We are nearing the end of our trip. The last medical camp has been finished and we are now in Limuru, just outside of Nairobi. Last night Emily to make dinner for our hosts here. They have been so gracious in caring for us. The plan was to cook chicken alfredo with double treat chocolate cookies for dessert. Keep in mind ALLLLL of the ingredients would have to be purchased locally. So, of to the grocery store we went. We passed the car batteries, kerosene cooking stoves, bars of cooking fat, bags of ugali flour and other assorted essentials. Being the only man in the group, btw Mzungu is the word used for anyone not Kenyan, I was sent to get the parmesan cheese, chocolate chips, whole rolled oats..........after about 20 minutes we met again, this time to get real on what could really be cooked. We tried Italian but the ingredients were not there for that. A bottle of Soy Sauce provided the inspiration and Emily settled on stir fry. With chicken, cadbury chocolate bars and what we thought might be ground oats we headed to the local vegetable market and bargained our way through ginger root, garlic, pineapple, onions, carrots and a variety of other goodies. The stir fry was AMAZING, not a bit was left. The cookie dough made and passed around to the astonishment of the Kenyans, they loved it. The oven was broken so several different method were tried to cook them including pan frying, FAILURE and smoke were the outcome. I asked what was wrong with the oven and they said it was broken. I opened it up and after brushing aside the cobwebs, thankfully nothing else, used a bit of foil to repair the burner. With the oven heating and the cookies baking the only thing missing for perfection was a glass of cold milk. Sadly the gas ran out and we were left with half baked cookies. We will survive.

We are leaving in a few hours to return home. We will be under way for 40 hours with a 16 hour stopover in Dubai. More pictures to come.

Dr. Charles Kaluba is our Clinical Officer for our trip. He is Ugandan and a delight to work with. He grew up during the reign of Idi Amin and has some very interesting stories. His birth on a banana leaf while his mother held the the trunk of the tree rivals my mother's tale of me being born under a cabbage leaf. It seems that the banana is so important to Ugandans that it is revered as much as the former kings. When an expectant mother goes in to labor she goes in to the banana grove alone. She holds on to the banana tree trunk and squats over a fresh banana leaf on which the child is born. The placenta is then buried at the base of the tree. When the newborns cry is heard a female relative rushes out with cooked banana paste to place on the babies lips.

In Otatai village we set up the clinic in the open. The doctors were in a communal house with a concrete floor, tables and chairs but the rest of the team, intake and pharmacy were strategically located under the shade of nearby trees. We went to the wrong location and while the support vehicles traveled around a ridge the medical team took a short walk down the hill and in to the village. We treated over 190 people despite the late start. The rains started in the late afternoon and pulling meds while the patient forms were rained on was a bit difficult but other than that it was a great day.

We have been renting a matatu for transportation. It is the main mode of transportation for most Kenyans. Essentially it is an 8 passenger Nissan van that legally carries 14 people plus the driver. They are usually battered and welded together to the point were there is more weld than original metal. Ours is better than most and Joshua, our driver, is a joy. With boxes of s

upplies piled all around him and hidden from our view he will sing to himself. He willingly loads and unloads and even helped in intake the other day helping to measure and weigh people. One day I will write a book on matatus, the stories are unbelieveable, sad, and hilarious.

We have tasted a bit of the pressing of the multitude that was spoken of in the Gospels. Our medical clinics on Friday and Saturday went well through the day and then at the end the crowds of people want care began to press in hoping to see the doctor. My western mind can not imagine wanting something so desperately that not even a uniformed officer would move the crowd. The doctors see patients for 8 hours, sometimes 70 or 80 each, can only work so much. Even after we closed the door we would walk through the crowd looking for the very sick. The child with a high fever, the simple ringworm that a tube of Whitefield cream out the window of our pharmacy, anything to get that last patient. I felt heartless saying no to so many. We prayed for them all, loved them and touched as many as we could, but still the crowd pressed in.

The team is amazing. In Amagoro town we converted a simple wood structure with a bare interior in to a functional medical clinic using rattan mats for screening in about 40 minute with just a few simple instructions. What a blessing to be with such a dedicated group. We have 3 young ladies who are just beginning their journey in to the medical world, Brie is just beginning her PA training, Maddie who is beginning her nursing education and Emily just out of High School and entering the nursing field. Each of them are passionate for Christ, dedicated to service and willing to do what it takes to get the job done. All of them are wise beyond their years.

We have shared many laughs as a team, cried and prayed for patients and have given 119%. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Greetings from Kenya!

