Kumbya

Mwaramutse (Good Morning),

Yesterday was an adventurous day for us. We made plans to leave Kibogora and hike to a local mission retreat about 3.5 miles away. This retreat is named Kumbya and is located on 10 acres of land that comprises a peninsula on lake Kivu. We left for our hike mid-morning carrying along with us a few snacks and plenty of water for the day. Our hike took us through an amazing landscape between the lakeshore and the surrounding mountains. The countryside contained many small huts built from mud bricks which sat on parcels of land covered with banana plants, coffee plants and various other crops. To add to the picturesque countryside we had the opportunity to interact with many people along the road. Many adults responded well as our group made attempts to greet them with in the native language of Kinyarwandan. Yet, some of the younger children would greet us in English with an enthusiastic, “Good Morning. How are you?”

We arrived at Kumbya around noon and found an open area along the lakeshore to relax and take in the scenery. We enjoyed a mid-day meal of snack bars as we watched the locals paddle canoes and fish in the lake. Our conversations drifted away from the usual subject of the economic and governmental hardships that plaque the history of this nation to the beauty of the countryside and the environmental wealth of this place.

We watched as an ominous appearing cloud approached yet refused to cut short our time on the lakeshore. As the rain began to pour down several made a break for Kibogora while a few of us stayed behind. We sat on the covered porch of an uninhabited house on the lake as the storm moved in. We laughed and talked as the storm moved though. As the rain stopped we set out for Kibogora and enjoyed a somewhat dry walk home.

- Luke

Week Two in Kibogora

For a review of some of our experiences in week two see: http://kjacksonp.blogspot.com

Hello! Well it’s mine and Lukes third full day here in Rwanda and I would say that we are adjusting well. I mean of course I’m still waking at about 1-2 oclock in the morning unable to go back to sleep so I’m pretty exhausted but other than that it’s going great. Luke and I started on the surgery team and we have been extremely busy. When we arrived we were definitely on an adrenaline rush. We were in Africa, meeting all of our friends, and ready for the adventure ahead! I can say now that the adrenaline has worn off and the tiredness has set in. I am impressed with the rest of the team and the energy and enthusiasm they are still able to put forth. I believe everyone is looking forward to a restful and rejuvenating weekend.

William and I went on a little exploring adventure today down to a local school. There is a medical student from New York, Carie, who took a sabbatical from school for a year to live here in Kibogora. She invited us to come play soccer with her and some of her friends and we were excited to be able to go. We had the basic idea of the direction to the school and after a few minor detours we found where we were supposed to be. From our complex to the school was probably about half mile walk and very steep decline down to the ”soccer field”. The children immediately swarmed William and his camera. Very shortly after we started playing we realized that a torrential downpour would be upon us soon, and also on Williams camera. We hightailed it back saving the camera but in the process almost dying ourselves. The steep decline turned into our Mount Everest and we were barely able to make it back without a lung exploding.

We are having a wonderful trip. There are many many heart breaking cases here for sure, but also some that offer hope. It’s would be easy to look at the despair and become overwhelmed and lost in the pain of the people here. But we must always remember the hope that we have in Christ. I’ll end with a verse: 

1 Peter 1:3-5; “According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

-Bryan

He is Sovereign, Even in Africa

“Sometimes working in a Third World Country makes me feel like I am emptying the ocean with an eyedropper,” Katie Davis writes in her book Kisses from Katie. I have felt that same way over the past few days while working in the peds wards at the hospital. We’ve come across so many children who suffer from illnesses that we are unable to adequately treat due to a lack of proper medication, or who are unable to be diagnosed since most diagnostic tests that we’d run in the States are unavailable here in Rwanda. I have felt rather discouraged and melancholy for the past few days as a result.

We’ve seen a 5-month-old little girl with a congenital heart defect, which will kill her soon if it is not surgically corrected – and there’s no pediatric heart surgeon available in Rwanda. We’ve seen an 8-year-old boy who’s large and small intestines are riddled with worms (his abdomen was surgically opened in an attempt to fix his suspected bowel obstruction but was promptly closed up when the extent of his parasite infestation was learned) and whose heart is extremely suspicious and odd-looking on chest X-ray. We have no idea what is wrong with him – no idea why he’s breathing funny or why his heart looks like an abnormal basketball lodged in the center of his chest. Since we have no way of diagnosing him, we don’t know how to treat him. These are just two out of several cases I’ve been sad about this week.

The extent of the illness and poverty we’ve seen here at Kibogora in the past week and half is enough to discourage even the most enthusiastic and passionate person. And yet I pray that the discouragement would last only for a little while. I hear God saying, “Keep going! Keep loving! Keep praying!” He loves me. And He loves these people. He has promised to never leave or forsake us – not even. And my work over here IS important, even if I feel that I’m not making any significant contributions. When I spent a few minutes praying with the young lady in the surgical ICU, whose hands were burned so badly after having a seizure and falling into a fire pit that she required several finger amputations, I begged the Lord to reveal in her heart the promise that He made to us in Revelation 21:5 – “Behold, I am making all things new!” This world is not our home and these transient, broken shells are not our permanent bodies, amen!

I wonder why so may people are born into poverty and into a poor country where “basic” medical care and treatment are unavailable? I think about all of the resources that we as Americans have at our disposal, and all of the people here in Rwanda and in other parts of the world who don’t have access to certain treatments for their illnesses, or who can barely afford to feed their families each night. I KNOW that God did not create too many people and neglect to provide enough resources for His children. So I guess that most of the guilt for a lot of the world’s poverty lies on our shoulders...

And yet, in the midst of all of the poverty and illness and neglect, God is sovereign still. Even in Africa. He ordained the times and the places that each of us would live, before the beginning of the world (Acts 17:26). He is our Shepherd. Not “was”, not “may be”, not “will be.” He IS. “Is” in America and “is” in Rwanda… I’m not a failure if I can’t fix every child’s problem(s) while I’m here for the next two weeks. I’m not here to eliminate poverty or to eradicate disease or to put a stop to people abandoning babies. I’m just here to love. And to be able to do that, to show Christ’s love to a hurting baby or an anxious mama, is such an incredible blessing. And it is enough, for now. Come for Your bride soon, my Jesus. She is ready for you.  

Britni

“Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

“There will be times in life when it will appear as though His promises fail you; they don’t seem to be answered in accordance with your expectation. During these times of testing, your faith must rest in WHO He says He is rather than your understanding of what He has promised. You are best served trusting His character.” – Walter Henrichson 

Broken Hearted

Mwiriwe! Good afternoon!  I apologize for the late post, but the Internet was down

yesterday afternoon.It has been a good week and a half here at Kibogora Hospital so far. Ihave to admit that after the exhausting journey here, I had to remindmyself why I was on this trip. One of my goals is to get to know someof the patients and to try to understand what their lives are like.This past Thursday I spent the afternoon in the men's internalmedicine ward talking to a patient who speaks English fairly well. Hegave me permission to share his story with everyone back home.Emmanuel is in his early twenties and is being seen at the hospitalfor depression and headaches related to his glaucoma. Emmanuel'sparents both died of complications related to HIV. His father died in2003 and his mother died a few years ago. Since that time he and histhree brothers have been taking care of themselves with greatdifficulty. They currently don't have any place to live and Emmanuelis staying in the hospital until one of his brothers is able to bringmoney so that he can pay his hospital bill. He also has thecomplication of having glaucoma, and since medications aren't alwaysavailable in places like this, we don't have any medication to treathis glaucoma. My heart really breaks for Emmanuel because of hissituation, but the sweet thing is that Emmanuel still has hope thanksto his salvation through Christ. Emmanuel shared with me that when heis having a tough time, he just turns to Christ and his spirit islifted and he has strength to carry on.Please pray for Emmanuel. Pray that he and his brothers are able toprovide for themselves and for their safety.I also encourage everyone back home to realize that you don't have tobe doing missions halfway around the world to have a broken heart forthose less fortunate than you. A word of encouragement and a prayer gosuch a long way towards making a difference in someone's life.Please continue to pray for our team. We have a little over one weekleft here at Kibogora before we start preparing to return home. We areall starting to feel the exhaustion set in, so pray that our rest willbe refreshing so that we can finish strong next week.

Witch Doctors

Muraho everyone!  This is Brannon, and I’m having another wonderful day in Rwanda, working at Kibagora Hospital.  So far this trip has been very exciting and I certainly hope it has been beneficial for the people of Rwanda.  After scrubbing in on an exploratory laparotomy on our first day, I have been working on the internal medicine service.  We’ve had several interesting cases, including neurosyphilis and tuberculous peritonitis, however, one of the things I have been most impressed and frustrated by is prevalence of problems caused by the so called “traditional healers”, or what is more appropriately called “witch doctors”. 

Among the medical problems we’ve encountered on internal medicine have been acute renal failure in one man named John, who presented with severe respiratory distress as his body tried to correct the metabolic acidosis his kidney failure was producing.  The first time we saw him he was sitting up in bed, looking quite uncomfortable, breathing in short quick pants like a dog in the heat of summer, barely able to speak, and his legs were both intensely swollen up to about mid-thigh.  After ruling out several of the most likely conditions, and after repeated questioning of him and his wife, we discovered that he had recently visited one of the illustrious traditional healers.  After discussing with two of the physicians who have been working here for awhile, I came to learn that many of the herbs and potions given by these traditional healers often cause such problems as acute kidney injury.

This was my first encounter with the adverse effects caused by these traditional healers, but it was not and will not be my last.  Another patient came in in excruciating pain, which was determined to be urinary retention caused by the wonderful medicines of the traditional healers.  Numerous other patients I have examined have had many small uniform scars on their abdomen, which I learned were the scars of “therapeutic cutting” by the traditional healers.  Another example was a patient of Dr. Peevy’s who was a three or four day old infant that had a large skin lesion on the center of the chest which was most likely inflicted by a traditional healer.

As frustrating as these problems are, I suppose we should be thankful that the patients are still trusting enough of us here at the hospital after the traditional healers have failed.  The reason being that many of the traditional healers actively subvert the efforts of medical professionals by warning them not to go to the hospital because we will hurt them and do more harm than good, ironically enough.

                Brannon

A Spirit of Love

Muraho! It’s been a week since we have arrived in Kibogora. Even though it’s been such a short time I have already fallen in love not only with the people of Kibogora, but my team as well. I was nervous about joining such a close group of friends; however, that quickly changed. From morning devotions to late night catch phrase, I have enjoyed every moment with this group. It is evident they all love each other, and everyone has been a Godly example to me.  The leadership of this group is amazing.  Dr. Peevy and his wife, Micki, have taught me so much in the NICU/PEDS rounds the past week. I’m eager for my surgery rounds with Dr. Albertson and Jean Claude next week. God has really blessed us with a great team.

Like I said I have been doing my rounds with Dr. Peevy and Dr. Ngoy, one of the local doctors.  I was overwhelmed by the sickness. There were so many patients with problems that would never have gotten this far in the States. Innocent babies are dying almost daily. It’s a different world here. Pictures don’t begin to show the sickness and brokenness of this country. I am praying for the Lord to make His name known and not only physically heal these people, but heal and transform their hearts.  During the past week we have seen many cases you would never imagine seeing in the States. Traditional Medicine is very popular in the African culture; however, the traditional healers typically hurt rather than help. Today we had a baby who had been burned on the chest by a traditional healer and the burn is now extremely infected. It is also common to see scars all over a baby’s abdomen, and sometimes face. It’s difficult for me to see these children suffer when it could be so easily avoided. Even though it is challenging, it has caused me to trust in the Lord’s sovereignty.

            For this trip I am praying for several things. First, I am praying for boldness for our team. 2 Timothy 1:7 states, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”. Second, I am praying for hearts to be changed. Not only the hearts of the Rwandans, but the hearts of our team as well. Third, I am praying we will never forget how lost we were in our sin and how gracious the Lord was to rescue us from death and exchange that fate with eternal life with Him forever.

In Christ,

Caroline