dawn: adventures of a journeywoman

Back in Kenya!

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

As I got dressed for church today, I slipped on some green beaded flip flops, a flowery skirt, and blouse for my short walk in the sunshine through bright gardens to the chapel. Yet, just a week ago before embarking to worship, I was pulling on my snow boots over my thick socks and zipping up my "puffy" down coat before trudging through feet of snow. What a difference a week makes!

I am in the midst of a two-week trip in Kenya. Last spring, a physician affiliated with our local Christian Medical Dental Association called me to confirm the sense he had about my calling to overseas medical missions. He offered me the opportunity to return to Kenya as part of the Continuing Medical and Dental Education conference. This conference is for missionary healthcare workers serving overseas to help them maintain their licences with continuing medical education credit. American physician, dentist, and public health educators donate their time to come and give lectures on updated medical information to those on the field. In between the daily lectures (28+), life support certification classes, and training of African surgery residents, the participants share meals, worship services, and Bible studies together and are able to receive prayer and counseling. For the first time, the conference is including a medical student (me) to assist in some of the coordinating of the conference and to give me a unique opportunity to be immersed in a community of people who are living the life I eventually hope to take part in.

But getting to this conference was not as easy as jumping on 2 7-10 hour flights. "Snowpocalypse 2010" struck the U.S. east coast on the weekend I was scheduled to depart. Twenty-eight inches of snow blanketed Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport, causing it to cancel most flights between Friday-Sunday (another large storm struck a few days later, creating more snow-stricken havoc). After frequent checks on-line and several calls to airlines, I was finally able to depart DC on a flight a day and a half later than planned. The airport had the energy and crowds of a mass exodus from a sports game or concert through just a few doors. It made me grateful to have left for the airport a good nine hours before my departure! Passengers desperate to get on any available flight after days cooped up inside were inpatient, harried, and quite pushy. Two other physicians from D.C. were also traveling to the conference successfully got on a flight 24 hours later, but then were stuck on the runway for over three hours, causing them to miss their connecting flight for a second delay in travels.

I had originally planned to spend a day in London, seeing a few of the famous sites with a friend who lives there. After boarding, our plane also experienced mechanical difficulties, cutting my time in London down to 2.5 hours. I still managed to snap a few quick photos in the rain of Big Ben, the Eye, and Westminster Abbey and meet this friend for a comparison of the idiosyncrasies of Brits and Americans over fish and chips. After rushing through security to meet my next plane, I found that it had been delayed until the next day (more mechanical difficulties). Along with the other passengers, I was marched through Heathrow to a shuttle bus taking us to a hotel. As disappointed as I was to face yet another day of delay, I was grateful for a hot meal, an international calling card to talk with my parents (also on a snow day), a dark room with a clean bed, and a warm shower.

Finally wearily arriving at the beautiful conference center a few days later, I was struck by the calm and rest available. Warm sunshine pouring over a kaleidoscope of colored flowers, delicious banana bread at tea times, and the company of people with generous spirits instantly ready to include each other into intimate conversations and prayers stood in stark contrast to gray days and nights of travel with anxious and disappointed people. In morning small group Bible studies with veteran missionaries, I was amazed at the frankness of confessions of personal struggles. Over breakfast, a healthcare worker in a Muslim country shared her attempts to address the high rate of infant death in her area. Another physician who works to decrease the number of women dying in childbirth (maternal mortality) told me her personal journey through academia, international organizations, and remote Nepal. I took a hike with a physician charged with starting a hospital in an area where 10% of the women will die from childbirth-related causes. At dinner, the wife of a doctor serving in southern Africa confessed her concern for her grown children's current decisions leading us in prayer together. Other missionaries told amazing stories of God's provision through monetary resources, spouses and other significant relationships, and in the midst of war-zones.

With my mouth closed and ears open, I have been storing away the pages of God-authored chronicles and experience-laden advice surrounding me. I am constantly thankful as I know how precious this opportunity is. I feel a bit like Mary, taking in the amazing circumstances before her: "But Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19