Category Archives: Medical Missions

Apparently February was a month for broken bones in our small Kenya village. We sent two young girls to the District Hospital, one to set a hand broken in a fall (pictured below, after cast was removed) and another to set a leg broken when she was hit by a motorbike (pictured below with cast). If you remember the elderly Mama with the broken ankle from last month, she also re-visited the hospital for a follow-up and to have her cast removed. We are pleased to report that she is back on her feet, praise God!

Eunice, a mother of 10 children (nine girls and one boy!) went to the clinic with what she suspected to be malaria, but it turns out she picked up brucellosis, a disease common among those who have milking cows (which Eunice does). This took several visits to the clinic for injections, and she now reports improvement. A neighbor of ours, Rose, a middle-aged Mama, was bitten on the leg by the dog of one of our other neighbors. She also went to the clinic for treatment.

Judith, an abandoned wife with two teen girls in our fellowship, has struggled through TB treatments for the past several months, and had finally been improving. You can imagine how difficult it was for her to get sick again this month, now with malaria and typhoid. After much prayer and treatment, she is now feeling better. Please keep her in prayer, as her TB needs ongoing treatment (it is government subsidized), and when she has other ailments it is very challenging for her physically.

Our Matunda fellowship’s Mzee Robert was assaulted by a neighbor and injured. We sent him to the clinic for treatment. Also visiting the clinic was Lucky, a 16 month-old boy in our church who is always smiling as he toddles around (somewhat unsteadily). Apparently, in toddler fashion, he got an injury that no one noticed until it got good and infected. It was lanced, drained, and cleaned, and Lucky went home with some antibiotics.

Throughout this month, 13 patients were treated (some for more than one problem, i.e., malaria and typhoid) at our local clinic with the following diagnoses: malaria (6), typhoid (5), soft tissue injury (2), septic wound (1), urinary tract infection (1), and brucellosis (1). The total cost for these treatments was $125. We had referrals to the District Hospital for the broken bones and wound care, in the amount of $90. We also replenished our supply of OTC malaria meds and ibuprofen, which were given out as needed. In addition, several HIV patients were assisted with transport to and from the District Hospital to pick up their monthly medications. In total, our routine medical expenditures (excluding special cases such as surgeries and treatment for chronic illnesses) came in just under $350.

Our special medical expenditures for this month amounted to almost $70. We sent Wafula to the Orthopedic Hospital for a checkup on his badly broken arm (which last month was repaired through surgery with screws, etc.). Also, the young boy Esau (about age 13), who has severe swelling of his spleen, went for further appointments. Last year he was treated for visceral leishmaniasis, which proved ineffective. Earlier this year, he was treated for malaria as a possible cause; they also speculated that the problem could be related to sickle-cell anemia. After taking various medications, he went this month for a follow up and it was determined that the treatments made little progress in reducing the swelling. At the end of next month, he will return to the regional teaching/referral hospital to see if we can nail down an underlying cause and get an effective treatment in order. Please pray for him in the coming days; we trust that God can heal him.

In our little village, people have so many needs, and they are poor. Even those who are fortunate enough to have regular work likely only make enough to eat. (“Give us this day our daily bread” takes on real meaning here.) True, some are more well-off than others, but when unexpected illness strikes, it can quickly tap a family’s resources. That’s why the Medical Missions work of KDM is such a blessing to folks here. Let me give you the skinny on this month’s budget figures, but please read on for particulars and for stories/pictures. This month, our Acute/Emergency funding was $250; we spent $435. Our “Special Cases” funding was $1000; we spent about $1400. (Many of these were continuing cases that we just couldn’t drop in mid-stream; once a commitment is made, we feel we must continue until the need is met.)

I can’t count the number of times people have visited our home or the KDM office looking for help with a child or family member who has malaria. I ask them, “Have you taken medicine?” (If they have, and it hasn’t worked, they must go to the clinic for injections; however, if they haven’t, we have some malaria medicine ready on the shelf.) More often than not, they reply in the affirmative—Yes, they have taken medicine and the person is still sick! But upon further questioning, I find that they have taken “Action” or “Mara Moja.” What’s that? Why, pretty much Excedrin, or ibuprofen, or Tylenol. So their symptoms improve for a time, but when the underlying malaria is unmasked once again, the symptoms are worse and often harder to treat with over-the-counter medicines. Why is this so? Simple answer is, they’re doing the best they can with what they have. In our village center (several kilometers’ walk), there is a chemist (pharmacy of sorts) where one can buy malaria medicine, but to do that and pay for the transport on a piki piki is more than most people can manage. So they go to the local duka (small shop, where they probably also get their daily needs of soap, sugar, or vegetables) and pick up some pain reliever/fever reducer while they are there—a two-tablet package for 5 shillings (about 5cents).

