21 Jul 09

Dear Dr. Susan and Barry, Lauren, Valerie, Kim, Deborah, Rod, Leda and John, Laurie, Terri, and Mark,
(Susan I don't have everyone's email -- Terri, Rod or Mark -- please forward!) (Rod, I put your email address in some pocket to take to work and I'm still looking for it!!!)
 Bill and I don't know how or where to begin to thank you for coming to Maua Methodist Hospital to serve our hospital and projects, the church and community, and the Meru farm.  We are grateful beyond words for your sacrifices, your hard work, your generosity in bringing supplies and gifts, money for the hospital work project and money for the house, for Laurie giving up all else to teach CPR to 41 staff, for Leda to give up other opportunities to work with Dr. Inoti and for bringing the wonderful eye equipment, for Dr. Susan working and helping sooooo much in the nursery and pediatric ward, for the wonderful worship service,.  Thank you for spending time with our Giving Hope Project 2 days and then taking all the boys to the farm and the list goes on and on and on.  Thank you for the wonderful VBS.  The children are still talking about it..  You all worked so hard despite your illnesses and broken bones and black eyes and we are so thankful for your flexibility, perseverence and easy going spirit.  Through it all each of you were a joy to us, to the hospital, to the community and to the church.  Thank you for the medical camp -- the medication, supplies, staff and all of you that participated.  Thanks for going with Rev. Alice and praying with our patients and better understanding who we serve and how.

Thank you for the computers that we received between last summer and this summer and all the funds to purchase the equipment.  Please thank the Murphy family for donating the funds for the newborn nursery resuscitator.  The nursery staff, Nursing Officer, parents, and Bill and I are so grateful.

Thank you also for all the personal gifts.  Wow! you must have brought at least one of everything on our list and on Kathie's list.  Thank you for the 2 big and 2 small packages of tuna.  I think every night we have eaten Velveeta cheese over something.  Thank you for the snickers, the Crystal Light (I love the raspberry tea and had never tasted it), the chili peppers, preparation H, the walnuts, popcorn and pepparoni (I already made pizza!).  Thank you for the buttons for the Nurses Day.  They were definitely the hit of the day.  Thank you so much for the colored printer cartridge.  I create most of the documents for the hospital and often print things like our Mission and Vision, Annual Plan, award certificates in color.  Thus I was desperate for a color print cartridge so I could continue to do that.  Thank you for bringing the pillow cases from Prosper UMC.  Thank you Lauren for the wonderful church cookbook and thanks to all who signed it -- that makes it extra special!  I am sure I have forgotten somethings so please forgive me, it is not intentional.
 We were so thankful for Susan's superb leadership and for a team that can bend with the changing winds.  Susan handled the sick folk with such  ease and so calmly which was a tremendous help to all of us.  We are so grateful to God for your attitude of gratitude, your willingness to paint, to build the AIDS Orphan's home, work with Giving Hope, inventory the huge amount of expensive, valuable, useful medical supplies and equipment that you brought and help Martha put it all away, to bring loads of goods up to our house, to gather together to share with us and members of the staff.  What a joyous time we had.  We are so thankful for your coming and giving and being!  You were a great blessing and we already miss you.  We look forward to seeing you again and again right here.We know that God will bless you as you have blessed each of us.  Your warmth, your smiles, your laughter and fun, your loving ways were testimony to your faith and understanding of God's love for you and for all His children.  You were indeed a glimpse of God which has renewed our faith, increased our hope and joy, and reminded us that we are never alone in our work to further His Kingdom.  We are literally surrounded by those who care enough to come and be one with us, to go home and tell our story and from that telling bring and give many more things to the hospital and its programs, and to pray for us, our work, and those we serve.  Thank you for being love in action, God's love to the "least of these".  We are 'happy dancing" with joy because you came, you gave, you left a part of yourselves and your loving spirit with us, and you will continue to be part of us and with us in all we do.Thank you for having your schedule changed daily.  We do invite you to give us your thoughts on what we did right or could improve on.  You never really had a chance to do that at the end of your stay and we need your input.  You were indeed a 'dream team' and we are sooooooooooo thankful for each of you.  You were a team that was bound together with the Spirit of God and it showed in all you did.

