Dora Akuetteh, MD, FAAFP
A physician's report:
Mission to the maasai
The Team
Dr. Williams led a team of three family physicians, and a logistics person flying from the US to Nairobi, Kenya. We joined Bryan Burr, Convoy of Hope AG missionary and medical mission coordinator James Maina. It was a delight to be joined by an In His Image physician, Kyle Jones, who is a missionary in Kapsowar,Kenya. In addition to Dr. Maina, the Kenyan team was comprised of a physician assistant, nurses, three dentists, lab technician and an optometrist.
Preparation
The 4 hour drive northeast of Nairob took us over untarred and rough roads jostling everyone. We nicknamed the ride the “Maasai massage”.
We arrived at the clinic site which was a remote local church building. Our Kenyan medical team was about to experience God moving in a way they had never experienced before. It was their first time in Maasai land and their first time participating in a holistic medical mission!
Prayer and Medicine
The team treated over 1,050 patients offering general medical, dental, ophthalmology (hundreds of eye glasses dispensed), and cancer screening. Some patients had walked 28 kilometers to attend the clinic! Two patients showed up at our camp site on the morning we left and asked me to pray for healing. They missed the clinics, but they had heard how effective fervent prayers had healed the sick. I prayed with the help of an interpreter and both were instantly healed!
Food and Compassion
Many of the patients were hungry and food was scarce because of years of drought in their communities. They drank tea most of the time. We gave them snacks that had been carried on the trip including peanuts, trail mix and Mediterranean snacks at the clinic. On the last day of the mission, Convoy of Hope and a cash donation from team members purchased and distributed a truck load of maize, rice and beans to the remaining patients who were joined by many from the surrounding communities. It was heart wrenching to see a woman sit under the tailgate of the truck and pick individual grains of rice that fell to the ground!
Stories
Healing Prayer
Broken Homes
Three women interpreters shared the physical and emotional abuse they were experiencing in their marriages. In fact, their husbands told them it was a waste of time to volunteer for the medical mission because there was nothing in it for them. We encouraged and prayed for them.
On the morning of our departure the interpreter who worked with me shared with Paul and me how she had prayed and she called her husband who was stationed in another part of Kenya, outside Nairobi. She said the first thing he said was “What is going on? Something is going on where you are. I love you and I am sorry I have not treated you right”. She also said that the last time he told her he loved her was over 2 years ago!
Together in Unity
