MedSend Blog

There are not many times that I feel that you desire medical stories and testimonies of my days in medicine here at Kijabe. In fact, most of you who read our blog are not “medical” at all and I fear you would find these stories boring or confusing. But some stories need to be told, especially when there is nothing “medical” to explain what happened.

“The last several weeks have been full of tragedies, both here in the US and around the world. Death, disease, hatred, anger and frustration seem to fill our lives and can be overwhelming. If I have learned anything from these events, I have learned that we all need to show more love to everyone and begin to live as though we really do care about the people around us. This love must be unconditional and be simply love. You can each be a light in your community but you have to stretch yourselves. I hope that today’s story will be a challenge for you as it was for me.”

I met Dominga over a year ago while I was serving alongside a medical team in La Concha. She was helping Elizabeth, her eldest daughter, and me serve food to the patients and medical team members. She really should have been a patient herself. The paisley scarf enveloped her head where her hair should have been, and she frequently sat down to rest her weary body. Despite the harsh chemo treatments, she smiled and chopped up tomatoes and onions. She seemed happy enough despite the ravaging effects of the cancer and would live for another year, but inwardly she was dead already.

During a temporary period of doubt and discouragement (this happens somewhat cyclically on the mission field, we’ve learned), Kari Jo and I decided we would each make lists of all the bad things we wouldn’t have had to endure if we had not come to Nigeria. Afterward, we would make lists of as many things as we could think of that were good things we have experienced or gained because we chose to follow God’s call for us to move to Nigeria.

Currently, there are a lot of patients at the hospital. Eighty-four patients on the pediatrics service. A year ago, a heavy pediatrics service was 35 or 40. The year before that it was 25. Malaria season does make a big difference, but half of these 84 are either on the malnutrition service or the neonatology service, neither of which existed a couple years ago.

In 2011, God began to speak to me about leaving behind what I knew. I was comfortable as a registered nurse in New York and wasn’t planning on going anywhere. But God made it clear He had a calling on my life and it was outside of New York. I didn’t know many details, but I decided at that moment that I would say “Yes!” to God. I prayed, “God please prepare my heart so I will know it when that time comes and follow You wherever You lead.”

As MedSend’s Grant Applicant and Recipient Liaison, I attend the MedSend board meetings, and it is often that by the time I leave, I feel like I have been on a spiritual retreat. Last October’s board meeting was no different. During the meeting this question was posed by one of the board members during his morning devotional: “Who are you Jesus that the slaughter of the innocent was worth it?” That question hit me like a ton of bricks, and is still resonating in my mind.