I am sitting the sanctuary of the Kayole PEFA Church watching the people move up through line to get their vitals taken and then to see a doctor. At present we have number of free services in the camp: Doctors Exams, Eye Exams (with free reading glasses), Voluntary AIDS, Malaria, Typhoid and Tuberculosis Tests, Family Planning Services, Cervical Cancer Screening, Male Circumcision; we also have free polio and measles vaccines for children. We usually have dentists who are pulling teeth, but they didn’t show up today. On top of all this we have free medication for everyone. We are still waiting for the ultrasound machine to be arrive in camp from the technicians who are trying their best to fix it.
Right now we are showing The Jesus Film in the Swahili language in the auditorium, so the eyes of the people are fixed on the screen. As soon as the movie is over the pastor of the church will come up and pray for anyone who would like to receive Jesus. Following that we will show several Veggie Tale movies and believe me everyone in the hall is mesmerized when they are playing.
We opened the camp at 9:30am today and the pastor of the church told me that there were several hundred people waiting at 6:30am. Many of them where mothers with their babies. Today we are on schedule to see 1200 people. The difference between our medical camps today and our medical camps 4 years ago is dramatic. Our Kenyan Worldcomp team has really got it together. It’s also great to have such a large team of Kenyan doctors and nurses on board. It enables us to see many more patients without totally wearing ourselves out.
Kayole is located on the extreme East side of Nairobi. It an area full of slums. Most of the people here are squatters who put up little shacks on open land just to have a place to live. They are not liked by the government and are often forced to move, because they are on government land. The unemployment rate here is 60% so most people just forage around the area looking for a bite to eat or looking to pick up something useful that has been discarded in the dump. The city leaders of Nairobi really need our prayers. First of all, because they really don’t care and second of all because they desperately need wisdom from God to solve seemingly unsolvable problems. When I think of this I think of Joseph appearing before Pharaoh. Not only did have insight from God on the future famine in the land, he had the answer! We need to pray that God will raise up Josephs for such a time as this.
I haven’t mentioned yet that more than 200 people accepted Christ at our camp in South B. Members of the church sat down with people, one on one, and shared their testimony with them. Nothing is better than that. Here is Kayole the same thing is happening. There is a big open area in front of the church and right at this moment there are more than 20 people sharing with others about the Lord. I must say that the beauty of this is that they exchange phone numbers and email addresses so there is follow up that is based on a relationship.
I apologized to the team this morning because our schedule this time is more intense than I have ever seen it, but to a person they all felt that the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices.
May the Lord Bless and keep all of you at home.
In His service, Richard