Guest author- Dr. Andrea Parker

​Diana’s smile is amazing. I met Diana in August. But, it took until quite recently for me to see that smile.

Before I share Diana’s story, I want to briefly introduce some background on story-telling. In the past few years here at Tenwek, I have learned the difficulty in sharing someone’s story, especially with attention to the different contexts from which we come. I have found this to be true in sharing my own story but find it especially difficult in appropriately conveying another’s experiences. Especially when involving injustice, it can be difficult to fairly tell a story without worsening biases a reader may already have about the subject or topics of the story. Again, this can be a particularly challenging aspect of sharing a story that crosses cultures. 
I also need to say that Diana’s story is really difficult to share. It is unfair and full of injustices. I have done my best to share her story in a way that brings dignity and honors the image of God in all persons involved without cheapening or minimizing her trauma or that of those who have gone through similar experiences. Diana has eagerly given her full permission for this story to be shared and for the pictures that celebrate God’s work in her life and our participation in and witness to that work to be a part of the story. Telling this story is a collaborative effort. I have written the story from my perspective; Julie Ganey, whose role in this story through her work with Tabitha Ministry was incredible, took all the pictures. Together, we pray that the words and pictures convey the “beauty from ashes” that is this story.

​Injuries are a huge part of what we see as doctors at Tenwek. In addition to accidental injuries, many injuries are intentionally-inflicted, perhaps due to land disputes or livestock ownership issues or in situations of domestic violence. Diana was admitted in August with severe head injuries, deep cuts through the skin and bone such that the brain was visible, as well as multiple other deep cuts and injuries to her back and arms and amputation of two of her fingers. These were violent injuries, clearly meant to do serious damage or cause death. Diana was brought in several hours after her injuries, and immediately taken to the operating room, where her wounds were washed out and repaired. Her physical wounds, that is.
Over the next several days, we began to see that as severe as Diana’s physical wounds were, equal in severity were the non-physical wounds. And those wounds cannot be sewn together and repaired in a few hours of time in an operating room. Diana struggled to eat. She was tearful. She would not make eye contact. She rarely spoke and relied on her sister to answer questions; I did not even realize she spoke English.
We began to hear parts of Diana’s story – she had been injured by a man, not her husband as she is not married. It was not the first time; she had old scars. She was scared. Over several days to weeks, we prayed for her on our team rounds, and we spent time with her later in the afternoons. We felt a deep desire for her to know her worth, both to us and to a God who loves her with an incomprehensibly immense love. We wanted her to know that she was deeply cherished. Our chaplains and social worker came and met with her, and over the course of those few weeks, she came to know the radical love of Jesus who cares so profoundly about each of us.
As we began to make plans for her discharge from the hospital, we had questions. Was it safe for her to return home? Did she have a community to support her? How could she better understand who Jesus is and how God can work in her life?
Throughout our few years here, Bob and I have seen numerous examples where the ideal person is available at a time when their particular, unique skill or expertise is needed. For instance, a patient with a complex vascular problem is here the one week of the year that we have a vascular surgeon available. In these times, we have become deeply grateful for and found a new appreciation in the way that God uses the Body of Christ – our various gifts, desires, enjoyments, strengths – for His glory. We have become keenly aware of our own small part in this picture. While most often I’ve seen this happen through medical providers, in this situation, God used Tabitha Ministry and some other missionary and Kenyan friends.
Tabitha Ministry (https://www.wgm.org/project/tabitha) is a ministry to Kenyan women in the area surrounding Tenwek Hospital. It started out of a home Bible study but has grown to a network of thousands of women learning the Bible and caring for one another. It was started by a missionary friend, Linda, and a Kenyan woman, Peris ROtich. As Diana was in the hospital, I reached out to Linda, Peris, and another friend who works with Tabitha, Julie, in hopes that they could meet with Diana so that perhaps she could be connected to a group of women from Tabitha, near her home, who might be able to provide continued support and encouragement. God used the Tabitha leaders in beautiful and wonderful ways to minister to Diana, and I began to hear more of Diana’s story through them.