We have a regular Medical monthly stipend of $200 that comes in from generous donors state-side; this is the lifeblood of our medical missions, which is designed to treat acute and emergency illnesses and injuries. There are plenty of those, and we’ve never “not” used up our $200 allotment. That, plus the irregular giving for Urgent Needs that comes in throughout the course of a given month has almost always been enough. If you follow us on Facebook or read our blog (even though we admittedly post pretty irregularly), you know that we also fundraise for larger amounts for a needed surgery or other out-of-the ordinary circumstance. For example, last month we funded a $1,500 surgery to re-set the broken arm of an ex-Muslim convert who is struggling to raise his 7 children on his daily wage from driving a piki piki. We also were able to remove the nasal polyp of a 4 year-old boy that became so large it fractured his nose. How can we say no to these needs? We think, What if it was my child?

            This week our 8 year-old Micah suddenly spiked a 104.5 degree fever in the evening. Malaria, for sure. I gave him some malaria tablets and an ibuprofen, which he promptly threw up. When Marc came home from attending communion, he gave Micah an injection (“a shot in the behind,” which no one likes, but which is necessary when you’re vomiting!). We are fortunate enough to have a well-stocked medicine shelf…but we know others do not. And that’s “just” malaria, never mind a traumatic injury.

We had approximately $250 come in during January that was earmarked for regular medical needs, and we spent $435. We also fund-raised for special medical needs to the tune of $1,000, but spent almost $1,400. (The balance for both deficits came out of our “general fund,” which also met a big tax burden this month and dished out a major sum of money to do our Kenyan NGO’s annual returns. I don’t mind being honest enough to say that our general fund is now depleted. That’s how we fund our monthly missions, which by necessity are now going to be quite bare-bones. That’s more than unfortunate.) So look with me at our last month of medical missions, where we well over-spent our monthly budget for the first time ever…but it was necessary, and everyone who was treated would say unequivocally that it was worth it.

Most of our regular medical cases are referred to a local clinic that is close (cheaper on transport costs) and comparatively inexpensive. This month, we treated many cases of malaria, brucella, and typhoid. That’s pretty routine. We also bought Hypertension medicines for a couple of Mamas in our fellowship, which we have done regularly for many months now. Why, since this is not an acute or emergency need? It’s a simple matter of economics. The monthly medication they need to control their hypertension costs about $3. When we were *not* buying it, these same Mamas would end up with an “acute” illness and get treated at the clinic, to the tune of $20 or more. This happened several times within a six-month period before we got wise and realized that it made more sense to spend the $3 per month. Now everyone is happy, and so is our medical budget.

I think one reason our medical budget was higher than usual this month was because of the sheer number of cases that had to be referred to the District hospital. (This costs more on transport, and more for treatment.) For example, Pius Omule had a motoribike accident some time ago, and tried to treat it at home. Later, however, it became swollen and infected. At that point, he came seeking help that he could not afford and he was taken to the District Hospital. He had to go back several times over the course of the month, to scrape, clean, bandage, and re-bandage the wound, as well as get antibiotics.

On a Saturday morning, an elderly widow with a severely broken ankle was carried by piki piki to our door (imagine that…how uncomfortable!). She had to make the journey to District Hospital via public transport for casting.

Another referral to District hospital was Anna, who got gouged in the eye by a bull. Apparently her eyeball was actually popped back into its socket at the scene and again, they played the “wait and see” game, but after a time her eye was severely swollen and bruised, so she was brought to us. The District Hospital tried to treat the eye but determined that it would need to be sewed shut. We learned that she had already had limited use of the eye for some reason, so the disappointment over the complete loss of the eye was somewhat mitigated.

Special medical needs are also part of our scope and we fund-raise on a case-by-case basis. Our biggest special medical need this month was for Victor, who was sent to Kampala, Uganda for a second round of radiation in hopes of fighting back against the continued onslaught of cancer in his body. The entirety of our Special Medical funds ($1000) were earmarked to Victor, and we sent him to Kampala with approximately $1,060, which we are hopeful will meet all the financial need. Please pray for Victor’s perseverance and healing.