Thanks so much for everything!
 We love and appreciate you more than we can say.Our cup runneth over,Jerri & Bill Savutosavuto@maf.or.ke
Maua Methodist Hospital
Box 63, Maua 60600
Meru North, Kenya“If your cup runneth over, set it in someone else’s saucer."  Elizabeth Chidester
------ End of Forwarded Message

home...

The Mississippi River and the new bridge have never looked so beautiful! God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!

This is Susan blogging: While we have a few moments in London I thought I would report that all the team is doing well, other than being a little travel weary. Terry has amazingly negociated this entire experience with one arm splinted. We began our journey home 29 hours ago, with a slight delay in our departure from Nairobi, and we expect to be in Memphis in about 16 more hours. We should arrive Memphis at 8:33pm. We do appreciate all of you praying for this mission every step of the way. Here in London we are re connecting to all of our electronic communications and enjoying the comments you have posted throughout the two weeks. And yes Brian Barger we did use almost a whole roll of duct tape. That along with a leatherman tool, a little plaster, some medications, great senses of humors, and lots of prayers has held us up and together. We look forward to arriving home soon. Susan

We made it safely to Nairobi. Our flight to London leaves at 11:50 pm. We are expected to arrive in Memphis at 8:33pm on Saturday. Flight #7319 United Airlines.

More from Lauren...personally, my biggest challenges were watching several families lose children while we were there, including the infant son of the mother for whom we were building the house and leaving my own young children and husband behind; however I learned from God that only He can make me lie down in green pastures, lead me beside still waters and restore my soul! (Rooming with one of our ministers was bonus) Biggest lessons/reminders for me on this journey were that it is only through God and His mercy that we have hope...especially hope for eternal life! Additionally, it is our command-not a suggestion, to produce helpful service to others, and in serving we find humility. I went with one set of gifts in mind, but God's plan was different. I will close-Titus 3:8. "This is a trustworthy saying...so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good."

From Lauren for the blog...we are now in the home stretch as we are in route to nairobi as I write Please, please keep up the prayers for traveling mercies and strength as well as for our families at home that might be fretting! I think I can speak for the team although it's an understatement in saying it's been a God-sized experience here in Kenya for 2 weeks. At the beginning of our journey, we read in Joshua 1:1-9 about God giving the Israelites the Promised Land. In return, they were to go and tell the others. Wow, were we given the opprtunity to tell the others about God's promise and love!!! We "told" the others in many ways including: hugs, smiles, tears, laughter, rejoicing, dancing, laboring and sharing! We saw the fruit of the Spirit up close and personal with each other and the people we served- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!

Hello from Kim! It is 11 pm on Thursday night Memphis time (7 am on Friday in Kenya). We are about to leave Samburu to begin our 40 hour (give or take a few) journey home. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and we look forward to seeing everyone Saturday night!!! -KimSzZZeEeEEZZZ

We made it safely to Samburu Sopa Lodge and will begin our debrief tonight. Note: the lodge is not Samburu Game Lodge. We have limited access to text messaging here.......Barry

By Laurie Whiteley. We ended our experience at the bio-intensive farm with a ceremony honoring the 18 giving hope young adults. With smiles on their faces, each was presented a certificate honoring their training. They will now go home and spread the knowledge they gained to family members and other giving hope youth. It was such a joy to watch them playing soccer and laughing like they had no worries! The evening ended with Deborah giving communion to the team and the giving hope group! With sad goodbye's we left the farm this morning to travel to Samburu for safari and debrief. We eagerly await our time to rest and regroup before our looong 40 hour journey home. We have really enjoyed our time together as a group but we can't wait to see everyone in Memphis and enjoy our own hot showers and soft beds! See ya'll Saturday!

This is terry
This has been the most wonderful, Godfilled trip!!
We are all well and working hard. Do not worry about us. We have been in the presence of God every moment of every day. We are at the biofarm now constructing cattle gaps, painting chicken coops, and taking out walls. We have eighteen children here being trained in bio intensive farming.
Continue praying for us!

July 18. Praise God for another wonderful day. After multiple dawn to dusk days we slept in till 7:30! After breakfast we headed back to the hospital to help paint the Nursing classroom. The whole team worked together for the first time. The contractors were patient with us and tried to teach us KiSwahili. We stopped at 1:00 to eat the lunches we had packed. The Savuto's graciously let us use their veranda and sat with us while we munched. Jerri was full of praise for God and the work that had been accomplished this week. There was story after story of how our work or supplies were addressing some need. Later we met with Greg Jenks founder of ZOE Ministries. He brought a team in last night from N. Carolina. God is good all the time!

