21 Oct. 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

I wanted to write today for two reasons. First to ask for prayers for Michael. Michael was discharged this past Mon. and returned to Nairobi on Tuesday to prepare to take his secondary school state exams (they take three weeks). On Thurs. he began vomiting, had frequent urination, extreme thirst and hunger and in 5 days lost 6 Kg. He took a matatu back to Maua on Fri. arriving around 10pm. His blood sugar level was extremely high and he was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Newly Diagnosed Diabetes Type I. With IV fluids and insulin his Blood sugar was lowered and today he was discharged to return to Nairobi with either his wife or Florence, our house helper and his mother, to begin the exam tomorrow. Obviously he needs all our prayers. He is on an oral medication for his diabetes which we are all praying can control his blood sugar for the next three weeks when he will return here and learn all about diabetes. Florence's mom is a Type II diabetic so Florence understands about diabetes. Michael so desperately wants to take the exam because if he doesn't take it now he has to wait a full year. We are very concerned. I spent some of this morning talking to Michael and Florence and have been in my office printing material about diabetes that I think he would need in the next three weeks.
Please pray for his health and his ability to take the exam.

The second reason is Bill and I received a message that Scott Hickman, a member of the St. Luke's UMC mission work team from Midland, TX, wrote about his experience in Kenya. Bill and I were so touched by what he said and how he said it, we thought we would send it to all of you. We pray it speaks to your heart as it has to ours.

A LEFT TURN TO REALITY

(Scott Hickman)

On September 6th 16 St. Luke’s United Methodist Church members departed Midland for a Mission work trip to Kenya. Twenty-four hours later we arrived in Nairobi and the next morning headed north into the unknown. Over the next several weeks St. Luke’s will hear accounts of our trip from various team members. This is my reflection on the meaning of that experience for me.

The long trip from Nairobi to Maua presented a marvelous panorama of changing terrain, exotic vegetation and small villages crowded on market day. The road was lined with oxen and donkey drawn carts along with men on bikes and women on foot carrying unbelievable large bundles. It was obvious that the people were poor, living in small huts without running water or electricity. Most scratched out a living from a small farm plot and many tried to raise cash by selling produce in a roadside stall . . . , we were tourists in a van and it was a grand spectacle.

We then arrived at the edge of Maua and turned left off the paved highway down a narrow dirt track littered with garbage and crowded with people, foraging cows and goats. After three bone-jarring blocks we stopped in front of a small white building - the Maua Basin Hotel - home for the next week. Our little band of would-be missionaries was speechless. We expected to see widespread poverty but not such squalor and certainly not to be staying in the middle of it. A rude welcome to the reality of Sub-Sahara Africa.

We quickly sought refuge in the hotel which provided small but livable rooms for two with part-time electricity, running water and unique showers. After breakfast the next morning (Sunday) we gathered for what became a daily routine, walking five blocks on a barely passable street through indescribable filth to the Maua Methodist Hospital Compound. We hardened our resolve and headed out. It was women’s day at St. Joseph’s Methodist Church on the Compound grounds. We attended a three-hour service in Swahili that featured enthusiastic singing and unfettered praise of God. What the service lacked in a formal liturgy it made up for in spontaneous spirituality. As we started back toward the hotel, the thought occurred to me that these narrow dirt streets with open sewage ditches were similar to those that Jesus trod in Palestine 2000 years ago. This insight helped me to look past the squalor and see fellow human beings. To my surprise whenever I greeted anyone along the way, regardless of age, gender and circumstances, they would smile broadly and return the greeting.
During the work week the routine was an early breakfast and then we walked to the Methodist Compound for chapel at 7:30 a.m. Afterward we divided into work teams for duties around the hospital or the house building project which involved a rough 30 minute drive to a jungle clearing at the edge of an obscure little village. Here under the supervision of a Kenyan foreman we worked along side three young Kenyan laborers and constructed a two room, tinned roofed house in four days. The whole team along with hospital staff and many local villagers gathered Thursday afternoon to dedicate the house. Larry Crumpton presented the keys to the proud new owners - a mother confined to a wheelchair, three young boys and a father aged far beyond his years. We encircled the house to bless it and those who would live there.

It had been a long tiring day both physically and emotionally. I fell asleep early but woke in the middle of the night - my mind sorely troubled. We each had our own reasons for coming to Kenya. For me it was not only a desire to serve and a curiosity about Christianity in a different culture, it was also a search for a vague something.

I am like so many middle class Americans who are secure physically, socially and economically, yet have difficulty finding spiritual fulfillment in their lives. This spiritual failing is manifested in the continued decline of mainline churches. But Methodism is not declining in Kenya. As I lay awake, experiences of the last few days filled my mind. A couple from Kansas City, conducting an AIDS orphans program in Meru, told us: "The Methodist are the only ones doing it right in Kenya." A team member sharing her experience of going with a social worker on a home visit 'with the Giving Hope program' ended with an emotional, "I’m so proud to be a Methodist."

What is Methodism in Kenya "doing right" that makes one proud? In the big picture, the

Meru/Maua Area contains the Maua Hospital, the Bio-Intense Agriculture Training Farm and Kenya Methodist University all-important institutions with outreach programs that impact many lives. There are also numerous Methodist churches in the area and if the dynamic pastor we met in Meru is any example they too are impacting the community.

For me it was personally seeing Matthew 25 come to life in a jungle clearing. Surely that little family was the least of the least. I was reminded of the story in Matthew 11 when John the Baptist disciples asked Jesus if he was the long awaited One. His reply - look around, what do you see, the blind have sight and the lame walk. This is literally what happens daily at Maua Methodist Hospital.

The great commission in Matthew 28:19 has been the inspiration for missionary evangelism for two thousand years. Certainly no one comes to Christ without hearing the gospel preached. But historically Methodism has interpreted this command from the wider perspective of Jesus’ call to compassionate service in Matthew 25 that has resulted in thousands of schools and hospitals being built around the world. In the affluent western world we no longer feel dependent upon the grace of God for our daily bread or shelter or medical care. A homeless, crippled wife in desperation asked God for a miracle and in her eyes one occurred in the form of some strangers from St. Luke’s. In the cynical west we don’t expect miracles and would interpret this event differently.

I saw glimpses of the Kingdom of God in the Kenya in acts of love and compassion toward others. Are we able to see evidence of God’s Kingdom in Midland? St. Luke’s motto is sound theology, but there is no cheap grace. Are we truly growing in Christ - learning daily to bend our wills to God’s purpose? That is the only way we will ever make a difference.

In His grip,

Jerri & Bill Savuto
savuto@maf.or.ke
Maua Methodist Hospital
Box 63, Maua 60600
Meru North, Kenya

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." - Einstein