Home Visits

Home visits have been part of the team’s our daily routine. Dar and I went on home visits during the week.  This was an eye opening experience for me- I saw the real need in Kipkaren and how the people of this village live.  Home visits are led by Henry of the Living Room, who is trained in community health.  Dar and I went to 6 different homes.  We visited women who had been infected by HIV, most likely by their husbands.   Some of their children were also infected.  They were all receiving treatment from AMPATH, an organization which focuses on testing for HIV and providing medication for it.  The Living Room has an alliance with AMPATH, in which Living Room Staff monitors about 80 AMPATH patients.  The purpose of the visit is to ensure the patients are taking their HIV medication and to see how they are feeling or if they have developed any symptoms.  As Henry explained, despite the patients taking medication their health can worsen any minute.

One of the more memorable visits was to Rose- Rose was actually a patient of Living Room.  Rose is a mother of 3 (2 adult and 1 child) and she is now a mother to 3 more children, she took her brother’s children in after he got killed in a tribal conflict last year.  She was taking care of her beautiful grand-daughter of 18 months (the mom was working ).  Rose’s husband became very sick (most likely of AIDS) and passed away.  She then had the responsibility of caring for the family herself.  Rose then became very sick - she had contracted the virus.  She was to the point were she was bed-ridden in her mud-hut.  She was found in her hut weighing 60 pounds.  Since she could not move herself, she was carried to the road and then driven to the Living Room; there she was taken care of, and given medication, for among other things, HIV.  After eight weeks in the Living Room, she regained her strength, normal weight and was even helping the staff in their daily duties.  She was so grateful and so happy to see us- she sent greeting to the Living Room and their staff by name. She wanted us to share her story so that others would see the great work that the Living Room is doing in her community.   Without Living Room she would be dead- and 4 children would be orphaned. 

What did her hut look like?  The hut was about 400 square feet and it was divided into 4 rooms, all with bare walls and 1 small window in each.  No electricity or running water.  1 room was the living room and it consisted of a small table and 4 chairs.  The other room was the kitchen, where one of its corners consisted of fire-wood that had been burning earlier;  the smoke and smell from the firewood invaded the entire hut.  The rest of the space was divided into 2 bedrooms, with mats on the floor and a clothes line running across each room which was the makeshift closet.  That was it.

The visit helped me understand why there are so many orphans in this community- the HIV pandemic has had a deep wound in this community. Living Room is helping with these wounds. 

Thursday update...

We are well into our week at the Living Room now. People have become familiar friends, routines have been established, and we have even learned more Swahili words! As the men were away yesterday gathering the donated supplies, the women of the group were able to finish transforming hand-made quilts from the states into curtains and wall décor. It was a joy to see the patients interacting with us from blowing bubbles to laughing at us trying to learn the language. On the clinical side of the hospice, Michelle has been working with the physician assistants, Rachel and Kim, and Nurse Betty. Dar has been working with the Social Worker, Daniel. It is evident to both of them that the workers of the Living Room truly care about their patients. The staff workers are not just employed at the Living Room, they are taking care of their brothers and sisters.

Today, Thursday, the Living Room was a flurry of activity. It was full of supplies and everyone was helping move out the old beds with the new, sorting supplies, and getting patients ready for the day. As Kari and Ken described, the Living Room felt like an exhaling breath of all the blessing it had received.  A breath full of praise, jubilation, and excitement. Today we also celebrated International Hospice Day. The real day is Oct. 8^th, but that was the day we first arrived at the Living Room and we were given an amazing celebration. So we postponed IHD tell today.  It was so neat to see patients’ family members and previous patients arrive to celebrate with us. Together, we remembered those who had moved from earth to their heavenly homes with Christ. People like Betty, Mary, and Samuel. As noticed by Dar, one of the neatest things about the Living Room is that patients are given a voice. That was displayed today at the ceremony as patients told their stories “testimonies” of what lead them to their illness and how they were at home or in the hospital and were not cared for, developing wounds and get becoming more ill. It has not been until the Living Room that they knew they were loved, cared for well, and started seeing improvement in their conditions. Everyone told of how they knew this could not be possible unless it was from God. It was a very Kenyan ceremony with many speeches, food, and singing. As we sat out on the veranda, singing in worship during the ceremony, Gene and Chris noticed how the trees were swaying in the breeze to the rhythm of our song. The verse came to their minds, Isaiah 55: 12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” They felt as though creation was in celebration with us.

