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.

On occasion something comes up and we let people know about opportunities to give money. It's unlikely that we do that in the way everyone would prefer, but we try very hard to do it "right" - whatever that means.

Right now we have a need. We came back to the US this fall fully funded. However, financial challenges have led some to reduce or stop their financial support of our monthly costs to remain at Tenwek. This is relatively new information to us and though we kept it to ourselves largely, it seems important to share with those who have supported us in various ways to know this need.

To return to our fully funded status and fly home to Tenwek on January 7th as scheduled, we need a total of $900 more per month. 

If you aren’t already, would you prayerfully consider joining our team and taking on a portion of that cost?  Email if you have questions or click here to donate.

Gratefully,
the Ganeys

We have just finished our first HMA (home ministry assignment) and are getting settled back at Tenwek.  There are so many ways to do HMA, different lengths, different strategies.  We are still processing our time as we get settled back home here in Kenya.  Thank you to those who prayed us through our traveling and transitions.  While we continue to get our feet, I wanted to share some thoughts from Eden...

We asked Eden if she'd be willing to share her thoughts about being a missionary here.  When we've been traveling, we have been pleasantly surprised at how excited she is to talk about her experiences.  She's got a lot to say about it....

What do you miss the most about Kenya?
"Friends, the warm air and room to run and get exercise in."

Where is your favorite place to be in Kenya?
"At the lower field on the Tenwek compound."

What's the hardest and the best thing about being missionary kid?
"The hardest is, when you get to the place you are going overseas to, you become different.  You come to love it there.  But when you are in the USA you change back to the old you.  And you want to be the Kenya you.  The best is, when you are in the US, you get to be the center of attention all year."

What characteristics of Kenya have become part of you?
"Drinking chai, waking up at sunrise and I am used to being hot."

What did you think of your first HMA?
"It was pretty hard in America.  Nothing really felt familiar anymore.  And I really missed friends from Kenya.  I did like getting to see my family again, especially my cousins.  I really had fun at Christmastown in VA and at Yankee Candle Factory.  And I did love dying my own candles."

We are pretty proud of this girl.  She's been brave in sharing about her experiences and talking to groups without shying away.  She must get that public speaking gene from her father. 

We were now being contacted to see what could be done. Her last operation was just weeks before and already the tumor had regrown as seen in the photo above (with permission). I spoke to the last surgeon who had operated on her. He had done a great job but yet it came right back. She hadn’t been to school in a few years due to the pain and difficulty eating and walking. Her life was incredibly challenging. You can see it in her face in the photo...

So I phoned a friend. One of the world’s experts on this type of tumor in children. He didn’t have a suggestion but referred me to another colleague. She too was unsure what to do but suggested another colleague. I happened to have met this last surgeon before and emailed her. She replied right away. She knew what the problem was. She had seen it before. It was very rare. But she could help.

Traveling to this specialist (one of a few in the world who have done what this child needed) would be very expensive. Could we possibly do this at Tenwek??? The surgeon later confessed that when she received my email asking her to come, she felt God tell her to go. So she said “yes”. The organization who contacted me offered to pay for the costs. A list of needed resources was generated and I began to see what we could pull together. I managed about 80%. She said it was enough. Could we possibly fit this into a two day window when the surgeon would have some vacation days?

Grace had endured an incredible operation. The visiting surgeon along with myself and our chief resident spent so many hours carefully removing this tumor. It was very challenging. Then we infused warmed chemotherapy into her abdomen to hopefully prevent the tumor from regrowing. Now she needed to survive the effects of the chemotherapy and recover from this huge insult to her little body intended to help her.

Six weeks. It took six weeks for Grace to recover at Tenwek. There were many challenges. Our team at Tenwek faithfully cared for her day after day. I would come by and try to encourage her and her mom - but the interpreter had to return to their home country as her own daughter had fallen ill (she’s ok now). So without the ability to have extensive communication, we would simply pray together. I can’t imagine what her mom was thinking during that long, long wait.

When Grace was finally ready to leave Tenwek, our chief resident Mark took this picture with her. The former interpreter’s husband then flew to Kenya and came out to Tenwek to escort Grace and her mom back home. Upon arriving there, her mom went straight to their church to thank God. Their village was amazed to see Grace. They assumed she had died after such a long time. So they too were thanking God for bringing her back to them. It sounds like a celebration I would have enjoyed...

Grace is now home. She sent this photo of herself to say “Thank you”. She is so excited. She now wants to get back to school and study. Maybe God will allow her to become a doctor, she wrote, as he used doctors to give her back her life.

*photos with permission

We are gearing up for the Missions Conference at Loudonville Community Church in New York starting this Sunday.  If you are in the area this coming Sunday or the next, come on over!!  There will be great speakers and lots of missionaries from all over the world. We'd love to see you!