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.