​Diana is one of eight daughters and no sons. Had she been born into a family with sons, likely her life would have been much different. If she had a brother, as her parents aged, they would have been cared for by a son and daughter-in-law. Instead, Diana was chosen to stay with her parents and care for them, both as a financial provider and for their daily needs. Diana is a teacher, and her home is on the same plot of land as her mother and father’s.
Diana is not allowed to marry. As an unmarried woman, Diana is vulnerable, lacking the protection a husband would afford her. And there are men in her community who take advantage of her vulnerability. She has three children with two fathers. A particular man in her community, the father of two of her children, periodically comes to her house to spend the night, and at least once prior to this story, he has abused her violently enough to leave scars. 
One morning, as he prepared to leave the house, he suddenly turned violent, taking a machete and attacking her, even as she tried to run away. Leaving the house, she screamed for the neighbors before she collapsed, and he escaped. The neighbors came, and when they saw the severity of her injuries, they assumed she was dead; she scared them when she asked them to take her to the hospital. The first hospital they took her to saw how bad her injuries were and wouldn’t even allow her into the hospital, sending her instead on to Tenwek with a blanket to soak up some of the blood. Tenwek is an hour and a half of very bumpy dirt roads from her house. Diana said she didn’t even feel the trauma of the ride as she was unconscious.
As the women from Tabitha talked to Diana, they were able to share personal experiences and situations and encourage her in her newfound faith. They spent hours over several days with her acknowledging her trauma, allowing her to talk and process the situation, and hearing her fears. They prayed, shared scripture, and sang songs with Diana before her discharge. And they arranged for Diana to have women visit her at her home through a Tabitha group nearer to her. I am so very grateful for the time these women spent pouring into the life of another woman.
A little over a week ago, Julie, Peris, and I had the opportunity, along with several women from Tabitha who joined us at various points on the journey, to visit Diana in her home. We met her parents and children and had a beautiful time of hearing Diana’s story. She related that in that moment as she was escaping, as she was fearing for her life, she just cried out to God, that he would forgive her and forgive this man. Hearing her say that reminded me of Christ on the cross. She said she had heard about Jesus all her life but had never known him until she was in the hospital. 

​Diana and her family told us of the many ways in which God intervened on her behalf that day and the way He has changed her life since. Her family was supposed to be away, yet their plans had changed, and they were around. In this very remote area, a car just happened to be passing by the neighbor’s house, and the driver offered to drive her to the hospital for no charge. When they arrived at Tenwek, Diana’s mother was told that she would need a blood transfusion and also given an estimate of the cost of the hospitalization and surgery. She was overwhelmed wondering where she would find family to donate blood and money to pay. She happened to run into another relative who was at the hospital for an unrelated reason, and that relative organized family members to donate blood and contribute to the cost of her care. She talked about God’s work in her life including the way that He has miraculously taken away her fear, her nightmares, her anger and her bitterness and her shame. We shared chai (Kenyan tea) and songs and prayer and hugs. 
I will not pretend to understand why these things happen or why sometimes evil seems to prevail in this world or give easy answers. Nor do I want to naively overlook or simplify the trauma that she or others have experienced. But, I do know that God’s work in Diana’s life is obvious. Her smile is not one of naivete or ignorance or denial. Her smile is that of someone who knows the love of God in a real way.

If you are interested in buying gifts this year that go a bit further, here are some of the options in our neck of the woods.

Above left: Vanessa. Above right: Travis
Below: Semenai standing with her dad.
     After arriving at Charles and Agnes’ house, we continued another two hard hours in the car to the home of Semenai, Mike’s patient.  It was quite an experience for all of us.  We traveled with the surgical resident, Kiniga, who had helped Mike with the case.  Even having grown up in Kenya, he was having as much culture shock as some of us were.​

 This little girl was a patient of Mike's last week. A three year old little girl from Samburu who had a cleft lip that Mike and our team just repaired. At the age of three. Mama, about 18-ish the nurse guessed because she didn't know how old she was, became a christian about a month ago.  A local Kenyan missionary and pastor who used to work at Tenwek visited her and showed interest in her child who was said and believed to be cursed.  

The pastor said she wasn't cursed, and that there was a doc at Tenwek who could fix and fund this operation, just bring the girl.  So she did.  And she was beautiful! (Unfortunately, she took a face plant on the ward the day before and so had a bit of blood there for the pic.)

How a newborn could survive without adequate nutrition in a very remote area is purely God's grace.  We are so encouraged ourselves when we get to play a small role in showing Jesus' love and tender care to others.  It reminds us of His love for and care for us.  When we have stories like these to tell of God's faithfulness, these are good days.

"Yet I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13

Thank you to all who support us being here to help such children and families as this. It was our team's finances that paid for her care. Asante sana!

*As always, photos taken and used with mom's signed permission.  While it would show the transformation better to share a picture before surgery, we feel it best to leave that out. Perhaps we'll get the chance in the future to update her photo without the bloody lip from falling while playing!

by Julie

You know how sometimes you come in contact with someone who just raises the bar so high, you can't really see it anymore?  This is a story about a woman like that.  Her name is Betty.

We recently went to visit Betty in her home about an hour from Tenwek.  Its rainy season now so the walking can be messy and take much longer than usual.  So we drove about halfway there, had to park the vehicle, and then continue the rest of the way on foot.

Betty is one of the first women that the Tabitha Ministry built a house for so Peris and Linda know her well. But I had never met her before this day. (Betty is in the orange skirt)

She told us a story of the difficult life she has lived, pointing continuously to the love and redemption of Jesus.  Even in the telling, her story was hard.  Its not easy to talk about one's weakness and hardships in front of new faces, but she did so willingly because she wanted us to know that the Lord is her strength.  

​She served served us chai and bread and we sang together before leaving.

It had rained pretty hard while we were there so the muddy paths we had walked to get there were a whole new level of mess.  As we started to get ourselves together to go, I heard a bit of chatter that seemed urgent.  Betty had noticed that Eden was wearing flip flops that would be really troublesome on the walk and was yelling to her daughter to run back to the house and get Eden a different pair of shoes.

