Brief History

I've been getting a lot of questions about our trip, so I thought I'd give everyone a brief history on how we chose to go to Kenya.

About 8-9 months ago, Mitch was doing some research and discovered that more people die in Kenya of cancer that any other cause. He also discovered that there are only 3 medical Oncologists in the entire country (we have 5 in our "small" town of Wenatchee). That was enough of a tug on his heart to consider a medical mission to that country to see how he could help. When he approached me about it I was totally on board. We have been long time supporters of Franklin Grahm's Samaritan's Purse and have participated in Operation Christmas Child for many years. Mitch contacted them and through their organization "World Medical Missions" the trip was arranged. We did have to wait awhile for the go ahead for Kenya as there was still some unrest in that country at the time.( that gave us some time to get all the vaccinations we needed for the trip!!) Since things have gotten better, we feel that this is where God is leading us.

Mitch will be filling in for one of the Internal Medicine missionary Docs, who will be taking some time off at Kijabe Hospital, a 200 bed mission hospital/compound located above the Great Rift Valley. There is also another Hospital-Bethany Children's for "special needs" children-burn victims, cleft lips, etc, etc. (you can guess where I will be serving!!). We will be staying in a guest home and will be fortunate to have running water and electricity through a generator. There will be many adjustments to what we have become accustomed (spoiled) but we are up for the change.

Mitch is already making contacts on bringing Oncology over there, so a future trip seems inevitable!

We are not going through our local church, nor going with a "group" it's just us! It's going to be quite a journey and experience and we are looking forward to it very much. We can't express enough how much your prayers mean to us. We are also praying that God use us to bring glory to Him.

I still don't know exactly what I'll be doing on a day to day basis, but I have NO doubt that God will show me and that the need will be apparent. That seems to be the way I work best anyway. We've been told by all who have gone to serve in Africa that the needs are so great that there is always something to do. God will put me exactly where he wants me!

I hope that this gives you an idea of how we came about this journey. We look forward to you joining us in prayer and blogs and will cherish your response and interaction, especially as we are half way around the world!

Love and Blessings,
Amy