  She was hospitalized in the ICU where she delivered a premature girl.  For days after being well enough to leave the ICU she showed no emotion and refused to see her beautiful baby girl. This is where I enter the picture as someone needed to take care of the baby.  Happily, I can tell you that Mary began showing interest in her baby yesterday when I brought her to the bedside.  Yesterday her mother arrived to help.  Today Mary  came to Nursery,  expressed breast milk, and showed an interest in feeding and caring for her baby.  She smiled and showed appropriate emotions.  What a wonderful moment!   When I look at her baby I wonder what the future holds for her but I remember that the Lord knows us all by name and loves each of us.   Please pray for Mary and her family and all the children of the world who face unspeakable hardships.

It was interesting that in Bible quizzing this Sunday we studied the parable of “The Laborers in the Vineyard” where the last shall be first.  It was very difficult for me as a rich white woman to explain the  "hidden meaning” to these young children many of whom are orphans or children without much earthly means.  There is great joy here and such trust in the Lord for everything.  We can learn so many lessons from them.  These experiences challenge my faith!

Love to you all,

Miriam

First and Last

Mission and Vision

Knitted cap from knitting ministry

First Presbyterian Church

Wilmington, North Carolina

Organizations have a mission statement and Tenwek Hospital has a clear one, "We treat, Jesus heals".  What has impressed me this year is the increasing clarity and reality of visions that will bring another dimension to this place.  The one vision that is clearest for me is that of a residency program in Obstetrics  and Gynecology.  

In previous years, I noted how my vision changes after being here.  It is a blessing to have that experience.  This year, the new visions are here with the leadership at Tenwek and it is a wonderful reality.  

If you were here with us at Tenwek Hospital, you can hear many prayers!  The majority you cannot understand as the prayers are in the primary language of the patient.  It is a wonderful and awe-filled experience.  We are blessed that we can be physically present at this place and can be part of this community.

So what I can do is encourage and support the vision of those here at Tenwek!  What we all can do is pray with Tenwek for the fulfillment of God’s plans for this place.  The request is that you pray with Tenwek.  For those in our church, family and extended faith community; you are present here with your gifts of cows, houses, blankets, knitted baby caps and medical supplies but most of all your prayers.

May God continue to bless Tenwek Hospital,

Miriam & Marvin

http://healingagents.blogspot.co.ke/2015/03/going-far-together.html

Jesus Weeps

My heart is really heavy because there is a critically ill baby in the nursery now.  She is about a month old and is from a city about 2 hours from here.  She became ill very suddenly with a temperature and her mom brought her to the local hospital.  From there she was transferred to Tenwek and was diagnosed with meningitis.  She is now on a ventilator and very very sick.  Her mother and I have become friends while she sits in the hallway outside the nursery.  It is so painful for her to be in nursery while all the other mothers are breastfeeding their babies and she can not even hold her child.  Words are so inadequate even though Mom does speak English.  What do you say?  We have prayed many times together and implored Jesus to heal her baby.  She believes this with all of her heart and is waiting for a miracle. I, too, want to believe this and yet in my head I question whether it is possible and if possible what damage will have been done to this child's brain.  Oh, that I had this mother's hope.  So we keep praying and weeping together.

Mosop

It has been awhile since I have written and so I will try and fill you in on what I have been doing.  This visit has again been different from those in the past.  I find that I am spending a lot of time renewing and deepening relationships that have formed over the years.  This is the beauty of returning to the same place year after year.  Yesterday I returned to the orphanage that is called Mosop.  As you can see there was an eager group of youngsters waiting for Bible quizzing to begin.  This year they are studying parts of the book of Matthew. Kenyan children can memorize like nothing I have ever seen before!   For Bible quizzing the children are divided into teams with coaches who meet with them weekly.  During their time together they learn about the story for the week as well as reciting the verses they have memorized each week. The goal is to memorize 60 verses to receive a prize. Each month there is also a contest between the teams complete with buzzers to determine  which team wins the final prize.  If any of you did Bible sword drills when you were young this is very similar to it.  Yesterday was a team competition; buzzers and all!  Teams of four participated while the others patiently watched and clapped for their team.  Excitement reigned!

