BACK IN NAIROBI FOR A WEEK

I got the vehicle safely to Nairobi after the staff retreat at Archer's Post. It was a good week there together and we had a special surprise of getting into Samburu National Reserve 3 times for free as a group. Some of our staff have distant relatives in charge at the park! They were thrilled to see so much wildlife, especially elephants, giraffe and lions. Some even saw some animals they had never seen in their lives like wild dogs and water buck. The spiritual talks centered on having a personal spiritual retreat and how to have assurance of salvation. The in service speaker focused on financial management. Yolanda gave a talk to the nurses on how to come to a diagnosis with patients presenting with abdominal pain and the staff had a meeting to plan March activities. I went away this last weekend with Kathleen Lutz to Lake Naivasha area to Crater Lake Lodge. It was a beautiful get away and very peaceful. Enjoyed watching Kathleen see her first African animals on our game drive. Now I am busy getting shopping done in Nairobi for the dispensary and getting our newer pickup through the inspection process. I am staying at Cedar Road again for 3 nights with the Samburu family who live there now and are renting it from the ELCK. It is kind of fun to be there again. Of course they have oodles of relatives living with them and I am not really sure where they all slept at night as they gave me the bedroom at the top of the stairs on the left to myself. This is a family I know from Ngurunit - Joseph Learamo and his wife and 3 young children (plus all the others). Joseph worked with our dispensary for over a year and he now has a nice new government job with the African Union and heads up the disability program for several East African countries. His office is just in Westlands and his wife works for NHIF in Westlands as well so the location is perfect for them. They have chosen to attend Parklands Baptist Church just near Cedar Road and one of their sons is in Grade 1 at their new school there. Once he gets fully into his new job he hopes to bring help for the disabled in Samburu North District. I should be in Arsim over the weekend and then travel back to Nairobi to bring Yolanda out to return home the first part of March.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Wish you all a nice Valentines Day. Thanks for your prayers for the staff retreat preparation. We have all funds available in hand and we have all speakers booked so we are leaving tomorrow for Archer's Post. Pray for a good week to gel as a team and grow in Christ and in our work together as well. After the retreat I go to Nairobi to prepare to sell our old vehicle "Naidurra" and one of our motorcycles. Pray for a smooth process there as well and for good prices and minimal taxes to pay. Reuben's Mom does have cancer and needs chemotherapy at Kenyatta Hospital, since the surgery may not have gotten it all. So he will miss the retreat and go to Nairobi to help her get set up for that routine. Your prayers for her are appreciated. Yolanda is doing well here. She and Felix, our nurse, are team medics for first aid for the retreat. Yesterday we had a surprise supervisory visit from our new doctor who is head of Samburu District. He was mostly happy with our work and brought us a new vaccine refrigerator. Also he said he would like to give us a clinical officer from the government later this year. He did recommend some improvements in the maternity ward and said we have 3 weeks to do those improvements. This is a matter for prayer as we have no resources to do what he wants us to do. We got a surprise shower of rain yesterday, so pray for more of the same!

PREPARING FOR STAFF RETREAT

Our staff are getting excited about a planned staff retreat near Samburu Game Park in a small town called Archer's Post. We have about 40 people going and it will be a time for some inservice training (job related), spiritual teaching, planning our program activities and having some fun together. We have booked all the hotel beds in that small town! We plan to leave on Feb. 15 and return on the 19th. Pray for us during that time and all the final details that need to happen before we travel. One of the issues is that part of the funds for this trip have not yet arrived from our major donor. The funds were sent by electronic transfer last week but as of Monday had not yet arrived in the bank. So I am going to Maralal again today to go look for those funds at the bank. I also was called to a meeting there tomorrow (Thursday) to begin planning for the mass distribution of Azythromicin again this year to prevent trachoma. Also we have not yet confirmed one speaker for the inservice training. Pray I can contact him in Maralal and can confirm that important part of our program. I appreciate prayers for travel saftey too.

BACK TO ARSIM

Yolanda and I got back to Arsim Monday night (or Tuesday AM) at 3 am. Had a lot of dispensary business to do en route as usual. Still very busy in the office at Arsim getting ready for the 2009 audit. Reuben's Mom came through surgery fine and I hope he will be back to work next week. She still needs prayer for her follow up treatment. I had my tooth (back lower molar) pulled out while I was in Nairobi. It seems to be healing well inspite of the initial infection which caused the need to remove it. I do miss it for chewing although I suppose I will get used to it. Tomorrow Yolanda goes out on her first mobile clinic with Felix our nurse. Pray for the day they spend out at Soito Nanyukuo (a Rendille community).