There were so many children that belonged to her and her neighbors all around us. Very few had shoes.  Most were barefoot.  But she wanted to make sure her visitors had shoes that would be good for walking.  That kind of sacrificial love stings your eyes and catches your throat.  After all that we just heard from her, she still has a heart that is unreservedly generous in a world that has taken so much from her.

It was convicting and inspiring all at the same time.  The bar for following Jesus and loving like He does was raised significantly that day.  I'm so glad we went instead of staying home because of the rain.  It was like going to church. Only better.

(I feel the need to mention that we did NOT take the shoes....)

A while ago we had written about a house project that we inherited from another missionary family that moved back to the states.  Well, its been a long, hard but good journey and the house is finally finished!!

This past Friday we had an open house/house dedication/welcoming the community in.  It was a blast.  Lots of people, lots of smiles.  I'm not sure what part was more fun, having everyone here or being in the kitchen when 9 million mandazis were being made.  Someone would stop by for something and stop in the kitchen and watch the work and then put their two cents in about the process.  I loved it!!

Thank you to those who contributed towards new housing at Tenwek.  Its great to be part of the growth and expansion here.  And its even more fun to have the community in to celebrate with us.

A couple of weeks ago we had asked for prayers for a baby who had emergency surgery while weighing only a pound and a half.  After a couple of weeks of struggling, he ultimately died this past weekend.  Thank you for your prayers for him.  Please continue as the parents, and even staff, grieve.

Tenwek lost one of it's buildings Friday night due to a terrible fire. It was a crazy night and not one many of us will soon forget.

​Our kitchen that fed our patients and the restaurant that fed our staff and visitors are both gone. The Wound Ward is also gone along with Statistics, our Visiting Staff offices (where we coordinate so many doctors/nurses/trainees/and many others) and other offices. The laundry room and sterilizing room were affected but the machines themselves seem OK. These two rooms are a huge resource for us to enable us to keep patients in clean gowns and beds while preparing sterile equipment for whatever procedures they have come to us for.

The real story though is God's grace and the community who make up Tenwek.

Amazingly we didn't have a single person on a ventilator that night. Lately that's a very rare night. While many people needed oxygen, we were able to move them to other places temporarily where they could receive that life saving help away from the fire. Later, we moved them back. Amazing grace.

A tiny child was undergoing open heart surgery with a visiting pediatric cardiac surgery team. It was an incredibly challenging case that lasted 7 hours. How they kept going while the hospital was burning is incredible. And the equipment/power that worked along with them. The child is alive and doing well today. Amazing grace.

Upon seeing the fire (which lit up Tenwek's hillside for a long way), people ran TOWARD the fire to help. Patients were wisked out of wound ward to safety. Then anything flammable was taken out of the building to try and limit the fire. Incredibly that included gas cylinders that fueled various items. People were carrying propane tanks while embers fell all around them. Had those tanks exploded they certainly would have been killed. But had they left them the fire likely would have crossed the street to one of the residents' apartment buildings where families with babies stay, or crossed into our church, or gone the other way into the boiler room where a huge amount of fuel sits. Had that been involved, the devastation would have been horrible. Brave souls putting themselves in harms way to save others.

I wasn't included in that group. I was having a wonderful night with our two kids camping in our backyard while Julie was away for the weekend. It wasn't until our neighbors' kids found us and told me about the fire that I left the kids next door and ran to the hospital. At this point it was the controlled chaos of keeping our patients safe as the fire was extinguished. Tenuous oxygen supplies in temporary locations left us with the challenge of when to bring the patients back to the hospital and our more robust oxygen supply (highly flammable for those who don't know). 

I was impressed by our community - hospital staff and the surrounding community, doctors/nurses/students/guards/administrators, Kenyans and expats, new and longstanding Tenwek people, senior staff and teens... it was incredible to see. Just running out of my house, I had a maze of abandoned cars, trucks, motorcycles to weave thru as I went up the hill to the hospital. So many had seen the blaze and came to help.

Today we gathered in our local church just 20 feet from the site of the fire. Several people cleared the remaining debris out of the entrance so we could all safely enter. One of the fire hoses was still crossing the path and into a window of the burned building - so it had to be moved for our church members to come in... It was a sobering reminder of all that had happened just the day before.

And yet we celebrated together. God had kept everyone safe. Everyone. Patients, staff, our neighbors who came to help. And we could tangibly see the community that God has built at Tenwek. It's an honor to be serving here.

Donate to the Emergency Fire Fund

​Many questions are unanswered at this time but Dr. Stephen Burgert, Medical Superintendent, has expressed appreciation for your prayers and Praise to God for His provision.
If you would like to make a donation to the Emergency Fire Fund, click the link above.
100% of all donations will go directly for the critical needs at Tenwek Hospital.
Friends of Tenwek is a non-profit support for Tenwek through which many projects have been undertaken to serve the patients and community of Tenwek. All donations are tax deductible in the USA.