As I prepared for the World Race, so many people asked me “Will you be doing any nursing on this trip?”. My general response was that, while the World Race is not a medical trip in nature, I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to completely avoid nursing altogether. From my experience, the moment somebody finds out that you have a background in nursing, you will be put to work in some capacity. I felt confident that I would have opportunities to use my nursing knowledge as I travel the world. That opportunity came this week…
Though our typical ministry days in Kenya have consisted of visiting schools and speaking to/ counseling the students, we had a different kind of ministry opportunity this week. We were welcomed into a local clinic run by an organization called “Kenya Relief”. This local clinic often hosts medical teams from the United States who will provide intensive short-term care. This week, the clinic was run by a team of opthalmic surgeons who performed over 150 cataract surgeries within three days. Hundreds of other patients visited the American team in order to have a variety of general medical problems addressed.
Team Wellspring spent two days assisting the medical team in any way that they needed. Daniel and Brittany Priess performed hundreds of eye exams for local residents. Jenny helped fill prescriptions for the pharmacy team while Brittany Cox, our resident social worker, assisted with making home visits for the local orphanage (also run by Kenya Relief). Justin and I worked in what was essentially the “treatment/medication administration” room. After each patient had been assessed, they would come to our room to receive whatever treatment had been prescribed. Many of them included wound dressings, drainages, or the administration of IM or IV medications. Justin, who thankfully is a quick learner, would draw up the prescribed medication and then send the patient my way so that I could administer the treatment. I even had the opportunity to aspirate a pretty significant thyroid abscess (I know that may not sound like fun to many people, but believe me, it was). I can’t lie, those couple days really made me miss you ladies at ARMC:)
I was so impressed with the Kenya Relief organization and the work that they are doing in Isibania. Kenya Relief was started in 2002 by Steve, a nurse anesthetist from Alabama after the tragic death of his daughter, Brittney. During Brittney’s life, she sponsored a young child named Newton in Kenya, and following her death, Steve made the trip to visit Newton himself. On his trip, he was overwhelmed by the vast needs of the region, and consequently started Kenya Relief. In 2004, Kenya Relief opened the Marindi Children’s Home of Grace (also known as Brittney’s House), which serves as the home of almost ninety orphans. In recent years, Kenya Relief also opened the medical and dental clinic which we had the opportunity to work at this week. Kenya Relief focuses on serving in five main arenas: orphans, widows, health, education, and spiritual ministry.
Working with Kenya Relief, I was reminded of James’ definition of true religion; a definition that I feel this organization fully embodies. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27).
If you would like to support Kenya Relief in any way, please visit kenyarelief.org.
