Jarretts Ministry

The following is excerpted from Marty’s prayer letter of June 4, 2001 describing the inception of the Tenwek Area Scholarship Education Fund for orphans and children of widows. The fund has helped over 365 children stay in or start school, including both elementary and high school students. As of Fall, 2003, 17 students have graduated.

This project is separate from the orphanage project that has begun in the year 2003 and will be described elsewhere. Contributions to this fund can be made as follows:

AGC Tenwek Area Education Fund [sending orphans to school] contributions: Checks payable to and send to: Christian Foundation of Indiana, 8445 Keystone Crossing Blvd, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Indicate for Tenwek on a separate piece of paper.

Many of you know that I have been praying for two years to have God’s direction for helping the vast number of impoverished people all around us at Tenwek. One missionary friend who is retiring after 30 years at Tenwek says this has been her busiest term in regards to dealing with urgent needs of people constantly coming to her door.

My heart is full of excitement, praise, and thanksgiving as I witness the Hand of God at work in answer to this prayer request. The Lord encourages persistent prayer, and it is such a joy when we begin to see His answers. Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (NIV) Three weeks ago I was preparing the lesson for God’s Priceless Woman, and the Lord gave me very clear direction in four passages – Deuteronomy 10:17-19; Psalm 10:14; Psalm 68:5-6; and Psalm 146:7-10. Each one of these tells of God’s promise to defend the cause of the fatherless and widows. I began to see the course God intended us to pursue. There are so many overwhelming needs that a willing but confused person doesn’t know were to begin without specific guidance. As I read God’s Word, I began to see His plan for our assistance to these dear, struggling people. The Lord went on to confirm this direction through a conversation I had with our sons after picking them up at the airport. After experiencing uncontrollable excitement at the airport when I finally got to embrace my long-awaited family, we had much “catching up” to do while exchanging stories on the long car trip to Tenwek. One of the first questions Jon asked me was what Dad and I had done about sending needy children to school. The Jr. High Youth group at our home church had collected money to pay for some school fees. I shared with him the recent insight God was giving me and was then utterly amazed and ecstatic when Jon recounted what the Lord had prompted him to do right before he came to Kenya. He felt led to send an e-mail to his co-workers explaining the desire of his parents to begin a scholarship fund for needy children as a part of the their ministry at Tenwek. Then to add to this incredible confirmation of God’s direction, Tom added that he had been led to do the same thing. The result of their e-mails – an overwhelming response from generous, caring people [even little children of families getting involved] motivated to help the sorely afflicted families in this region of the world. Our sons brought the God-directed means to pursue this vision and make it a reality.

We discussed ways to implement the ongoing distribution of school fees from this fund, accountability for committee members assigned this responsibility, and identification of targeted children according to God’s guidance. Last Friday I asked the Lord to bring the head pastor of the district, David Kilel, to our Tenwek home if this was truly His plan for these children. Well, you guessed it; Pastor Kilel called us Friday evening and asked if we had time to visit with him concerning our desire to help the needy. God is sovereign in all situations. As Paul and I related the events of the past few weeks to the pastor, his enthusiasm mounted and he offered many helpful suggestions that seemed to be the missing answers we needed for final direction. He expressed his excitement over the vision he could see emerging which would undoubtedly have long lasting benefits. He shared with us the burden the local church, Africa Gospel Church, has to help the vast number of widows and orphans but possess no financial means to do so because of the degree of poverty in the area. He informed us that nothing like this had been thought of or started locally, and he realized the encouragement this fund would be to the AGC church to become involved and take on this responsibility of administration, yet being accountable to us. Paul and I and Pastor Kilel prayed about the implementation of the fund with the existing resources brought by our sons and decided on the next three steps to take. Please pray for these needs as Pastor Kilel sets out to put the “Scholarship Fund for Orphans and Children of Widows” into place.

1. Selection of 4 trustworthy men of the local church to form the committee.

2. Identification process of selecting the children who meet the criteria of the focus God has given us – orphans, children of widows in the church, children of unchurched widows [who may be drawn to the Lord as they see His provision in their lives]

3. Opening the necessary bank account in Bomet [the nearby town] and all the paperwork to be completed by the church for the purpose of starting this fund.

The three of us felt great peace and a sense of tremendous thanksgiving as we concluded our time together. We knew we had witnessed the hand of God at work in a mighty way. Phil 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NAS)

If anyone has a desire to be a part of this ministry for the education of needy children in the Tenwek area [grades 1 through high school] you are invited to contact us about it. Lord willing, the fund will be activated before we leave Tenwek June 24 to come home. We will try to get pictures of the children being helped, and accountability reports of their school expenses paid and progress reports of the children’s work will be available to us throughout the year. All of this assistance will be done in the name of the Lord; there will not be a one on one match of child and supporting family. Matthew 6:3-4 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (NIV) A composite picture of all the students will be available in time. A special thanks to those who gave so generously to begin this program that will enable many children to receive an education otherwise denied them.

I just want to close by sharing a verse that has become very meaningful to me and explains the motivation Paul and I have for working with the Lord in Kenya. Acts 20:24 “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

Thank you for joining us in this ministry God has planned for our family in Kenya.

Lovingly in Jesus,

Marty [for the Jarretts in Kenya]

Dear Family and Friends:
Believe it or not, the girls and I are in Kenya with Paul! My first “official” letter to you is long overdue, but the Lord and I have been working on some attitude adjustments in my life. God is so faithful to pick us up when we stumble.
Our first six weeks in Kenya have been full of lessons that God is using to draw me closer to Him. Disappointments [which are really His appointments], sorrow, failures, encouragement, instruction, joy, and victories have all been a part of my learning experiences. I think it is time that I share with you God’s loving, all-sufficient grace in my life.
Working alongside the Lord is fulfilling but not without its trials and struggles. When we arrived at Tenwek, we heard the first day that 2 of our beggar children friends had been banned from the compound due to apparent stealing and verbally assaulting visiting staff families. Of course the boys were trying to find ways to see us for help, but it was necessary for us to abide by the decisions of the long-termers as they are impacted all year long. We are still praying for God’s guidance in this sad situation. Please pray that God will bring someone into the lives of these needy boys to help them physically and spiritually. [If us, show us how without offending or disregarding the needs of the other people at Tenwek.]
For a couple of weeks, I unwisely chose to let my emotions control me as jet lag and adjustments to a very different homemaking routine combined with rough bouts of missing family members who remain at home. [It has been very difficult leaving Susanna at home this time.] Nevertheless, God’s grace is sufficient; and each time I went to His Word, God was waiting to comfort and encourage me to meet all my needs and remind me of His purpose for this ministry. God used Deut. 31:8 and Psalm 139:9-10 to bring my attention back to His perfect character and provision.
Deut 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (NIV)
Ps 139:9-10 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (NIV)
When I felt weak and useless, God reminded me of His grace. In 2 Cor 12:9-10 God says: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV)
A dear friend of mine handed me an Elisabeth Elliott devotional [she knew how much I appreciated Elisabeth's walk of faith] the day before I left for Kenya. My friend commented that I would probably find opportunities to glean from the insight expressed by this author who knows the reality of trials and victory. How right she was, as I have certainly identified with some of her experiences. One day’s message was particularly helpful as it expressed my thoughts when first returning to Tenwek: “Wastelands” There are dry, fruitless, lonely places in each of our lives, where we seem to travel alone, sometimes feeling as though we must surely have lost the way. What am I doing here? How did this happen? Lord, get me out of this! He does not get us out. Not when we ask for it, at any rate, because it was He all along who brought us to this place. He has been here before – it is no wilderness to Him, and He walks with us. There are things to be seen and learned in these apparent wastelands which cannot be seen and learned in the “city” – in places of comfort, convenience, and company. God does not intend to make it NO wasteland. He intends rather to keep us – to hold us with His strength, to sustain us with His sure words – in a place where there is nothing else we can count on. Let’s keep alert for the wonders our Guide will show us in the wilderness.
Ten days after we arrived, the Lord made His abounding grace evident to the Tenwek Family as we faced the shocking death of Tammie King, a beloved fellow missionary and friend. Her tragic death resulting from a sacrificial car accident [avoiding Kenyan children running across the road] vividly reminded me of my previous year of dealing with my brother’s death. God’s “perfect peace that passes all understanding” became a reality as I held tightly to the certain hope we believers have for eternal life in Christ Jesus. Along with the promises in God’s Word, I could recall all the ways the Lord has been faithful to provide in times of sorrow and trial over the past year. My petty concerns suddenly took on a whole new light as I again faced the reality of fragile life and God’s purpose for each of us while participating in His daily gift of life.
God’s hand was so evident in every detail of Tammie’s celebration service. His presence was clearly felt through each song, poem, testimony, and the message from scripture. One friend related that in a conversation with Tammie just a few weeks before her accident Tammie had mentioned that if she should die in Kenya, she desired that any service would be a celebration of God’s perfect gift of eternal life for all who believe in His Son. Tammie’s nursing students wrote a beautiful song in tribute to their instructor. A portion of the words expressed the assurance of a Christian’s everlasting hope and the available comfort when we focus on God’s perfect character. “Rest in the Lord, our sister. You’ve done enough. Rest in the Lord, our sister. We will meet with you someday in heaven. Lord, give us your spirit to lead us in your ways, even at this time. Dear Lord we praise you and we adore you. Your name is Holy and you are good. Dear Lord, nothing can take you by surprise, like it does to us. For your thoughts are not our thinking, neither your planning are our plans. “
God also used a poem written by a friend to remind us of the grace and love shown by a sovereign Lord as He takes us through the trials of life. Part of the poem shares these thoughts about Tammie’s life and God’s promises: “Remember my humanity but cling to my immortality. In living we die. In dying we live. I have changed time for eternity, boundaries and limits for freedom and access. I see the face of the One we love and served together. He longs for you to lean on and receive His comfort. Don’t forget — I am still with you. I am in your memories, so treasure those …. I am now amid the great cloud of witnesses, cheering you on, knowing you can make it. Hold on, don’t be discouraged, healing will come…. Remember, Cry, Celebrate, Heal…The curtain on the stage of my life closed to the thunderous applause of heaven. The lessons you’ve learned from my brief performance — use them to “gather ye rosebuds, while ye may.” I learned, I loved, I lived. Now it is your turn. Seize the day.”
During the two-hour celebration service, it seemed like God opened the heavens and gave us a glimpse of His presence in all His majesty. The praise gathering ended with the mixed voices of hundreds of Kenyans and Americans singing a Kenyan song full of a powerful message: Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe Twasema Asante; [There is no God like you – We say thank you] Mwokozi [No savior like you; Mponaji [No healer like you]. You have rescued our sister Tammie. She rests in the arms of the everlasting God.
A special blessing to us through those difficult days was a visit from our daughter, Beth, and her two friends, Amy and Erica Dryden. God’s plans for our time together turned out to be somewhat different than we had planned; but as always, His ways are best. It seems the Lord was using these lessons of faith in our visitors’ lives as they were to go home to face the news that a close friend had been killed in an automobile accident while they were here. Death seems to be all around us, but repeatedly God reminds me of the victory we have in Jesus.
Another blessing God has arranged is the opportunity for me to lead a Bible study, “God’s Priceless Woman” with some of the missionary wives. [I did this study with my daughters and two friends last year.] What a joy to search scripture together and take to heart God’s design for a godly woman. The girls baby-sit for the little ones of each family involved so our time together is truly one of refreshment for each mother.
While Beth was here, the girls and I went up the hill to visit the local Kenyan primary school. It was an unusually rainy day so we walked through rivers of mud to get there. The gray clouds and dismal weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of the 2 classrooms of students we visited. The fourth graders understood some English as they have just begun formal study of our language. The first graders knew very little English but greeted us with much excitement. All the school children are so attentive, eager, and polite. Their wonderful smiles warmed our hearts in such great measure that Becki and I felt God leading us to return to the school on a regular basis.
That visit led me to a most rewarding part of my ministry which God has used to open my eyes once again to His goodness and grace. As Becki and I walked home last Tuesday from our first morning of instructing the first grade class, God showed me very clearly that He was providing me with His grace to overcome my homesickness. Yes, I will still miss my family, but God has lovingly reminded me that the best place to be is in the center of His will. When He arranges for me to be in Kenya, I need to be here joyfully to allow Him to work through me and accomplish what He has planned.
Sharing the gospel with those precious children was so fulfilling. Becki and I used the “wordless” book and other visuals that Nancy Bullington [our oldest son's first Sunday School teacher and 5th grade SS teacher for all our children] had so generously given us to bring in our shipment last year. Many of you have responded to my requests for prayer concerning the plans God has for me to work with the Kenyan children. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers as I see this opportunity as a direct answer for how to use these wonderful materials, how to have an impact on the lives of children here, and how to overcome my homesickness. Finding where God is working and responding to His invitation to join Him has allowed me to surrender my downcast attitude for a sense of joy in serving Him here in Kenya.
Isaiah 55:6,8,9,11,12 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. .. so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (NIV)
By American standards, the common school here is little more than a shelter. The walls and floors are cement, and the rooms are very dark, dingy and damp due to the lack of adequate windows or any electricity. There are no resource materials and teaching “tools” consist of a blackboard and chalk. Thirty-seven well-behaved first graders are squeezed together on six benches with six crude tables serving as desks. The girls wear identical sweaters with their skirts; and the boys wear these uniform sweaters with their pants. Their recess time is spent with the cows in the field or tending large gardens where their food is grown for school lunches.
