Amazed by God's work in Kenya!

My goodness! My last post was over one week ago...so much has happened! Where do I begin?!

It feels like a lifetime ago that we landed in Nairobi! But a lifetime in a good way--like,  "I've learned and experienced so much that I can't believe it's only been a week and a half!"
Not, "This trip is dragging on. Can I go home now?" 

In my last post I mentioned that we were looking forward to serving in a medical camp with the organization WorldCOMP. The camp took place on Friday near Kakamega, a more rural town in Western Kenya, about eight hours from Nairobi. We made the long drive to Kakamega on Thursday and had an amazing time serving at the camp on Friday. It took place in the Widows Center, the building in the photo on the left. When completed, the building will house multiple opportunities for widows in the area to have a steady income--a boarding house on the top floor, sewing business on the second
floor, and café on the bottom floor. In Kenya, widows are often left with everything taken away from them after their husband dies, so this ministry is so needed. We were honored to meet the Kenyan woman who is leading the ministry and to hear about the exciting things to come!

The medical camp served over 500 people in one day, and was not even advertised except  by word of mouth! It provided each person with an appointment with a doctor as well as a prescription and a course of medications for whatever problem they were having. WorldCOMP has a number of medical camps throughout the year, and their aim is to bring medical care to people who cannot afford it on their own. It was amazing to be a part of bringing care to so many people. It was a blessing to work with the large team of Kenyan doctors and nurses who serve with WorldCOMP. Our role was to get vital signs and a brief history with the patient before they went to see the doctor. We also had the opportunity to pray with each patient. It was precious and beautiful to get to connect with them in this way. One wonderful aspect of Kenya is that Christianity is very ingrained in the culture, and we don't have to worry about the types of regulations we have in the US about praying with patients or talking about Jesus. Our faith in Jesus allowed us to connect with the Kenyan people, even when the language barrier was present.

We spent our next day in Kakamega conducting a smaller medical camp at a boys prison and then visiting a deaf school. The boys at the prison were very excited to have visitors, especially female ones :) We had a similar role as in the other medical camp. We took vitals and  a brief history before the boys went to see the doctor. 100 of the 300 boys at the prison came to be seen for medical care. We also had a tour of the prison, which was very interesting. The boys have the opportunity to go to school and learn skills such as agriculture or carpentry while they are in prison. This gives them hope of a job and income when they are released. Boys who decide to continue with school get to stay in nicer living areas, as an incentive! A group of the boys (in the picture with us above) generously washed our van. We had never seen the van so clean and white!
The boys really need positive male role models in their lives. Many of them grew up without fathers or even without families. A few years ago, the prison was in a terrible condition. The boys there were sick and not well fed and they did not have any jobs to fill their time. Dr. George (a Kenyan doctor working with WorldCOMP) visited the prison after he was robbed by some boys who had been taken there. When he saw the condition of the prison it broke his heart. He joined the board and has worked to bring improvements to the prison. It was amazing to see how much better the conditions have become for the boys just because one person took a special interest in changing their situation. Now many of the boys have asked Jesus into their hearts and hopefully many will continue to go to church when they are released, because Christian community will do a lot to help keep them on track.

After leaving the prison we visited a school for the deaf in Kakamega. The 68 children there were so very excited to have people come to visit! Though we couldn't speak with them, we could communicate through sign language and actions. One of my team members Allyson brought fruit gummies and Valentines Day tattoos to give to children in Kenya, and this was the perfect opportunity to use them! We gave each child some gummies and spent time to put a temporary tattoo on each child's hand. They LOVED them!!
It was truly heartbreaking to hear the story of the deaf children. Their school is meant to be funded by the government, but the last time they tried to collect their allotment of money, the money had been used for another purpose because of the corruption in the government. The school now has no money for food and is depending completely on donations. Knowing this, we brought sugar, beans, bread, and cooking fat for the school. When we brought the food the next day, we gave each child a slice of bread as a token of our gift to the school. They lined up eagerly for their slice of bread, and our hearts broke again to think of how little they have that they would be so excited to receive just a slice of bread.
We also brought balls and jump ropes for the children to play with, because we noticed they only had one or two jump ropes for all of them. Their eyes lit up as we passed out the toys, and we got to spend the next 20 minutes playing with them. It was a joyful and carefree time for the children. It was very sad to leave them, and I wish we could meet more of the needs of the school. Please keep these precious children in your prayers, that God will continue to provide them with the food and supplies they need.

