July 2014 Medical Camp

My first medical mission team with Open Arms International (OAI) was in Rwanda during the summer of 2005. That was a life-changing experience! 

At the end of those two weeks, I told the Open Arms co-founders, David and Rachel Gallagher, Lord willing, I would return to Africa with them every year. There were many obstacles along the way, but I have kept my promise to them. I have led about fifteen medical teams for OAI since July 2006.

The July 2014 medical camp was held at the Open Arms village in Mlango, Kenya. Open Arms International believes in complete health – spiritual, emotional, physical. We always open our medical clinics with a time of praise & worship and a local pastor shares a message from scripture. Those in attendance are invited to pray for Jesus Christ to become their Lord and savior. 

The flow of the clinic begins with a prayer tent where everyone receives prayer before they proceed to the medical tents. Often times, patients will be healed miraculously during prayer. They go to the triage tent after prayer to get their vital signs measured, and then see a doctor for a general health screening. The last stop is the pharmacy tent where they pick up any prescribed medications before they go home.

 

We treated more than 650 patients during our four days of the medical camp at the OA village. Twenty-one prayed for salvation. Several were healed of various ailments in the prayer tent, including a hearing impaired woman who had her hearing completely restored. PTL!

The feedback we have received from the local community has been really appreciative. Some have told us that they wished the hospitals followed our model of praying with patients before administering medical treatment.

Kenyan kogo

The elderly people of Kenya never cease to amaze me. Many I have met in the community of Mlango have exceeded the average life expectancy of 60 years. They are always quick to smile broadly when we meet. Their faces light up with gratitude for another day of life as we exchange a handshake and the common Kalenjin word of greeting – chamgei.

Our outreach team from the Open Arms village church visited an interesting 100 year old woman recently. She is the kogo (grandmother) to one of our church members. Her mind was very sharp as she told us the history of her house, which she had lived in her entire life, and family. Her parents took up residence in the small round building during the colonial times when the area was occupied by the British. The unusual roof was our first clue of the house’s age. It was made from the metal of oil drums. An addition had been built onto the main structure when the family grew. The unattached traditional kitchen was near the addition. A fresh coat of mud plaster and paint on the exterior disguised the true age of the building.

We had visited an old man (mzee) a few weeks prior in the area, and quickly learned that he was the kogo’s brother. Many of the people we visited in that neighborhood were family members. The mzee had four wives and 35 children. His first wife was still alive at the age of 104!

The old woman occupied most of her day by keeping her hands busy with a local craft of decorating gourds for storing milk. We were impressed with her ability to string the small beads and attach them to the sides of the hollowed gourds. She told us her eyesight was failing, but it was evidently keen enough to continue a craft she had learned in her youth.

The kogo freely gave advice to Paul when he accompanied me on a return visit. Paul speaks the local dialect of the Kalenjin people. He told me later that she told him to be careful when making decisions. She explained her words of advice with a personal story of selling a parcel of land to a man several years ago. The land had a very special (ritual) tree on it that was used by the local community for important gatherings. It served as the Roman Catholic church as well as the place where many disputes were settled.  One day the new owner decided to clear the land for planting crops. He did not consult anyone before cutting down the sacred tree, and was chastised heavily for removing it. When he died, the wood from that tree was used to cook food for the guests at his funeral.

I encouraged the kogo to have someone write down her stories. The history in her memory needed to be recorded. We were delighted to learn that her daughter was already compiling a book for the family.

Another ROCK!!!

The Open Arms village is located on 52 acres in Mlango, Kenya about 30 minutes from Eldoret. The scenery in this rural area is superb during the wet season when the rains have turned the landscape into rolling hills of green vegetation. 

A work team from Milestone Church in Keller, Texas learned that it is also VERY rocky. They had the task of clearing an area about 50’ x 25’ for the floor of the Open Arms Academy dining room. It did not seem like much of a challenge until we attempted to level the space. Every implement that was put into the ground found a rock, root, or stump. Each time we removed a large rock there was another one underneath or nearby. Some were heavy boulders that required several men to lift or roll them into the growing pile of rocks outside the boundary. It took three days to complete the work! 