The $400+ overage in our special medical spending went to several patients. We have a few “special” cases of folks who are assisted with getting their monthly HIV medications at the District Hospital. The medicine is free, but transport is a burden so in many cases, we help. One of those cases is Sharon, a two year-old whose mother died of HIV last year and left her an orphan. Another is Daniel, a 14 year-old boy in our Saboti fellowship whose mother had HIV and passed away within the last year (he was treated this month for complications from his TB). Our dear friend, Silas, has a real heart for HIV education and treatment, and this month he asked us if we could help Dickson, a man he knew in the community. As a first step, we also tested Dickson’s wife and children. Unfortunately, his wife and youngest child (about age 2) also tested positive. We brought Dickson and his daughter to the hospital for their first round and second rounds of medications this month.

Also on the special medical front, we needed to follow up on the treatment for our brother Ishmael’s severely broken arm, though his earmarked funds had been depleted last month following the surgery. We also had some unexpected follow-up on an old case of Spinal TB for 5 year-old Michael Wafula, whose earmarked funds had also run out. He needed new body bracing for correction of his spine, as he was rapidly outgrowing his existing brace. In order to do that, several other steps needed to be completed first, including scans and cortisone injections. We operated on a negative budget for him in January, but thankfully we’ve gotten a generous donation to re-coup those funds and proceed with work in February.

            If you would like to help us fortify our all-important (but oft-neglected) General Fund, or donate to support continued Medical Missions (a need which we see increasing, rather than diminishing), please do so at www.KingdomDriven.org/donate. A monthly subscription donation will help us the most, as we will then have a known budget to work within, but all gifts are of course appreciated. Thank you for your giving and also for your ongoing prayers for the mission here and the folks we serve.

Amy Carmichael’s report to the supporters of her work with orphans in India (quoted in Elisabeth Elliot’s biography, A Chance to Die), has resonated with me since we have come to the mission field in Kenya four years ago:

“It is more important that you should know about the reverses than about the successes of the war. We shall have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them. We are not winning them as we should, because the fact of the reverses is so little realized, and the needed reinforcements are not forthcoming, as they would be if the position were thoroughly understood….So we have tried to tell you the truth—the uninteresting, unromantic truth.”

So often, missions reports are filled with the successes, which certainly are to be celebrated. However, they usually miss out on the majority of the mundane, behind-the-scenes happenings that occur every day. Why? Certainly, people are more inclined to pray, and financially support, an active and successful mission than one that seems to be struggling to grow churches and make disciples. It’s not so great to talk about financial shortfalls, since we don’t want to be that mission that’s always “begging for money.” On the other hand, there are great needs that we can assist with–and we depend on partners like you to make it possible!

Our missions here in Kenya and Uganda and Glenn Roseberry’s Tanzania and Nairobi missions have had their share of ups and downs. We’ve never tried to hide either one, though it never gets a lot of “likes” on Facebook to talk about “the uninteresting, unromantic truth.” Yet, that’s where many of our missions actually occur! Take, for example, yesterday in our small Kenya village…

The day began with a visit from Mzee Timothy, our fellowship’s deacon and the overseer of our malnutrition and medical programs. He was organizing to take a village Mama to the District Hospital for a follow-up appointment. Earlier this month, she was gored in the eye by a bull (cows are always being herded along the road here, and it’s wise to give them a wide berth!). Apparently her eyeball was actually popped back into its socket, but the area was very bruised and swollen days later so we sent her to the hospital. They determined that it was too damaged to be salvaged, and perhaps thankfully we discovered that she had already lost use of the eye previously, so the decision was made to just sew it shut. So there was that, and then another follow-up appointment for a young boy named Esau. He was treated last

year for visceral leishmaniasis, then (upon little to no improvement in his condition) was re-admitted to the hospital and treated for a sickle-cell anemia. He was due for a check-up, which we suspected might involve further treatment. Unfortunately, our regular medical fund designed to meet “emergency needs” such as the eye injury, was depleted for the month, with still a week to go. And, money which had previously been given and earmarked for Esau was also used up. Thus, Timothy came to see if we could do something to meet these pressing needs. A decision was made to use money from the KDM general fund if necessary, but that the appointments should press forward.

In the afternoon, Mzee Samwell visited to update us and settle accounts for his visit to the District Hospital with 5 year-old Michael Wafula, who had successfully gone through treatment for spinal TB as of last August. However, the little guy’s spine is still deformed and he has had a cast around his trunk for some time. His mom came a couple months ago to say that he had outgrown his cast and it would need to be replaced. Mzee Samwell, a faithful brother here, has been assisting us with medical needs by taking patients to various hospitals, interfacing with staff, and paying bills. He took Michael and his Mom to the hospital responsible for the casting about two weeks ago, but was informed that they could not proceed without a scan confirming that Michael was still clear of TB. That was done last week, but the consulting doctor was not available to read the scan, so they went back again the next day. Then, they were informed that unfortunately the technician had done a chest x-ray for the TB (which is normal procedure) but Michael needed a spinal x-ray, of course. An extra step, and a more expensive one as well. After doing that and then consulting with the doctor again, Michael was given a clean bill of health (praise God!) but would need to return again for a cortisone injection to the spine before the re-casting was done. That was yesterday’s appointment, and now there seems to be another step to be take in his care, as he is scheduled for another appointment on Saturday. At this point, we have tapped out on the special medical funding for Michael, and so had to keep Mzee Samwell going with money from the general fund.