On Sunday we attended church in Kakamega, and it was a lively and joyful service. The highlight for me was the energetic worship songs, and especially the song that got people so excited that they picked up their chairs over their heads and marched around the church. The joy of the Lord that these people have is truly infectious. I know that God loves to see His people so full of hope and joy in His presence that they cannot contain themselves.
Pastor Richard from WorldCOMP was visiting the church with us, and he gave a convicting message about discipline at the service. It had a great affect on everyone at the church.
After church we had a lunch together and then we took the food to the deaf school. We took the rest of the evening to rest.

On Monday we made the long drive back to Nairobi. On Tuesday we had our first official day working at the Kenyatta National Hospital. It is a HUGE hospital with 2000 beds (For perspective, Seattle Children's has about 320) but it is still overwhelmed by the need of the people of Kenya. Kenyatta is the largest public hospital in Kenya, and as a public hospital its services are much more affordable. Most Kenyan's cannot afford the expensive care of the private hospitals, making Kenyatta extremely crowded and busy. I spent my first two days in the Emergency Department and at times I felt overwhelmed by the situation. When you walk into the Kenyatta ED, the smell is probably the first thing that hits you. It is a smell of blood, infection, and crowded bodies and it was hard for me to take at first. As I spent my two days there, I saw that they have a pretty good system for getting patients taken care of, but the sheer number of patients and lack of resources makes it very challenging to give timely and effective care. Not to mention that there are a high number of inexperienced students who are left alone to run things. All students are supposed to be supervised by an experienced nurse, but they are often left unattended. It even happened to me! I was working in an area where patients come to have their vitals and history taken and triaged, then sent to the right place. At first I was just observing and helping under a nurse's supervision, but then the nurse kept disappearing and I was left in charge of this system I had just learned! The language barrier certainly didn't help me either! I did not feel comfortable with the situation, and soon left to find someone else to take over, but I realized how much this kind of situation could slow down the system.
Anyways, I learned a lot in the ED, and I met a lot of great nurses and doctors who are doing the best with what they have! We have so many resources in our hospitals in the US, but in Kenya they do not have the same amount of medical equipment and supplies. They give the patient's the care they need with what they have. Many of the patients cannot even afford to pay for the services they need, which is very sad to see.
Next week I will be in the Labor and Delivery ward at Kenyatta, where apparently the nurses do all the deliveries! Definitely different from how we do it in the US! I'm sure I will learn a ton, and maybe even help deliver some babies.

Thanks for reading my long blog! There was a lot to cover!
Please continue to pray for God's guidance for our team. Pray for health for us as we work in a new environment! Pray for us to continue to find more and more opportunities to serve the people of Kenya!

Sincerely and thoughtfully,
Christa Layne McMurray

Adventures in Traffic Jams

What an amazing few days it has been! We have had the opportunity to explore the area of Nairobi and meet many new people.


We have found that traveling in Nairobi means being stuck in traffic! Someone informed us that at night there are 5 million people in Nairobi, and in the day there are 8 million. 3 million come and go throughout the day. Thus, the traffic jams.We call it "The Jam" because it really deserves to be a proper noun!

On the bright side, we have already had plenty of team bonding time and conversation in our van because we spend so much time trying to get from here to there. And I thought 405 was bad!!


We have the blessing of having an awesome Kenyan driver with us for the entirety of our trip! His name is "Mesh" for short and he is a lot of fun, not to mention great at navigating Nairobi roads and traffic and knowledgeable about the country and culture. He is the Administrator for WorldCOMP, the organization we are working with throughout our trip. We have also met Pastor Richard and his wife Valerie who founded WorldCOMP, and come to Kenya for two months at a time to serve. WorldCOMP is bringing hope to Kenya in so many ways, including feeding programs, medical camps, microloans, and providing clean water. We are looking forward to traveling with Pastor Richard to help at a Medical Camp later this week.