I think I wrote about Mosop last year but let me fill you in. It is an orphanage where 157 children are currently living.  Another 100 or so come to the Mosop school each day from the community.  Mosop also now houses a "college" to train pre school teachers who will teach in the baby schools.  I really feel like it is well run.  The children call this home until they are 18 and off into the world. However, they reassured me that if they have no extended family they are always welcome to come back and call Mosop home.  

While I was there I met the nurse, Diana, who runs the dispensary. She lives next door to the dispensary and is on call 24/7 for 257 kids, the college, and the surrounding community!  She is even equipped to deliver babies!  What a devoted soul!

Graduation Singing

Rosa's Party

Happy Monday!  Oh, I forgot that the Panthers lost…not a happy Monday in North Carolina.  There are a lot of Bronco fans here so this might be a rough day for us too.  We could have watched the game at 2:30 AM but decided against it.   Perhaps we had a premonition!   More likely we were lazy!   One of the men Face-timed with his son in Charlotte who projected his computer on the game.  Then the father here projected his computer onto the wall for a giant screen. The wonders of modern technology sure made a lot of people happy here!  

On Saturday, Marv posted a picture of the nursing graduation and told you that we had gone to Rosa's party.   Let me tell you the story of how this happened.  It begins in 2009 on my first trip to Tenwek.  An elderly (probably about my age now!) long term missionary called our apartment and asked me to come with a friend to her house.  When we got there she told us about a young Rwandan refugee widow who had six children and had come to her asking for help and hopefully for a job.  My friend and I agreed to provide support for the child who would be starting the equivalent of our high school and also to give some support to the family.   At that time Mary, the mother, did not know that we were the donors and in fact she did not know this for many years to come.  Over the years the mother became a trusted employee for several of the missionaries and I came to know her well.  A couple of years ago she did find out that Marv and I were supporting her children and has been very grateful.  We always heard how the children were doing but we never had the opportunity to meet them as they were away at school or at school around here during the day.  This all changed on Saturday.   

We were invited to Rosa's graduation party from the chaplaincy program here at Tenwek. What a joyous day it was!  What a beautiful young woman she is, and what a proud mother Mary is!  How very special that we were able to be a part of this celebration after all these years!  We were here at the right time!  Now we're  praying that Rosa is able to find a job either as a chaplain at the hospital or in a local church; especially we are hoping for a paying job as many churches are not able to pay their pastors.

We almost felt like proud grandparents!

Celebration

Tenwek Africa Gospel Church

Sometimes you just show up at the right time!  We were invited to the graduation ceremonies for the chaplaincy school and the nursing school at the African Gospel Church.  As we suspected it was a long celebration!  What was a wonderful surprise was being invited to “Rosa’s” party.  More about that later.

Here are some of the pictures of this celebration:

Nightingale pledge and candle ceremony by the nursing class

The educational missions at Tenwek continue to grow with more to come!

For more information check out this web site:

http://www.tenwekhospital.org/training/school-of-nursing

Marv

Post call Rx

Kenyan Chai

  

Kenyan chai is the preferred treatment after multiple sleep interruptions and is used to treat almost any symptom!

Blankets

I have not heard the name Trump in days and it is great! Guess what?  The Kenyans are not preoccupied with our election and the results of the Iowa caucus!  They do have their own politics to be sure!  We have no TV or radio for 5 weeks. Our music is via iPod and is of our own choosing.   This is quite relaxing and interestingly.  I really do not miss the campaign rhetoric .  Even the Super Bowl is of little consequence.  I will admit that there are a few Bronco fans here and so we are trying to hold the Panther banner high.  If we want to watch the Super Bowl we will have to stream it or connect via Facebook with someone in the US.  We will have to do that at 2:30 AM and so I am undecided as to whether I will participate!   I hate to admit it but I may be dreaming about a Panther victory rather than viewing it!

This morning, I delivered the 100 baby blankets that friends in Wilmington helped me make.  We make them extra small so that they just fit over babies in incubators and tiny beds. The head nurse is always happy to see new colorful blankets arrive to replace many of the rags they use. Nothing is thrown away until it completely falls apart.  Many thanks to Peg, Nancy and Beth for  making this project possible.

Marv is on his first night call tonight.  Hopefully it will not be too bad and he can ease into this.  It gets a bit more difficult to get up in the middle of the night as you age!  He is  really enjoying the students and residents that are on the OB service.

