Feeding the Hungry Children of Mutomo

 Mutomo Kenya is located in the Horn of Africa, an area known for drought and seemingly endless famine. Recently Anita, director of Mutomo Mission Hospital reported, “the famine is really biting now and is going to be more severe because we never did get any more rain so there will be no harvest.”

In the work of fighting HIV/AIDS Mutomo Hospital is famous. It has one of the highest percentages of children infected with HIV in Kenya. 841 children are under treatment….47% of all their patients.

Four years ago Tree of Lives began to assist Mutomo in their care of HIV+ children. During October 2011 until January 31, 2012 nearly 6800 food packs of porridge, milk, eggs, maize flour, rice, beans and bread were distributed. The Children Feeding Program is funded by TOL and has received additional help through the Christmas Eve offering at First Pres.

One can sense the joy in the eyes of the little girl from Mutomo, pictured above, asking for her milk….and receiving it!

Anita ended her report by saying….

”God bless our friends in USA who have enabled us to feed the hungry in Mutomo!”

I Pray a Blessing On You

Anastasia

A Bumpy and Dusty Road

Anticipation!

Alice, An Accidental Friend

If you are a member of our congregation, you have heard about Alice over the years.  Alice is 14 and has AIDS and TB.  Both her parents died from AIDS, so Alice lives with her grandparents right outside the Nazareth Hospital compound in a small shanty with no electricity.

I didn’t give Alice much thought as I packed to come to Kenya.  I knew I would meet her on the porch of our house, along with all the children who gather there after school.  Sure enough, our first day here, Alice arrived as expected. The porch was filled to overflowing with children when we were introduced to each other.  Despite all the many faces full of self-assurance, it was obvious immediately that Alice reigned at the top of the porch pecking order.

I was lost in the pure joy of this after-school chaos when this confident young girl, way too tiny for her age but somehow larger than life, looked me square in the eye, and said,

“You and me, photo.”

It was in that moment that our hearts connected.

The next afternoon, Alice reappeared as we set off on a late afternoon walk to the tea fields. Jim put Alice in charge of the candy bag with strict instructions to follow the rules – one piece of candy for each child who we encountered along the way; no candy for adults.  Away we went, her hand in mine, bags slung over each of our shoulders – hers filled with candy, mine with a camera.

The walk through the tea fields is indescribably beautiful.  It is also a long one, and my heart broke a dozen times along the way.  Alice suggested I might like to make her a birthday cake one day; she has never had one.  She told me she does her homework by candlelight.  She asked me to send her a copy of the “you and me” photo.  Alice coughed a lot as we climbed the hills at a fast pace, stopping only to tie her shoes or to dispense candy to the gaggles of dirt poor shack children we met along the way.

Despite my broken heart, it was a glorious day. The tea fields were captivatingly beautiful.  The sun was warm on our backs.  Alice and I shared our life stories and fell in love.  And as fast as my heart would break, God would mend it through the touch of her hand in mine.

Jim spoke to us this week of “compassionate emptiness.”  He asked, where in this pilgrimage have you emptied yourself of everything, existing only to receive as much as possible from God?  For me, it happened in the tea fields with a beautiful child of God named Alice.  Where today will you be empty enough to receive the gift of compassionate emptiness?  And maybe even an accidental friend?

by Becky Lyle Pinkard, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

Joseph’s Smile

Yesterday I journeyed out with two Tree of Lives workers, Doreen and Josephine to the slums for a home visit.  Three hours from Nazareth and several Matatu rides later, we finally arrived at the home of Joseph.  Joseph was HIV positive and also had suffered from a CVA, leaving him with impaired speech and difficulty walking.  Joseph lost his wife 3 years ago and he and his three children lived in a single metal room.  In addition to housing his family, this small room also held a store in which the proceeds were used to feed the family.  Joseph was a man of little possessions, however had more faith than any one person I have ever met.  He was thankful to God for all he had and truly trusted him with the healing of his disease.  Joseph received food packets from Tree of Lives to supplement what he was unable to provide for his children.   When learning I was from Norfolk, his face immediately lit up and he couldn’t thank me enough of all our church family and Trees of Lives had provided him with.  The small amount of food included in these food packets made a huge difference in Joseph’s life.  We hear so much about Tree of Lives in Jim Wood’s sermons each Sunday morning, but you can never imagine the true blessing of this ministry until seeing the smile on someone’s face like Joseph.

by Laurie Leonard, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

A Day On the Porch

Today was unlike any other day since our FPC Mission Team arrived at Nazareth Hospital.  It was a warm, sunny and dry day. Several team members, as designated, had gone on home visits to counsel with HIV/AIDS patients from the Holy Family Center at Nazareth Hospital.  Other team members met with the Pastoral Counseling Team, observed surgery in the theater (operating room), etc.  So, with the others gone, I deviated from the activity schedule and decided to sit on the porch, thus, becoming a “porch person.”