Marc also met with Victor and Mzee Samwell, to go over details and provide funding for today’s trip to Uganda, where Victor will be receiving a second round of radiation to try to treat a new growth of cancer in his lymph nodes. Sorry for the gruesome picture, but this is Victor’s reality. Please pray for his perseverance and his healing! This another special medical need that is dipping into the general fund, but it is a pressing need in light of Victor’s continued suffering.

Some time ago, we had also treated Daniel, a 14 year-old boy who was diagnosed with both TB and HIV. His mother, who was HIV-positive, had previously died and apparently he has been infected from birth. (Danel’s father is now a member of our Saboti fellowship.) Daniel has been receiving monthly medication and food supplements (it’s a must to take the medication with food), but recently has been experiencing what his father described as “psychological issues,” which is common as HIV advances. Daniel  went to the District Hospital yesterday (also paid out of the general fund), but they could tell us little about how best to treat his issues, other than that they wanted to admit him for further evaluation. That is Kenya-speak for “let us keep him here, do whatever tests we want (even unnecessary ones) and then add charges to your bill for hospital stay until you come up with enough money to pay the bill and have him discharged.” Knowing our financial situation, we decided to postpone “further evaluation” for a short time, at least until we have a new month’s medical budget to work with.

Why is it such a big deal to take money from the general fund? Well, primarily because most of the money that comes in to KDM is earmarked for a specific need. So when we have to file annual returns for the NGO and Society that we operate under here (which was just done last week), we need to pay an accountant about $500. That comes from the general fund, which is usually small in comparison to other designated funds. The general fund is also paying for laborers (three every day for the past couple of weeks) as they empty bags of maize and beans, re-medicate them, and seal them back up again for storage until later in the year. This is part of a project that we’ve undertaken to boost the general fund without outside assistance, so that the mission can be more self-sustaining in the future: we’ve bought maize and beans in large quantities at harvest time when prices were low and will re-sell them later at higher prices. We hope to double the mission’s money, and in the meantime it’s providing regular day labor for brothers in the fellowship and community members in need. Paying our laborers and overseeing their work was also part of our day yesterday…more of the mundane, but necessary.

We also had some funding come in recently to restore a community well that experienced a catastrophic internal collapse and failure. Marc’s to-do list thus also included organizing a digging team to get to the work as soon as possible. The lead digger is a member of our Birunda fellowship; he and two helpers will undertake the often-dangerous task of manning a 50-foot hole with precarious footholds in order to dig out the fallen soil and reinforce the sides of the well with brick. I’m sure they’d appreciate you keeping this project, and their safety, in prayer.

A publication project has also been underway, which is very exciting! Recently, the Kenya Bible Society stopped making New Testaments available and we can only get full Bibles in Swahili. This is cost-prohibitive on the one hand, and on the other hand, we like people to get a New Testament so they can meet Jesus on the very first page! Thus, a Bible printing project was launched, wherein we obtained an open-copyright Swahili New Testament online and had it pored over and perfected by a translator (it was missing the book of Philippians!). We formatted it for publication, but need to do a print run of 3,000 Bibles. That was organized with a local printer last week, so the proof needed to be edited. That was done by Tony, and Marc met with him yesterday to go over final edits, which were blessedly few. (They were supposed to meet at 3:00 in the afternoon, but Tony showed up at 5:30; as much as we’re used to things happening on “African Time,” our mzungu sensibilities are still occasionally offended, especially when work and family dinner plans collide…)

As you can see, much of the day yesterday was organizational and administrative in nature—no exciting missions, no baptisms, no activity in our local fellowships…but fruitful in the mundane and unromantic, nonetheless. We appreciate your continued prayer support for the daily needs that we address here on the mission every day. We also ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the work, which continually threatens to expand beyond the reach of our limited and grassroots budget (to do so, visit www.kingdomdriven.org/donate.). However, we have seen, and rejoice in, the faithfulness of God, and are thankful for those of you who already join with us to make this work of Kingdom expansion and service in Jesus’ name possible.