what up with the wood family: Clinic Day Three

Kiumba Beach Region

522 patients treated

2755 prescriptions given

150 children at camp

325 NEW BELIEVERS

who will worship with

PASTOR CHARLES ODHIAMBO

and the new church plant of

WANYANA

Day three was incredible! People were leaving the clinic after accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and bringing others to the pastor tent to hear the Good News! Others were coming from the shoreline to hear what was coming from the pastor tent. On average twenty percent of the patients seen will give their lives to Christ but on day three we saw that twenty percent tell others until the number came to around sixty percent of our patient total! I immediately thought of the verse

Matthew 9:37 The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

I was in awe of what God did in the Kiumba region that day and He reminded me that the harvest is plenty in my own neighborhood, city, and county as well. All it took for kingdom growth on the shore that day was for people to tell...who are you telling? Are you working to grow the Kingdom of God every day?

sweet faces waiting on us when we unloaded

The A-Team
Grace, Heather, Keith, Bob, Bri, Scott, Lori, Aaron,Cathy, Kaitlyn, Erin H, Chris, Briana, Erin C, Kate, Whitney, Liz

The top of the hill is the line of patients waiting to be seen at triage. The providers were stationed down the hill. The pastors were at the base next to pharmacy.

The pharmacy was literally on the beautiful shoreline of Lake Victoria as you can see from the below picture.

Janes and Tom translated in the pharmacy for week one.

Janes lives with the Kenyan director of CMN, Jonathon, and is serving in any capacity he can while he waits for the opportunity to go to school to become a teacher. He wants to get an education so he can go home to his family and support them. He is a precious young soul with a sweet demeanor and big smile. I enjoyed working with him both weeks of clinic. He can also harmonize beautifully!

PRAY FOR EDUCATION FUNDING THAT WOULD ALLOW JANES TO CHANGE THE LIVES OF HIS FAMILY AND THE STUDENTS THAT HE TEACHES. PRAY THAT HE WOULD CONTINUE TO SEEK GOD AND SERVE WHILE HE WAITS.

Tom's nickname Majiji means, humble and hardworking, which fits him so perfectly. He has five children and his 38 year old wife needs to undergo dialysis treatments twice weekly. They have sold everything they can to afford her medical care but even still they cannot afford to go to dialysis regularly. He said she is in much pain and experiences frequent nausea.

PRAY FOR COMFORT, PEACE, AND PROVISION FOR THEIR FAMILY. PRAY THAT TOM CAN LEAD THEIR FAMILY THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIME.

While sitting at my desk on day three I saw the mother and three young children in the picture below. All four of them looked hesitantly at the mzungus hurriedly filling prescriptions in the pharmacy. Someone gave them each a simple doll sewn by Sewing for Nations at FBC, Hendersonville and their hesitant faces turned to grins. After seeing each of her children with a new doll, the mother threw a bottle on the ground that the youngest had been holding. The oldest child picked up the bottle while clutching the new doll and I suspect the bottle was the only "toy" the three children shared before that day and he didn't want to part with it.

We have so much and so often want more and often take for granted all that we have rather than being grateful. If we had nothing else in this world but the hope of a glorious eternal future with our Savior, Jesus Christ, and Creator, God Almighty, wouldn't that be enough? Why then do we long for anything in this life more than we long to know and understand and love Him more?

Some of the team members knew that I was looking for opportunities for interaction with the people since the pharmacy was a bit hectic. Whitney came to me on day three and told me to go love on the people and they would clean up the pharmacy area. Her thoughtfulness was overwhelming and it didn't take much convincing for me to gather my things and find a group of kiddos. Heather gave me a sheet of stickers and the children swarmed to get a sticker on their hand. Again, something as small as a sticker with a smile meant so much and brought smiles from their precious faces that warmed my heart.

As we were loading up after clinic, a young mother approached one of the providers through translation asking for help. All of the supplies and some of the team were already loaded in vans but as they began to listen to this mother they found that God held us at clinic a few minutes longer for such a time as this. The mother was in school and so could not come to the clinic we held in her area yesterday (Friday) but walked from her home to this clinic as she was out of school on Saturday. She didn't make it until we were packing up because she walked such a long way to reach us. Her son had not urinated in four days due to two hernias and needed surgery or he would most likely die. The mother and her son loaded up in one of the vehicles and after many phone calls received surgery and follow-up care. A local pastor walked with them through this process of physical life being restored and spiritual seeds being planted.

While calls were being made I had the opportunity to pray for them and a team member got a shot of the sweet memory.

Habakkuk 1:5 The Lord replied, "Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in our own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it."

There are so many ways you can be a part of the amazing things God is doing in the nation of Kenya;