First day of ministry

This was our first day of ministry since hitting the ground, and we were excited to finally get to do what we came for .  We were able to get a relatively good nights sleep and our ministry location was only about a half hour drive, so we were wheels-up at 9:00.  We took the vehicles to the Agora facility where all the UZima water filter supplies are stored and loaded up with filter supplies for 300 families.  We picked up a bunch of the SWOK staff and education students and headed to Kabatini, in Bahati, Kenya. We were working there at the African Inland Church, and the word of our coming has certainly preceded us.  There were several hundred people there waiting in line for the start of the water filter distribution and eye clinic. We were able to set up the water filter and hygiene training in the sanctuary and were able to break the groups up into a morning and an afternoon training session. Overall, 260 water filter kits were distributed to families after the training sessions. The total process for each group takes approximately two hours, because there is group training and then individualized training in a circle of about 20 people once they have received their kits. They are trained to put the kit together and then watch the demonstration of how to clean the filter. Then each person puts together their own kit so that there is assurance that they know how to use it once they get at home. These water filter kits will provide clean water for drinking and household use and cooking for an entire Kenyan family. We were blessed to have approximately 20 staff and education students from SWOK work with us today, supplementing our small team in both water filter distribution and in vision clinics.

Although we have done vision clinics during every ministry trip since 2019, the nature of the vision clinic has changed. This year, our doctor, Dr. Christopher Williams, was unable to join us on the trip so we are not able to offer the full medical care that we have been able to do in the past. Therefore, the level of medical service we can provide is minimal. Bill Coble did an admirable job of using a new handheld autorefractor to obtain prescription data for each patient. We were then able to manufacture a pair of prescription lenses that will match the patient’s prescription, using a lens system we purchased from Global Vision 2020. Overall, we saw 138 vision clinic patients, and we made 45 pair of prescription glasses for those that needed them. We had the majority of the 138 patients also get readers and sunglasses, since we were dealing with mainly adults over 40 years of age. We had a fun day of ministry and were able to effectively meet the needs of all the people who had attended today. We have scheduled a second session of hygiene training and water filter distribution for approximately 150 people this coming Friday, and we will conduct a Vision clinic for as many people as show up needing care. We always know that we need to be flexible because we don’t have a definite fix on the size of the congregation and the number of people who will ultimately need our services. 

Tomorrow, we will have the blessing of visiting and working and building relationships with students at the Ngala School for the Deaf, which we have visited on two prior trips. We already know from experience it will be a special blessed day. 

.