It was a joy to the whole team today to see little Enoch, the boy with the facial tumor diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer, playing ball with Cassidy. This boy came to the Living Room two and a half weeks ago, scared and with a facial tumor covering his nose and mouth. Now, after the first round of chemo, he was kicking a ball and hugging Cassidy goodbye.  Moses is an older patient with lung and heart problems. When we arrived today it looked like Moses might pass away. His breathing was not good and he was very weak. Later in the day he showed improvement. Michelle was able to have a conversation with him through interpretation and Moses said he was worried about his home. It had been destroyed and he had no house. She reassured him that the people of the Living Room will not send him away from this place without a place to live. She asked where will be his spirit’s home after this life. Moses told her that it will be in heaven with God. Michelle told him that he would have rest then, but he will also have rest now. The Living Room is your home for today. The new patient Samuel has already claimed the Living Room as his new home. He comes from a different tribe in Kenya and traveled far to be here. He has been welcomed by the people of this tribe and has even been given a new tribal name.

Tonight we were able to go to the orphanage and perform a skit on David and Goliath for the children. They loved it, we know because they laughed! Gene was Goliath, Cassidy was David (he walked on his knees), Greg was King Saul, and Ken narrated the story as they acted it out. Kris was very innovative at coming up with props for the skit. We also led them in song with “Father Abraham”, “Deep and Wide”, and “I thank you God for making me me”. The children at the orphanage love to hug us and be near us.

We always feel so blessed at the guest house where we are staying. There are two wonderful women, Stella and Miriam, who make us incredible food. They provide us with the opportunity to debrief, and share God’s stories in us with Juli, Alison, David, and other community leaders that come by. Tonight was another blessed night.

Asante Sana and Praise God!

The Team

All in a day...

“For we are God’s masterpiece,. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus; so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Eph 2:10)

This verse was very evident today. A few days ago Juli received a phone call from another hospice in Kisumu that they were closing and had beds, hospital chairs, and other supplies that they wanted to donate to the Living Room; but we had to come today to pick them up. Fortunately, Juli had the four guys in the team that could go without taking staff away from the important work they had to do at the hospice.

So Gene, Cassidy, Ken, and Greg joined Juli, Meshach, and Sawe to go to Kisumu to pick up the donated supplies. It was a real adventure driving across the Kenyan country side in the Living Room ambulance, with people, bikes, motorcycles, carts lining the sides of the road. Everyone moving along at their pace, loaded down with literally everything from sacks of maize to wheelbarrows and even couches (two to be exact) loaded on their bikes. It was a wild ride as we wove in and out of the slower traffic at the side of the road, narrowly avoiding the oncoming traffic of cars, trucks and busses coming in the opposite direction.

We arrived at mid day and found a huge stack of boxes filled with supplies, along with seven hospital beds, five hospital chairs, a gurney, hospital tray tables, and other equipment.

When the truck, or lorry as they call it, pulled up no one could imagine how we would ever get the amount of stuff we had to carry onto that truck. But we were inspired by the Kenyan example of carrying what you have with the vehicle you have, like two couches loaded on the back of a bicycle. We also considered that if Christ could feed five thousand with a couple loaves of bread and a few fish, he could do the opposite and fit all these supplies into the truck we had available to us.

So Juli and Sister Mary prayed and the team applied a little western ingenuity, and everything was loaded into the truck. It was fun to see God at work and to be instruments in the process. We also realized that this day had been appointed by God. Today we accomplished the good works he had prepared in advance for us to do.

As we travelled back to the hospice, we found out that Samuel, one of the hospice patients that we had prayed for the previous day, had passed away and would have to be transported to Eldoret in the ambulance as soon as we arrived back. We arrived at the Living Room and put Samuel in the ambulance and sent him on his final earthly journey. Shortly thereafter, we welcomed the lorry that was following us with all of the newly acquired supplies. No one could imagine that they would be receiving a truck literally overflowing with supplies and they were all amazed at God’s blessing of the Living Room with the arrival of about $100,000 worth of medical equipment and supplies.

The best part of this though, was that no one took this for granted though and the whole group began to sing and dance and praise God for the supplies he had blessed the Living Room with. The celebration continued even as we unloaded the truck and brought the supplies into the hospice.

Today we celebrated God’s grace in the mercy of receiving home one of his children, who the world had forgotten, but the Living Room had found. And we celebrated God’s grace in the power to supply the needs of the Living Room in ways more abundant and more marvelous than anyone could imagine.

Praise the Lord! 

Here's a link to some more photos: Team Photos

Grateful

The veranda overlooking the colorful flower garden and the maize plantation is my favorite space in the Living Room.  It serves as the common area for patients to take meals, socialize and simply look out onto God’s creation. 

I continue to be impressed with the level of care and attention given to patients at the Living Room.  There are currently 19 patients, 4 of which are children.  While many patients pass shortly after arriving, others miraculously get better.  One of the highlights of my day was seeing Mary take a few steps on her own.  Mary arrived to the Living Room on July 28, 2011.  Mary was found locked in a home.  When she arrived she ­­­was suffering from severe malnutrition, bedsores and was unable to walk or talk.   Mary can now talk, sing, feed herself and now take steps on her own.  