Another Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day in rural Kenya!  I ventured up to the nursery this morning and was so glad to see many of my nurse friends.  The census in the nursery is very low right now so sadly I  do not think that I will have a twin to care for.  I am going to try and get Marv to deliver a few more babies!  The nurses are thrilled with the new incubator which was purchased by a young North Carolina high school golfer.  She entitled her senior project “Birdies for Babies” and with pledges for every birdie she made during the golf season she was able to raise 22,00.00 dollars! Her generosity will save many young lives!  I wish I could remember her name but it fails me right now. Needless to say, she is a remarkable young woman.  I believe that she got a full ride to attend UVA.

Good news especially for Circle 2 at First Presbyterian!  Your cow is producing good rich quantities of milk; enough to supply Richard's family of nine children and then to sell the extra.  This income has changed their lives!  The twins are now 4 years old and enrolled in what they call baby school.  The oldest daughter is enrolled in a school near the hospital and stays with a local family during the week.  So despite great sadness with the death of their young mother this family is doing well. 

Thank you for the role you played in making this happen.

Thanks to all the folks who have shared in the ministry of this hospital.

Traveling Mercies

We're in Kenya!  We left home Saturday afternoon from Raleigh Durham to Atlanta, Atlanta to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Nairobi!  We arrived in Nairobi around 9 PM Kenya time which is 8 hours ahead of EST.  

After disembarking from our giant, filled to the gills, 747 we were herded into buses which took us to the visa area. We had been told that the process was going to be really smooth because we had gotten our visas online.  Not so.  We waited in the same old long lines to have our passports stamped.  On to the baggage claim where we luckily found all four of our 50 pound pieces of luggage without too much trouble.  We pushed our overladen trolley towards customs where all the fun began.   In eight years we have never had trouble in customs, not so this year!  We stated that all our medical supplies, used clothing, baby blankets and baby caps were all donated.  Nonetheless they wanted to know how much we paid for them!  We stated again that we had not paid anything for them .  Sixty dollars and at least a forty-five minute delay and we were on our way to find our driver.  Fortunately Tony was right there waving his welcoming World Medical Mission sign with our names on it!  We loaded the van and began making our way through Nairobi traffic which is actually fairly manageable at 11 o'clock at night!   The Mennonite Guest House, now called Amani Gardens, was our welcome  home for the night.  The grounds there are beautiful with manicured flowering gardens.  I wish that we had more time to spend there and enjoy that oasis in the middle of the city.  We had a nice breakfast and then Jonathon picked us up for our shopping spree prior to heading to Tenwek.

First we went to Nakamutt, Kenyan equivalent to Walmart, and then to the Butchery and the Produce store apply named Zuchinnis.  Again we loaded up the van and began our four hour trek to Tenwek.  The roads seemed noticeably worse from a year ago.  Many more potholes!

We arrived about 3 PM and were greeted by various friends who happened to be passing by.  We are staying in a different guest house this year.  It is very nice but much smaller than the apartment we enjoyed last year.  It certainly is fine for a month.  Today I plan to get unpacked and pretty much take it easy.  It takes a few days for me to adapt to the 6000 feet altitude so I won't be taking any long hikes today.  Hopefully, I will make it up to the nursery and greet all my friends there.  Marv was off at 7 AM for rounds so he is way ahead of me!  

Sorry this is a mundane report but I wanted you to know that we are here safely and that all is well.  Miss you already,

Love

Mom

Here in Kenya

Amani Garden

Our Apartment at Tenwek

Departing

After repacking and retrieving an iPad, we are ready to leave!  We will keep you posted!  M&M

Are you going?

It is the “big” question this year.  The world and travel seems more chaotic than in previous years!    So the reasons for “going” to Kenya are more important and need to be reviewed every year.

What we have experienced in previous years has been motivational in our lives.  It has been a pilgrimage where our small stories have been confronted by a larger story of healing….”We treat Jesus heals”.  Beside providing care and education, rekindling relationships have been central to our activity.  

We don’t travel alone.  We are supported by prayers and gifts from our faith community.  So, “YES” we are returning with the anticipation of a wonder filled trip to Tenwek, Kenya.  We leave January 30th.  Please, join the conversation on this blog. 

Marv & Micki Hage

p.s. See the new web site of Tenwek Hospital