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March, 2016
Chogoria's Upsurge has Started |
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We felt led to come to rural Chogoria Hospital to help start a Christian Family Medicine residency and grow in the community here. We didn't know if anyone would join us here, if the hospital would be able to carry a residency, if the patients would be happy with things, if the interns would be happy with the changes, how the kids would do here, and so many other things. We think it's safe to say we have answers to many of those questions. So much has happened. Here are a few short accounts of what the Lord is doing here.
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Mama Watoto Wengi |
the Mama
Our good friend Franklin Ikunda told me (Jim), "I have realized that Martha is Mama Watoto Wengi. I agreed, because the literal Swahili translation is "mother of many children." (And we have six kids.) But he said I didn't understand. It's sort of a title. It is the title of the lady of the neighborhood whose door is always open, who always welcomes anyone, whose house is known for being a friendly place for anyone to come and visit or eat or play. The Mother of Many Children.
Of course, he was exactly right. I never know who will be in our house when I come home from work. Might be the neighbors, or interns, or the wife of one of the doctors who only speaks French, or the residents, or any of our other friends or acquaintances. If Martha ever wears a soccer jersey in the future, I want her name on the back to be Mama Watoto Wengi.
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A Christmas Blessing
The Brothers and Sisters of our home church, Avalon Hills Bible Church in Virginia Beach, wanted to bless some of our most needy patients at Christmas. So we asked the director of our Palliative Care program for ideas. This program cares for patients with terminal cancer, severe heart disease, and similar conditions that are debilitating. The Palliative Care Director said the most helpful thing would be to provide basic staples for food. So our home church saints sent funds for us to buy flour, oil, cooking fat, rice, and other staples. We gave out about 12 packages to some of the patients in a ceremony at our hospital chapel. But most of the patients were too ill to come for the ceremony. So we took the packages to about thirty five households. The gratitude for such a simple gift was overwhelming. Thank you, Saints of God, for blessing these suffering people.
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| Learning how to insert a chest tube using a goat thorax. |
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Resuscitation Medicine at Kabarak U
Our Family Medicine residents received a superb four-month series of courses at Kabarak University before coming to the teaching hospitals. Jim's part in those courses was teaching resuscitation medicine for two weeks. The residents were marvelous students. And they were happy to have a party afterwards and roast the goat thorax we had used for procedure practice.
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Meredith and James at Boarding School
We have home schooled all of our kiddos through High School. But Chogoria was a lonesome place for these two, because all of the Kenyans kids their age are in boarding school and unavailable to play or hang out. So now, after much prayer and counsel, Meredith and James are at Rift Valley Academy about 5 hours from Chogoria. After some adjustments, they are thriving. Quite a change for a homeschooling family, but we had been wisely advised not to be too 'married' to our plan when we came here. To be honest, Martha and I have been very sad for this necessity. We miss our kids. But we see the Lord doing good things with the whole situation. We are so grateful for such an outstanding school for Missionary Kids.
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Chogoria's First Ever ACLS classes
Over the last two weeks, we were able to introduce Advanced Cardiac Life Support to Chogoria. This wasn't possible previously due to lack of equipment and instructors and time. But some wonderful friends sent a new defibrillator and volunteered to teach, and our new interns came a month early, so we were able finally to carry it off. This next week we will have all interns and many others (about 20, so far) who are qualified and equipped to deal with cardiac emergencies. Even during the second week of the course, a young lady on the ward suffered cardiac arrest. The team (who had trained the week before) successfully shocked her back to life. Great work.
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Bibles
Many of you have helped us with Bibles. We have purchased some locally, we have invited the Gideons to come (and they did in a big way!), and we have worked with Samaritan's Purse to bring Bibles in four languages. Many of the people here can't afford a Bible, much less a "specialty Bible" in their language. Being able to provide the Word to those who truly need it is one of our favorite goals. We love seeing these Bibles being put to work, as in the photo here where a patient is reading a Gideon testament on the Medicine ward. Thanks to all of you who have supported us in this way.
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Future Plans
Our two-year term as Missionary Disciples with WGM in Chogoria is drawing to a close. We have been wrestling with the decision whether to return to Chogoria after our trip back to the US. After much prayer and counsel, we believe that the Lord would have us come back to Chogoria. So our current plan is to go to the US in July, and stay for one year. This duration was recommended by Meredith's school guidance counselor due to school credit requirements. We then intend to return to Chogoria in July/August 2017. Please pray for us as we make all the myriad plans to travel temporarily to the States. We will need housing, a vehicle, and, most importantly, good connections with our current supporters as well as new supporters. Please let us know when we might come visit you and whether there might be opportunity to meet with like-minded believers. We are grateful for the plan to return to our little part of the Great Commission, and are grateful for your part in it.
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Jim and Martha Ritchie, Meredith and James
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