More impressive still is the overwhelming peacefulness and joy, in the midst of such suffering, one encounters at every corner.  Prior to arriving to the Living Room, I had envisioned it as a place of great sadness, the contrary has proven to be the case.  The place is filled with laughter and love.  It is hard to explain the apparent contradiction- perhaps it is the result of valuing someone else’s life, or doing something kind while expecting nothing in return or perhaps it is the result of serving the “least of these,” or..…. whatever the reason I am so humbled that I can be a part of it.

I am grateful to be here and want to say thank you again to all who have been a part of this journey.

Sylvia for the CA team

Creation, intention and detail

Before leaving for Kenya I was able to sit in on one of Hugh Ross’s talks on Wednesdays about creation and how God has ordered the universe with great precision, purpose, and detail and as we read and study His word we see how as He works through the lives of His people and through His plan of redemption for us as well as for His creation we are consistently reminded that our God is creative, intentional, detailed, and persistent.

In our time here in Kipkaren I have had the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with several leaders of this community and the Living Room. And as I listen to them speak about their vision and what they’ve done so far to carry out their vision, and what they have planned, I’m impressed by their creativity, intentionality, detail, and persistence. I’m impressed by the Holy Spirit working in the lives of these people in powerful ways to accomplish His will in this community and in Western Kenya as a region. As they describe what they’ve been able to accomplish I can see God’s signature on all of it. They are marvelous stewards of the vision, resources, talents, and opportunities God has given them and as good stewards, they have taken a personal ownership of each part of what they do for the Living Room, while never forgetting that it all belongs to God.

Yesterday I worked in the passion fruit vineyard with Nicholas, Evelyn, and Solomon. Nicholas, who is trained in agriculture, but has a wide range of experience in leadership, worked with us as he explained how the fruit grows, what they do to encourage good growth, and how they work towards the good fruit they produce. The passion fruit is a staple at the Living Room, but it’s also sold at market and is a source of income for them as well. As we reached the end of the vineyard, harvesting the day’s fruit, past the rows of spinach, kale, onions, and beans, we came across a small pond.

Nicholas and Solomon were proud to tell us about this pond in which they are currently raising about 1000 Tilapia fish to be harvested and used at the Living Room for food and also sold for profit. The pond is a well engineered home for the fish, were they have designed protection from predatory birds, a source of fresh water to flow through the pond, and the right depth to ensure the right temperature for the fish to grow.

Then, after a brief time learning about the fish pond it was back to the vineyard. We worked in the opposite direction this time, removing all of the bad fruit that had fallen prematurely and threatened the health of the vines by spreading virus to the soil. This process is done every day, along with weeding and pruning the vines. We learned that the Passion vines will produce for three years and so while we were working in the productive field, another vineyard of passion vines was growing to take it’s place in two years.

I’ve been impressed how Juli and David Tarus have brought people into the Living Room with talents and skills to create a very sustainable community. While the focus is on care for the sick and providing dignity for those in desperate need, the Living Room staff is filled with support staff who cook, clean, counsel, administrate, grow crops, and work in a variety of ways to support the central focus and keep it going as well as providing jobs in the local community.

God’s signature is so evident in this place, that we feel truly blessed to be here and to see, encourage, and be a part of this work.

Ken for the CA team

Working at the hospice.

Today was our first day working at the Living Room hospice. After a time of worship, our team broke up into various groups to serve as needed. Some worked in the kitchen, preparing food for the patients and staff. Others worked on the farm, harvesting passion fruit to be sold in order to support the hospice. Still others spent their day caring for the patients. Many of the patients are completely dependent on the living room staff since they are unable to perform the most basic human functions such as feeding, bathing, and clothing themselves.

One man’s story particularly touched me. Jacob is a 39 year old father of three who worked as a history teacher before his injury. On July 7, 2010, a man broke into his home and attacked him, paralyzing him from the chest down. When Jacob arrived at the Living Room last August, he could barely move. Now due to a nutritious diet, physical therapy and much prayer, he is able to help himself out of bed, and push himself unassisted in his wheelchair. Please pray for God’s continued healing, and that God would provide for the needs of his children as they struggle to survive while their father is unable to work.

Thank you for your continued prayers for the patients, the living room staff and our team!

Greg for the Kenya Team

CA Team- Pictures from our journey

Dear Family & Friends, We are having an incredible time in Kipkaren! Our days are long and full. We hope to post a longer update tomorrow, but here are a few pictures from the journey to this point: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150332714522746.344917.148415262745&type=1.

Thanks to your love and support we were able to bring 14 extra bags of medical supplies, linens, and toys for the children.

Your Kenya Outreach Team