We have just finished a very full week and we are set to begin another week of training.  Last week we held our 4th annual Pastors Conference in the Mabanga Conference center near Bungoma and  we had over 50 pastors and their wives attend.  Pastor Rich Hamlin and I were teaching on 'Being a Pastor' and the response from the pastors was overwhelming and gracious.  I had opportunity to speak personally with all of them and they were all extremely thankful and blessed by the opportunity to gather with other pastors and enjoy fellowship in the Lord together. 

The church that Rich pastors, Evangelical Reformed in Tacoma, purchased 180 Bibles in Swahili and English that were given to the pastors of these churches at the conference.  Their smiles could have lit up a small city as they carried them away to give to their church members, most of whom do not own a Bible.  We also were able, because of your generous donations, to give them a great deal of study material and books and bible programs that will greatly help them in their ministry. All the pastors wanted me to convey their grateful thanks for all that you who support API have done to make this conference available to them, and to tell you all that they are praying for you.  I was blessed by the arrival of my son-in-law, Ben Sansburn, from Chengdu, on Wednesday this past week.  He flew in to help teach this next week of intensive Bible training in Bible doctrine, theology and how to read and interpret the Bible.  We will have 20 or so pastors in these sessions which are designed to give pastors some good Bible training that they are not able to afford through Bible School. Please continue to pray for us as we teach and preach.

One final note on this blog - Rob Hostager, Rich Hamlin, Ben Sansburn, Claire Hamlin and myself took a tour through the Lake Nakuru Game Park on Saturday before Rich and Claire had to return. We saw the famous pink flamingos in their hundreds of thousands on the lake, as well as gazelles, zebras, baboons, monkeys, giraffes, rhinos, and yes, lions. Rob, who is the photographer and videographer on the team got some great pictures that we will share with you.  As we drove through the park, it became obvious that our driver was fairly new at this and we held our breath at times as we drove through some very wet and muddy spots in the park. Apparently holding your breath as you drive through difficult spots doesn't really work as we finally hit a spot that breath-holding didn't seem to help.  It was really muddy, there were lions loose in the park, and other dangerous animals, and I didn't really want to get out and push, but eventually we had to.  Now I really have a clear understanding of just what a miry pit is all about.

Continue to pray for strength and joy and protection for us as we continue to minister here.

love ya,
Michael

Scheduled departure time 6:30 AM this morning......actual time of departure, 7:30 AM. It happens here.  Too many boxes and too little room in our two vehicles. So we unloaded, consolidated and reloaded. Then two more people were added to our already overcrowded vehicle.

We arrived safely and were greeted by the school children standing in a very large circle as there were over 200 of them. Their maroon uniforms and bare feet showed the poverty of the area. It is a rural community so the people are well feed. We only had one child suffering from malnutrition.  One cleft palate and several very ill babies were among the hundreds that we saw. It was our first day so we are still learning to work with each other. The team is very good. Abigale has come with us to pray. Yes it is that important that we have someone who came just to pray. Our doctors and nurses pray as well but they are also considering the detail of earthly treatment.

One of our doctors, Katie Rusk from San Diego, took time off from seeing patients to minister to the hundreds of children who were there. She spoke to the children about Noah and the promises of God. She also had several crafts using brightly colored yarn that almost caused a riot until we involved some of the older boys to control the line.

Please continue to pray for the health of our team. Today was a very long day, up at 6 and to bed after 9 PM. We will be up again early tomorrow for our second day of seeing patients and will be in a different location. We will need physical strength as well as spiritual peace.

Prayer.............we started this morning at 5 AM. We are staying at the same location as our 4th Annual Pastor's Conference and so the pastors came to pray. Kenyans are serious about talking to God and sometimes the sound level rivals a Seahawks game. Pastor Mike Sandberg, the lead teacher for the conference even brings earplugs which he uses periodically. So this morning we prayed and prayed some more. Something great is going to happen because throughout the day the  pastors and their wives began to get sick with a variety of illnesses. We ask you back home to PRAY.

The medicine arrived at 12 today and the team is still working at packaging the medications in to standardized dosage packets. It is tedious work that requires attention to detail. Power outages forced us to stop at 7:30 tonight, Wednesday, which allowed us to eat our meal by kerosene lamp and flashlight. Probably for the best as the roast meat was from a unspecified origin and despite a lot of chewing I was unable to swallow it. So I chewed the flavor out and spit  it back on to the plate. Not very proper but it worked.

Mud, mud and more mud.....

Today, Thursday, was our day off, and what a day it was. We were out the door at 4:30 AM on our way to Masai Mara to view one of the premier game parks in Africa. Our hope was to be at the Oololo Gate by sunrise. We didn't make it. Not for lack of trying but because of mud. Kenyan mud is particularly nasty, clogging the treads of any tire like pores on a teenager! Only one of our three cars got stuck but the push out time put us behind schedule. No worries, as we rounded the last bend and made the sweeping right turn down the escarpement in to the park we were greeted by hundreds of elephants grazing just off of the road, before we even entered the park! It is the peak of the annual migration and at one stop we climbed on top of the land rover to view tens of thausands of zebra, wildebeast, antelope and other assorted game.
 