Sitting on the porch in the warm sun, I began to write in my journal of daily activities.  Soon, a parade (as it seemed) of visitors began to come up to the porch and talk with me. The people who visited the porch included Dr. Salvador De La Torre (NKatha’s boss) from the Catholic Medical Mission Board Administration who has served in several African communities and in Haiti. Later, Dr. James, Chief of Surgery at Nazareth Hospital, came up to the porch, followed by Dr. Mary, Internal Medicine.  After they left and a few quiet moments, NKatha, former Director of Holy Family Center.  Along with her were Ruth, Director of Counseling at the Holy Family Center and Mary Mwaungi.  Soon after, Counselor George in the Pastoral Counseling Department arrived. He was followed by Teacher George, Head Primary School Teacher at Nazareth Hospital.  Later, Michael, the current Director of Holy Family Center came.  Each person who sat with me on the porch has demonstrated a commitment to providing health care, wellness and educational services to the less fortunate of society, both in this area and other places.  Was the FACE OF GOD present in the faces of these servants?  I believe so!  I believe they are living in the Spirit of Christ.  Each is living for a daily encounter with God through service to His people.  While they live in the present, their hope and work are centered on plans for a better future for those with the greatest needs (people who are viewed as expendable).

Why were all of these people coming to the porch?  To see me?  Not a chance! These servant leaders who came to the porch have two things in common:  (1) solving a problem and (2) enlisting the aid of Pastor Jim Wood to discuss some ideas to improve service options for the children and adults whose lives have been adversely affected by HIV/AIDS.

Later, the children came from school.  A new drama began!  Today was a great day to be a porch person.  While I will not be on the porch tomorrow, it will still be a great day because it will be a day that God has made and I look forward to the encounters He provides.

by Winston Whitehurst, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

Yesu, Ninakuamini is Swahili for: Jesus, I trust in him.

 

At bustling Nazareth Hospital the patients lie on pastel printed sheets in maternity wards with ten beds, and some of them hold babies. A few do not. In a small grace today, a young mother whose baby died in a complicated delivery lay in the corner bed of an empty ward. Catherine escaped with her own life, but her uterus had been removed. In Kenya, Africa, this is a complete ravishment. Yet she already has a four-year-old child, so although barren, she will still be a mother. I could hardy believe that God had placed me by her side to tell her about life with just one child. More importantly, a pastoral counselor leaned on the bed next to her, hands folded casually, bestowing a compassionate gaze, and discussed the hard truth with her. “I’m O.K.,” she said, though tearful, and then she asked for prayer.

Three pastoral counselors are funded by Tree of Lives, and George Nderere has worked since the program’s inception, five years ago, despite the obvious sadness that comes with facing suffering at close range, as on a razor’s edge. I felt like time stood still in those moments. Yet he more than anyone, perhaps, knows when it is time to joke and to laugh and to take a rest – later in his day. To face the morning rounds again and meet new problems, he said he tries to think about how Christ is following him, even revealing his very face, as he enters into the emotional world of a patient.

So I spent much of the day with one tough cookie, but we both knew where real strength comes from.

by Ann Burrows, member of First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia.

Do You Want To Be Made Well?

Do you want to be made well?  Jim Wood asked the team to contemplate this question in our after dinner devotion.

By today most of our team has experienced the deep privilege of home visits.  As we trek in small groups across Kenya entering into homes of dirt floors, tin and potato sack walls we can’t help but think to ourselves: can anyone be made well?  There are times I’m sure, where the mission-hearted ones of us contemplate living in Africa.  I think ultimately that would be the easy route as far as creating a comfort zone.

The real challenge for us is going to and returning from Kenya and figuring out how to move from one life to the next.  How do we cope with the crisis situations we sit next to on a plastic stool or lace-covered cushion in each home visit?  How do we love with our entire selves and not bring a child home with us?

Today we all learned about an American trance we are lured into, a trance that causes us not to be ready at the moment Jesus wants us to do something we don’t think we can do or

“get up and walk.”

We learned how to heal ourselves from this trance through the story of Jesus healing the paralytic beginning in John 5:1.  We have to want to be made well.  We have to tell Jesus “I want to be made well” and as a group member pointed out this evening, one thing we have in common with each African, each starving child, is that we want to be made well.

by Morgan Burrows, college student and member of First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia.