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from Carol Spears in Kenya

May 2007

Easter Sunday A beautiful glimpse of snow-capped Mt Kilimanjaro in the distance In surgery in the new ORs

A Bit Overwhelming……
That’s the best I seem to come up with to try and communicate my transition to life in Kenya! What a range of emotions,
challenges, heart-warming experiences and frustrations I experience in a day! I am sorry that I have been so long in try-
ing to communicate all that is happening here! My pride would like to say that I never missed a beat and immediately
flourished as I arrived in Kenya…..The truth is that I while I love it here and have no doubt that this is where I should be,
I just can’t quite get to the point where I feel “in control” — even a little bit (smile!!). I am reminded of the feeling of
playing the arcade game of “Whack the Mole” where you hammer one little mole-pop-up and push it down and three
more pop up in all different directions! I love the challenges and yet I so desire to be contributing more and doing
more...that will come. Right now I believe God is showing me that I need to concentrate on “being”. I know that I am in
a refining and growing time and I also know that God is the one who is truly “in control” and that He is the one who is
able! I am fortunate to be in Kenya in a place I love doing surgery that I love and working with people that I love. I ap-
preciate you for making it possible for me to be here!

Transition in MANY areas…..

Operating Rooms
In March and early April, a team of engineers, bio med technicians, and medical gas plumbers arrived from World Medi-
cal Mission to install one of the most modern medical gas systems in all of East Africa in our new surgery building. It
even meets US hospital codes! To facilitate the construction effort, we moved out of the new building back into our pre-
vious ORs (a huge test in flexibility for all of us!). The amazing effort of this dedicated WMM team resulted in piped
oxygen, medical gas, air and suction in each of our five new operating rooms. In the US, this monumental task would
have been done concomitantly with construction over many months. Our team completed the work in about 3 weeks. We
thank God for the blessing of this very modern system and for the hearts and abilities of the WMM team!! By the way, we
decided to tile the OR walls (to make it easier to clean) while we were moved out. You will see from the pictures below why that
made me a little nervous….but we have just moved back into the new ORs 2 days ago and all is sparkling clean and I am NOT miss-
ing the loud motor of the old suction machine (now it is straight from the wall and very quiet!).
More Transition….
In Surgery
The surgical needs are great here in Kenya. The variety of pathology is amazing and more than overwhelming—to even an experi-
enced surgeon (I keep reminding myself of this—smile!). Several patients have touched my heart over the past few weeks….

Chepkorir (right) is a little girl born with a condition that prevented her colon from functioning properly. Be-
cause her family was not able to afford proper medical care for her, she developed a massively dilated colon and
severe malnutrition. She has had nine surgeries in her young life—one of them by me when I was here in 2003!!
She just returned to Tenwek after a two year absence and we are now performing subsequent surgeries for her by
the generosity of many in the US who have given to our Surgical Compassionate Care Fund. My heart over-
flowed as I saw her again last week and she ran to me with a big smile and hugged me. What a blessing to be a
part of caring for patients like Chepkorir.

My heart breaks for another little 3 year old girl that I will call CK (left—somewhat in disguise at
right after being outfitted with gifts and hat and sunglasses). She came to Tenwek for medical care after being raped
and assaulted by her own father. The social situation she comes from breaks our hearts. As surgeons, we will help her
with the many future operations she will require to repair her wounds. Only God can heal her heart. My prayer for her
is that she will be able to overcome this horrific event and that it will not define her future. Please pray for her and for
her father and her future.

This Maasai family (right) gave me a gift in clinic—a necklace of friendship!! They
wanted to thank me for caring for their daughter and sister (second from left) who had
a liver abscess. What a joy it is to care for these patients. I praise God for the good
outcomes! Please pray that I will also trust Him when things do not turn out as well…..that seems to
happen here more than in America and it is difficult to deal with. I pray that God will enable me to
do all that I can for our patients and trust Him for the result.

At Home
My home is definitely in transition! I thought I was taking on a small project of having my home painted, tile floors put down in the
bathroom and kitchen, and wood floors sanded and varnished. It has turned out to be more than I anticipated! Today I will move again
for the third time to allow for work to be done—but I am grateful for the wonderful improvements to my home. I was thrilled to learn
this week that the container carrying my household goods from America has arrived in Mombasa and my duty free status for used
goods was approved. The container will be moved to Nairobi soon where I will have to go and “clear it” with a customs inspection.
Please pray that this will all go smoothly and that any extra fees or duty will be minimal. I am so very grateful for those who have
helped with this process —everything from raising money to helping move to packing and shipping the container!! Thank you!!

With family and friends

It has been most heart-wrenching to be on the other side of the world as dear friends and family have had both suffering and joy. The
pain of separation is great as I grieve for many—a few I will mention here and ask you to join me in praying:
• friends whose 3 year old granddaughter was diagnosed with leukemia
• a friend whose wife was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer
• a friend whose wife was diagnosed with brain cancer

Even joy is sometimes painful because of separation. Tears came as I received the phone call from my brother telling me
of the arrival of my new little niece (left)—Emma Katherine Spears born April 11, 2007.
I thank God for His blessings—a healthy baby and seeing my sister-in-law through a difficult post-delivery course.

Travel
What fun it was to travel in April to Malindi on the coast of Kenya
(above Mombasa) for our annual World Gospel Mission retreat. The
trip took around 10-11 hours from Nairobi and was an education in it-
self. We saw the beauty of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the distance, a caravan of
camels that confirmed we are in places unfamiliar, and the majesty of
God in the ocean and beaches of Malindi. We had a wonderful time of
renewal followed by some time of vacation.

I will be traveling to language school in Tanzania on May 20th for about a month. This will be the first of
three modules of training to learn Swahili. Please pray for me as I attempt to learn
the language and for safe travel to and from Tanzania.

Please contact me at cspears9@gmail.com or WGM, PO Box 948, Marion, IN 46952 if you

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