Dr. Jonathan Cadera is a 43 year old doctor who is one in a million. He was born and raised in a remote Masai village just a few miles from the great Masai Mara Game Reserve. As far as anyone can tell he is the only Masai boy from this impoverished and uneducated area to ever become a doctor. He told us that when he was 10 years old a preacher gave an altar call and invited anyone who had a dream for their life to come up for prayer. He marched straight up the altar and said “I want to be a doctor”. He will never forget that day, nor the powerful prayer that was prayed over his life. I had the privilege of riding in his car as we made our journey to the new clinic that is being built in an area where there is little medical care to be found. About half way to the clinic we stopped in a small village so that Dr. Cadera could show us the place he was born. The minute we stopped our car it was immediately surrounded by a mob of Masai men and women who ran at Dr. Cadera and hugged him. Dr. Cadera is now practising medicine in Nairobi at Kenyatta Hospital so he rarely is seen in his home town. I have heard about Dr. Cadera from Pastor Ben Sterciuc but I had never met him. After spending the day around him I would have to say that he is one of those rare people in this world that we could call “A great man”.
Our medical clinic today, was unique and wonderful. The drive to the place was long and gruelling, covering some of the worst roads in Kenya. Sometimes we were literally on cow paths. I joked to everyone that we passed the sign that said “Remote Region” 20 miles ago. Every patient was a Masai and most of them came dressed in the colorful dress of the Masai people, complete with hand made jewellery of all sorts. For some reason I had the impression that Masai people were somewhat standoffish, but I was very wrong. All of them were warm and affectionate and lovely. We only expect a hundred or so people, but by the time the day was over we had seen between 3 and 4 hundred. I have been involved in dozens of medical camps but this one was something special to me. Many thanks to all of you back home who have provided the resources to touch these people who are so often neglected because they live is such remote places.
The Northwest University Nurses along with our Worldcomp Team did a marvellous job today. There were a few challenges; the main one being the flies. In the afternoon there are millions of flies all over the place. We surmise it is because there are hundreds of thousands of livestock, wildebeests, zebras and other animals all around us. We all know how Americans react to flies, but it’s the least we can put with to serve God’s children.
It was almost dark when we left the medical camp to make the trek to our hotel. We were rather nervous about the hotel because the owner refused to let us pay in cash for our stay. We think it was because he didn’t trust his own staff with large amounts of money. We had to go through some extraordinary measures to pay the guy over the phone. The price was also suspect $65 per person “all inclusive”. So we held our breath as we drove into the facility. We discovered that the accommodations were tents, but to our surprise and delight they were beautiful and clean with tile showers. Just lovely! Thank you Lord. I am so happy for the nurses, because they have worked so hard and they deserve a rest. Tomorrow we are going to take three safari vans and spend the day on the Mara admiring the animals and God’s creation. Time for a break!
We all felt that we had done something that pleased the Lord today and we were all glad to be here.
Blessings to all of you back home. Remember us in your prayers and your contributions.
Richard