We've had a good day. How about you?

July 17. What a day! I was part of the team that spent time with one of the Giving Hope social workers, Halima. We visited one of the Aids impacted Giving Hope youth that went with the GUMC team last year to the Bio-intensive farm in Meru. Moses is doing all he can to make his garden a Promised Land. He was so full of energy and successfully using what he had learned. I'll never forget his smile or his prayer of thanksgiving and his request for continued blessings for Giving Hope and the GUMC team.
Yesterday was also the dedication for the AIDS orphan home we built. Where to begin? From the praises that were offerred to God to the powerful message on Aids and the importance of testing it was a moving service. The villagers were taken aback at first when Susan hugged Rhonda, the young mother who has aids, and her chidren. God was definitely present. As they say here "God is good, all the time"!

Yesterday 8 team members assisted with a bush clinic. We drove to a small rural village and set up a small medical clinic and pharmacy. The medical personnel saw over 260 patients, and we assisted with dispensing de-worming medication to over 1500 school children, some of which had walked 45 minutes to reach the clinic. -----Barry Smith

It is just before 5 AM on Friday and I am still in bed, under my mosquito net, thinking of the events of the last couple of days. On Wednesday we took a short break from our various work projects to attend a luncheon in the hospital board room with the Hospital Management Team. They thanked us for our physical efforts and the gifts of equipment we (and our congregation/supporters) have made to the hospital. After lunch we prepared for one of the highlights of the trip--a 2 hour Vacation Bible School for approximately 300 children. You have never seen such high energy and excitement!. The VBS was great!!! ---Barry

In the midst of all this, I realized that I was looking through the lens of my own cultural context which distorted my view and understanding. Who says that there must be a standard for gauging suffering and pain? How could I possibly understand what it is like to comfort a child who had been severely injured because he had been hit by a cow or a wife who had been stoned by her husband? What I do know is that we may all encounter suffering and pain at one point in our lives. We may all respond differently according to our cultural context. But, no matter what, God's grace and mercy are the things that bind us together through it all. And for me that is sufficient! "I will bless the Lord at all times; God's praise shall continually be in my mouth." Ps 34:1. - Reverend Deborah Smith

From there we moved to another ward filled with women and older children. There were no smiles and only faces filled with sadness. We soon learned that the son of one mother had just died. I quickly noticed that there was pain on each face, but no tears. Although the mother was present in the room, I could not readily identify her because all had the same look. We prayed for the family and all those present in the room. I couldn't help but wonder why there were no tears or crying. As we moved to the burn unit, there were both and adults who were being treated for burns sustained during a fire in their respective homes. It was during this visit that I realized that in all the wards we had visited, there had been no laughter, tears, crying or moaning. There were no family members to hold the hands of those who were hurt and suffering.

I noticed during this time that this woman was in a ward with others, and there was no one at her bedside to offer her comfort during this time of suffering and possible death. I found comfort in knowing that God was there, and she was not alone. As we continued with our journey, we went into the pediatrics unit. Here the mother of each sick child was there and actually staying in the hospital to provide constant care and nurturing for their sick child. From there we went to another ward filled with men of all ages. This was the area where these men were being held until someone (family or friend) could come and pay the bill for them. They could not leave the hospital until this was done. In spite of these circumstances, they appeared to be happy. I couldn't help but think about their feelings and self-esteem issues.

Hello everyone! First of all four of us did fall ill to a stomach bug of some sort but everyone is doing much better today! On a happier note today some of us got to work on the house for orphans which is coming along very nicely. The children in that village are adorable. It's amazing how much can be communicated with a smile. We had so much fun playing and laughing together despite the language barrier. The house dedication will be at the end of the week, and we are all excited about it. Other team members visited a few of the giving hope organization children which was wonderful to see first hand! Everything's going great thanks for all the prayers! Kim and Valerie

The untethered donkey and goats crossing the roadway were an interesting diversion as we repaired the burst water hose on our 6 hour ride to Maua yesterday. We had a great dinner and visit with guests, Bill & Jerri Savuto, and Stanley & Mary Gatari. Today has been a day of worship, rest, and preparation. Our work projects will begin in the morning after the daily chapel service.