Two weeks ago, I joined forces with a group of people and we hosted a medical camp in Pokot. The villages that we went to were remote. We often drove a few hours to get there. We left Kitale on Sunday in full force and ready to get to work in the afternoon.
After dropping our bags off at the guest house, we continued on only to come to a river. If you’ve been following my blogs, you know that river crossing has been become second nature to me in Pokot. But this time, we had three vehicles to cross. The one vehicle was carrying most of the medicine and it was too low to cross. The next vehicle we had was a safari vehicle and after starting an attempt for a pass, it soon turned back. Our last hope was the vehicle I was riding in. Our driver, Mango, is familiar with Pokot roads and rivers and he successfully made it through on his first attempt.
After making it across, we soon had to shift plans. The medicine was divided into a smaller amount and was carried across the bridge (that was ALMOST complete), and everyone not in our vehicle walked across. We then jammed as many people as we could into Mango’s vehicle and the rest followed a bit later on motorcycles.
We weren’t out of the woods yet. It was rainy season so the roads were also flooded, muddy, slippery and an adventure. Besides the mud, there were also ditches to cross. When passing through one of these ditches, we lost part of our front bumper. But have no fear, Mango had metal wires and we secured it back on and continued.
We arrived with the village waiting for us. We did introductions, got ourselves organized, and off we began. We served over 200 people in a few hours. By the end, the clouds were rolling in, and rain started. We continued to wrap up quickly, because we had the muddy roads to pass on and a river to cross on the way back again. If we got caught in this storm, we’d be staying on that side of the river. God continued show his faithfulness. We were able to serve the people and get back to our home for the evening.
The next few days started out similarly. We had devotions in the morning and talked about how we saw God move the day before, and then headed out around 10am. Most days we continued to pass through that same river. Luckily, waters receded and we were able to get one more vehicle through for the rest of the days. Days never ended up how WE expected, but they ended up for KINGDOM gain.
Along our way to some of the villages, we would stop and pray over certain areas—places where a church needed to be built, a location where a school was being finished, etc. We would get out of our vehicles and prayer walk the areas, join back up and pray together.
On day two of our adventure, we had the BIG RIVER to cross—the one where I got carried across the first time I came. Have I mentioned….I’ve later found out there are crocodiles in this river!?! The river was shallow enough to cross by foot, so we carried the medication across with the help of the locals. As one box was crossing, the bottom fell out right at the edge of the other side. Medications fell into the water, but almost all were recovered. The day continued with again serving over 200 people, and part of team going to deworm children in a school about 40 minutes away.
Day three of our clinic proved to be a work of God’s hand too. On our way to village, about 10 km to where our actual destination was, there was a group of people sitting and waiting. They knew we had to pass by, so they sat and waited for us. We stopped, and quickly decided that we would split up our team. Half of us would stay, and the others travel on to our “final destination”. Awaiting for us at our final destination were all the translators and one of the Pokot nurses, along with the extra envelopes to hand out medications (because we had run our the day before). But, we pressed on.
I was stationed with the group who stayed behind while the others proceeded. We were a bit short in numbers, but we made it work. Cheru, one of the sponsored girls from Pokot, had been with us this whole time. She stepped up and helped one of our members translate name, age, and village to our Swahili record keeper. One of the local pastors was our translator and helped translate how the medications were to be taken to the locals. We were blessed by our team member Edna who could basically speak Pokot because it was similar to her mother tongue. He husband passed out the medications prescribed and I was the end record recorder. However, handing out medications soon became too overwhelming for David, and I jumped into medication preparation as he handed out the medications.
Our envelopes for the medications were at the other site, so we had to become creative. We had prepacked some medications, and were able to dissemble some of them to reuse the envelopes for the needs we had. After about 3 hours though, the envelopes were finished. We had medications in bottles that were then in boxes, so we used the boxes for dispensing. We were able to serve all the people in this little village and then continued on to meet up with the rest of our team.
On our way to meet up with everyone, we again passed by people who were waiting alongside the road. This was a much smaller group of about 50 people, but we couldn’t just let them there. Although it was starting to get late, we gave them all a dewormer, most of the men medications for urinary tract infections, and vitamins to everyone.
Upon arrival to our other group, they were just finishing up. They had a severe case and decided to bring a lady back with us. She had a child about 4 months ago, and whoever helped deliver the baby had cut her in ways she shouldn’t have been cut. She had been unable to walk and people carried her to the medical clinic.
The following day, she was taken to a nearby clinic and our American nurse stayed at the clinic for the day to help with her procedure and witness what happens at a clinic in a day. The rest of us traveled to a nearby village (maybe an hour away) and served over 250 people.
During this time, our drivers had an adventure of their own. Both of the main vehicles we were using were having issues with their wheel bearings. They took the safari vehicle to go get parts. After just reaching the tar road, the vehicle completely broke down and they took matatu’s to Kitale (4-5 hours away). They got the parts and brought a mechanic back with them. By 11pm they were back in Pokot and by 3am the next day both vehicles were fixed and ready for us to head home at 7am.
At times, it seemed like we faced trial after trial, but the entire time we kept reflecting on how God provided and made a way. We saw His faithfulness each and every day through provision and little miracles. As Christians, we need to continue to trust God and walk by faith and not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
We serve a God who is truly bigger than anything we could do or imagine. Please continue to pray for the Pokot people–that they would truly know the Lord as their savior and ultimate healer.
And so, we PRESS ON.