 

Some were discouraged at the end of the first day thinking we had not made much progress. It was all a matter of perspective. If we only looked at the work site, it did not look much different than before we started. When we looked at the huge piles of rock and debris in the perimeter, it was evident that much had been accomplished that day. 

We are reminded in scripture (Philippians 4:8-9) to meditate on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, …the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly…. 

The words “Where is your focus?” are hand written in the margin of my Bible next to these verses.

Crop Damage

The Open Arms village is located in the rift valley of Kenya. The area is known for growing maize, which is the staple food for the country. During the wet season, the local fields are covered with the bright green vegetation.

Farmers in our community were racing the weather to get their fields cultivated and planted in time. It appeared that the wet season was going to be earlier than usual when we got the first heavy rains in mid-March. Normally, the wet season begins the first week of April. 

I left Kenya from April 4^th to May 12^th and was shocked to see struggling maize crops in the fields when I returned. Our Open Arms Kenyan staff informed me that the farmers hurried to plant their maize when the rain came early, and then they experienced a four week dry spell. The rain returned the second week of May.

It was really sad to see so many crops failing from the month-long drought knowing how much the people depend on the annual crop for their livelihood. Most farmers were deciding whether to start over or plant beans instead of maize, because beans are a faster growing crop. Many chose to plant beans in the spaces where the maize had not germinated. Now fields with beans and maize growing together are seen throughout the territory. 

Open Arms maize

The soil at the Open Arms village is very rich. We were blessed to see a quick recovery of our maize when several weeks of continuous rainfall caused a growth spurt. Some of our maize stalks are seven feet tall! 

neighbor's maize

Sadly, many of our neighbors continue to struggle with slow growth of their crops even though the rains returned.

But wait … there’s more!

Once the crops started to recover from the wet-dry-wet weather pattern, we experienced a hail storm. Hail is not common in this region. It shredded the leaves on the maturing plants, and knocked some down to the ground. The maize leaves looked like a grade school craft project the next morning. They displayed some very beautiful and intricate patterns. 

Our OA gardeners assured us that our maize would still grow, even the stalks that lay on the ground. As long as the roots are still in the soil and the stalks are not buried in mud, they will produce ears of maize. The stalks that were fully matured in some of our neighbor’s fields will not produce maize, because the pollen was knocked off the tassels by the hail.

I am once again reminded how much farmers (and consumers) depend on the weather. This unfortunate weather pattern could result in hardship for the families in our area and a maize shortage for the country.

VBS

Matt and Cheryl Tallman brought a group of students from George Fox University and Linfield College to the Open Arms village in Kenya during the month of May. The group provided Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the Remand Centre (juvenile detention facility), Kambi Teso slum in Eldoret, and Open Arms Academy (school at the OA Village). The African children were not familiar with VBS, but they really enjoyed the activities. 

The university/college group performed a skit depicting the story of David and Goliath as told through a pair of puppets. Children were recruited to be characters in the skit. They were provided with plastic capes, balloon helmets and swords, and paper shields for costumes. Goliath was created by putting a boy on Matt’s shoulders. It was reported that one of the OAA community children reproduced the play when he got home from school. He assigned characters to his family members and directed them in a reenactment of the story.

Other VBS activities included drawing and coloring crowns while they learned about Ruth. They dawned balloon crowns and played games as queens and kings. The Western game of Simon Says was transformed to The King/Queen Says.

group hug for Matt & Cheryl

The original plan was to only do the VBS for the preschool children at the Village. The class 1-3 children saw how much fun the “babies” were having in the morning session that they requested their own VBS. More balloons were pumped up and formed into helmets and swords during the lunch hour, and the group rallied to do another VBS session that afternoon.

I think some of the children went to bed with balloons 

on their heads that night.