We saw all of the big cats, lion, cheetah and leopard and were treated to a close up view of a lioness eating a very fresh kill.

Today is Wednesday, the 2^nd of September and Rob and I are taking some much needed time to catch up on email and post some web stuff about our trip so far. I am also reflecting on the past several days of our trip, meditating on the goodness of God in my life and the way He has lovingly orchestrated everything in our travels. Rob and I finished the Pastor's conference in a place called Mabanga last Thursday; spent the next three days visiting several of the homes of API pastors and their families; and then came down to Kilgoris in the Trans Mara region of Kenya where we are staying with the API Medical Team.

We were very much blessed throughout our time at the Pastor's conference, not only by the great fellowship with all the pastors and their wives, but by the response we received from all the participants. The theme of the conference was ' The Church as the Bride of Christ' and the focus was on marriage as a picture of this relationship. There were 35 pastors and wives who attended and everyone we talked with during and after the conference were very expressive in how the word of God on marriage and family impacted their hearts and changed their lives. Rob and I will have some of those video interviews posted soon. All the pastors and their wives were very grateful to God for His word, and to Summit Christian Fellowship for making it possible for them to attend. I want to thank everyone at Summit as well for giving sacrificially to make this happen. Just as much as Rob and I, you all are participants in the gospel with these beloved brothers and sisters.

For three days after the conference, Rob and I spent considerable time with several pastors and their families, learning their stories, hearing their heart for ministry, and getting to know their families. We have video interviews with several that we will be sharing with you on the website soon.

Please continue to pray for the team here – for safety in travel, for unity in effort, and for health. Several of the medical team have come down with cold symtoms, but they really don't have time to be sick so they are pressing through. Pray for healing for them as they bring healing to others.

In His service for His glory,

Pastor Michael

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Rejoice!!!!!!

A good wife is a great thing, a great wife is a blessing from God. My dear wife, Terri, reminded me that I began this blog assuming that the readers knew the history of Agape Project International and the reason we are here in Kenya. So, defering to her wisdom, I will briefly introduce API and our current medical mission trip.

API USA exists to support the pastors of API Kenya to fulfill the call of God on their lives. The vision of API Kenya is “The Christ centered holistic development of the people of Kenya”. The practical expression of this vision is to provide access to healthcare, clean water, and primary school education. Additionally, we partner with a boys orphanage, and are actively involved in small business loans, $200 on average, to increase the standard of living through capitalistic ventures. Finally, we believe in the church and provide pastoral development and evangelistic outreaches throughout Kenya.

The medical mission team is comprised of 10 people from the west coast who have come to Kenya to provide medical care for people of the Masai tribe. Additionally, we are supported by four Masai translators. We are here for two weeks and will see about 1250 people over 8 days of clinics. A Kenyan Clinical Officer, Dr. Charles is with us to guide us in the common diseases of Kenya. We have a physicians assistant, several nurses and medical administrators and people who have never been involved in the medical field. We are all here for one purpose, to bring hope and healing to the people of Kenya.

Rejoice! Today, Sunday, we slept in till 8 AM and went to church. In Kenya it is an event beginning at 10 AM and ending after 1 PM. The singing and dancing is captivating and today was no exception. After the service the youth wanted to continue with singing and dancing. The young girls grabbed Paige and Chelsea and taught them the Masai way and later Chelsea had them dancing the Macarena! Karen and Paulette were breaking out some moves and were given beautiful Masai necklaces. The festivities ended with lunch in the dirt floored but very colorful church in Kilgoris.

Afterwards Scott, Paige, Alpha and I went to one of our translators home to build a chimney for her in her cooking hut. Most Kenyan women living in rural areas cook over an open fire with little ventilation resulting in many lung and eye problems. Scott, a recent architectural graduate of WSU and API Associate, is working on a project to provide chimneys built of native materials, sticks, mud and banana bark ropes, for the rural cooking huts. This was his second work and the framework was built in about three hours and will be completed tomorrow.

We ended the day with a pill party. What else do you call 14 people sorting, counting and labeling medication packets for the nine containers used as our pharmacy. Katie was the boss and everyone else was busy bottling antacid, counting pills and restocking various creams and ointments. It was controlled chaos lasting till after 9 PM with comic relief provided by a small swarm of bees and one very large mouse sized bug bravely dispatched by Paige. Tomorrow is our fourth clinic day at a new location. We are all in good health and moral is high that is why I say Rejoice!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Seasons…………………..