Yesterday we had an amazing opportunity to meet with Dr. Sadero, a prominent doctor in the Nairobi area. He grew up in the Masai tribe (Kenyan tribal people), and has now come to own two private hospitals. One hospital is in Nairobi, and the other is in the smaller city of Naroke where the hospital is able to serve the Masai tribe. He is an amazing Christian man and we are honored to work with him! Our connection with him has allowed us to connect with the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi where we will be working three days a week.
Today we are meeting with an administrator in the hospital to finalize the details of being allowed to work there. We are hoping to start working on the floors with the nurses today, but we may have to start tomorrow. The process is taking slightly longer than we thought, but this is the first time our school has come to Kenya and this is our first connection with the hospital so it is not surprising that it is taking a few days.

It has been heartbreaking to see the situation of the slums as we travel through Nairobi. The first slum we visited was fairly small and had clean water projects, electricity, biofuel, and a high school. In the inner city, the slums are so much bigger, and later in the trip we will be visiting Kibera, one of the largest slums in Kenya which houses 1 million of the 2.5 million Kenyan who live in slums. The facts are overwhelming to me, and seeing it in real life is unbelievable. We have the opportunity to serve in the slums through medical camps, screenings, and some school teaching. I am so glad we will get to go out in the community to do some good and provide some resources for the people living in these areas, but the scope of the poverty is very overwhelming.
Thank you for your prayers, I feel blessed to have so much support! Please continue to pray for us to know how to use our time and resources in the most helpful way. Pray for the health and safety of our team and those we are working with. Pray for us to have a good connection with the hospital and that we can be a blessing to them. Pray for God to bless the people of Kenya!

Until next time,
Sincerely and thoughtfully,
Christa Layne McMurray






Safe and Sound!

My team arrived in Kenya at about 9pm last night after about 16 hours in the air (we only had one layover which was great!)
The flights were pretty uneventful except for 20 minutes of turbulence just before landing in Nairobi.

We were welcomed into Kenya by a big group of people who had kindly been waiting for us for a couple of hours after our flight was delayed and customs took longer than expected! It was raining when we landed (for the first time in months!), and they helped us pack up and transport all of our luggage to the house we are staying in. By the time we got there it was about midnight, and the power was out but the family was waiting to welcome us by candlelight.  The house is a little outside of Nairobi and we get to stay with an awesome missionary family who have rooms to rent out to guests . Their home is very nice and spacious, and they are taking great care of us!

Today was dedicated to rest and time to get to know the area. We got to sleep in, have a nice breakfast, and then we went to a nearby slum to meet people and see some of the projects that have been taking place there.
We had a tour of the high school, water filtration system, and the bio-fuel system that have been built pretty recently. It's very troubling to see so many people living in such a small place with so few resources, however it's also encouraging to see the progress that is being made. The high school is well-built and has many classrooms and even a chemistry lab and computer lab. This slum is one of the more developed, with electricity and water filtration, and many improvements will be made possible with the bio-fuel system. We will be meeting with the principal of the school later this week to see if we can come back and serve there later in the trip.

Later in the evening we met with a pastor and his wife who serve as missionaries in Nairobi and a nurse who has been a missionary in Africa for much of her life. They shared valuable insights into African culture and how we can best serve in our month in the country. It was inspiring to hear about their work and the experiences they have had in Nairobi.
One interesting thing we learned is that we can expect significant differences in the way nurses practice in Kenya compared to what we are used to, and we are looking forward to starting orientation at the hospital on Monday.

We have already met so many wonderful people and I feel so blessed to be here! A month seems like a long time to be away from home, but I know we will be so busy that it will fly by.
Tomorrow we get to visit our first Kenyan church, which I know will be a lot of fun and probably very long. I'm excited for that and the many more Kenyan adventures to come!

Thank you for your prayers!! Please continue to pray for the team to stay healthy and safe. Pray for God to bring us opportunities to meet people that we can serve and encourage, and that we will have guidance in knowing how to best spend our time. Pray that God will bless the people of Kenya and that He will strengthen the missionaries that are so committed to serving them.

Until next time!
Sincerely and thoughtfully,
Christa Layne McMurray