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die…. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Throughout life we move from one season of life to the next. Sometimes predictably moving from adolescence to adult to middle age in the regular rhythm of life. The carefree childhood days seem like they will never end, school is too long and summer to short. We think we will live forever. And yet, we all know that sooner or later we will die.

Today, the happiest season of life ended swiftly for a young boy brought in to the mud walled building that for the last three days was our medical clinic. Hit by a motorcycle, the nameless five year old was brought in limp and bloody. No pulse, no breath. The team jumped in to action, swiftly applying CPR and assessing his other injuries. Our oldest team member and leader of the trip rescue breathing, Katie providing compressions. Gary and Katie traveled 10,000 miles away from home to provide CPR on a dirt floor, in a church in Trans Mara, to a boy without a name. He still died. I do not know what else to say, of all of the wonderful success stories, the laughter and joy of providing healthcare to people with no access to healthcare. And yet what stays with us at the end of the day is that little boy. Even two games of “Extreme Spoons” with Paige diving full length across the table to grab a spoon could erase the memory.

Tomorrow, Sunday will be a day of rest for us. We will split in to teams to attend two different churches. In the afternoon several of us will build a chimney to further refine our plans to provide chimneys made of local materials, mud, sticks and banana leaves for the women who cook day after day in a cooking huts without ventilation. We will also try out a digital microscope on some blood and fecal samples. Seems that no one on the team is volunteering to provide samples. Keep praying for us for rest and wisdom as we start a new clinic location on Monday.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Accident of Birth…...................?

I finally slept for more than a few minutes, flying over the Mediterranean and in to Egypt somewhere. I was on my third airplane and had been traveling for 20+ hours since leaving my family. The window seat is the only place to be for me, even the clouds hold a fascination for me. Looking down at the brown and red hued barren desert it was easy to imagine why no one lived there, or so I thought. A river came in to view, just a bit darker than the surrounding landscape but with the unmistakable bends and curves of a river. Then a faint bit of green clung to the riverbank in a rectangular pattern. So there was life down there and it was a very big river, it must be “The Nile”, you know the one you’ve watched on PBS but have never seen in real life. I can’t take it off my bucket list yet because my toes have not dangled in it, perhaps some day. The plots of green irrigated fields now lined both sides of the river and here and there I began individual homes and then clusters of homes. People were somehow living in that arid expanse, getting married raising families and dieing. They were born there not of their choosing, but for a purpose. Just as I was born in Seattle, Washington for a purpose. It has taken me a few decades, a bit of pain, a lot of joy and an incredible wife to find a purpose in life worth living, and dieing for. Perhaps a bit melodramatic but do you have purpose in life? I don’t mean the standard American dream thing but something requiring the supernatural intervention of God to get it done? If you do not, then I say you are not fully living!

It is now over 48 hours since leaving the US and I am finally here, Kilgoris, Kenya. In addition to the 3 airplanes it took a private car, two Matatu’s and a lift from the team over the last 2 km but I have made it. The Medical Team just finished day 2 of the clinics, they are tired, excited and hungry all at once. Thank you for being a part of the adventure. Take some time to discover your purpose in life. Something that seems impossible, serves others and costs you something. God Bless and Good Night.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Getting There

Letting go and letting God..... ever hear that one before? I am practicing it right now. The API USA Medical Mission 2009 to the Masai Tribe in Kenya is going on right now and I am still waiting to leave and catch up with them. They left last Saturday from San Diego and Seattle and because of scheduling challenges I will not catch up with them for several days now. Everyone arrived safely, minus one case, and is in good health and spirits. The vehicles were rented and Boke was loaded with all the luggage. Boke is our resident Landrover Defender 110 driven by our dear friend and brother in the Lord Alpha. They should be in Kilgoris by now and unwinding from the 6+ hours of Kenyan roads.

The team will begin treating patients on Thursday the 27th of August and are prepared for 300 patients. Our team of nurses, and untrained staff will partner with Dr. Charles, an Kenyan Clinical Officer, to provide medical care in the rural areas around Kilgoris. We will share pictures and stories as the days go on. Pray for health and strength for the team.

Pastor Mike and I flew to Eldoret  and visited Pastor Milton.  We had some time to walk around the neighborhood before Milton gave us a tour.  Here are some photos of Kip Karen, Milton's neighborhood:

Following our walk around the neighborhood, Milton gave us a tour of the school, which is in the process of being built.

We also toured Milton's new home, which is also in the process of being built:

The trip to Kenya went very smooth for Mike, Paige and Rob.  We attended a local church and Mike was not planning to preach but was asked and did a fine job on short notice.  His message was very well received.  It was a pleasure to experience the Kenyan culture as they worship.

Paige spent some time after the service with the kids.

Check back for the latest API news and updates on current Mission Trips.