What is lacking in physical appearance and provisions of the classrooms is far outweighed by the enthusiasm of the children and the eagerness of the staff to have their students hear about Jesus Christ. With the help of one of the teachers as our interpreter [she happens to be our next door neighbor], we were given the privilege of sharing Jesus with these precious little ones and teaching them Bible songs. They did well learning the English words and hand motions to “Jesus Loves Me”. Next week we will read a true story of an African boy who hears the gospel for the first time as he is taught the meaning of the colors found in the “wordless” book. We will also help them make bracelets with beads representing these same colors of gold, black, red, white, and green [Heaven, sin, Jesus' death and resurrection, forgiveness, and growth in Jesus]. Serving others definitely takes the focus off of self and helps eliminate the negative attitudes that creep up so readily when we are consumed with our own emotions and trials.
I have also seen God’s grace at work in my life even as I engage in such a common activity as shopping [but here it is definitely an adventure and not your everyday Wal-Mart or Marsh experience]. Paul loves to tease me about my shopping [as you have heard in past letters]; but in reality, this gives me a wonderful opportunity to share Christ with the numerous sellers I encounter as I meander [you offend them if you don't stop to look at each person's wares] through the crowded rows of items that are bartered for in a lively manner. Two people especially come to mind as I think of my “shopping evangelism”. After reaching an agreed upon price, I offer my new friends the opportunity to receive the greatest gift God has to offer – eternal life through Jesus Christ, [far better than the pen, hat, or T-shirt they are wanting from me]. Shopping in Kisumu [when we visited Lake Victoria with Beth], I met a woman named Rose. When I asked her if she knew Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, she looked at me with eager eyes and said that she had been praying night and day for God to teach her the way to Heaven. I shared the gospel, prayed with her, and gave her a Swahili tract to encourage her with scripture. As she thanked me profusely, I thought again of God’s grace and how He chooses to use us to further his Kingdom. In Nairobi at the Masai market this past week-end, I came across a man who gave a puzzled laugh and disturbing answer to my question, “If you should be hit by a matatu [majorly overcrowded vans driven by wild men] today and die, do you think you would go to heaven?” His response of “That is a difficult question” gave me the opportunity to once again share the gospel and the assurance of eternal life we can have as believers in Christ. My ziplock bag of gospel tracts holds treasured food for these needy souls [even more important than the money I give them for their wares to buy physical food for their bodies]. God is faithful to work through us wherever we are if we have willing hearts and remain where He wants to use us.
Finally, I would like to share a few examples of our homemaking routine that are so different here than experienced in the states. I mentioned earlier in this letter that the adjustments take awhile to become routine. One big difference in Kenya [especially in out-of-the-way places like Tenwek] is the lack of readily available household supplies. One learns quickly to save everything – empty food boxes or bags, paper towels, paper cups, Styrofoam plates, foil, and even plastic wrap. Plastic bags are washed and reused until falling apart with so many holes that more food leaks out than stays in the bag. Traveling to Nairobi once a month or every 6 weeks to get supplies is an adventure to say the least. How many times have you passed a herd of giraffes grazing by the side of the road as you ventured out to the store? It does seem a little more exciting than spotting dogs, cows, or horses. After the 3-4 hours of travel [depending on the number and depth of the potholes in the road], the next challenge is finding the items you have expectantly written down on your wish list. The cereal aisle is always the first place the girls descend on as that seems to be the first food item we deplete and have to wait for the next trip to Nairobi to restock our supply. [Even though we buy enough boxes to feed a small army!] What we can purchase is fully dependent on what the grocery can stock that particular week. Sometimes we find it is necessary to be very creative with our recipes. Once the 2 or 3 day trip is completed and we are safely home, my real work has just begun – I spend 5 or 6 hours in the kitchen washing, bleaching, chopping, and putting away the generous supply of fresh fruits and vegetables that can only be purchased in Nairobi; we are so thankful to get fresh produce other than Tenwek pineapples, bananas, potatoes and carrots for a variety in our meals. After returning from Nairobi, our Sunday dinner was a feast of Kenyan asparagus, mango, watermelon, strawberries, parsley potatoes, bananas, and Egyptian oranges. Yum! One final difference I want to share is the enthusiasm and appreciation I see in our girls over little items that are taken for granted at home in the states. A visiting family brought us a bag of M & Ms; the exclamations of delight were so great that one would think it was Christmas morning! We need to see each day of life as a gift from God to serve Him and every possession as a provision from a faithful, loving God.
In conclusion, I want to thank all of you for being a part of our ministry in Kenya and praise God for His abundant grace that He so richly pours out on His servants. Grace can be explained as God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. When I stop to consider what Christ has done for me so that I may experience His love, strength, and guidance each day on earth, and enjoy fellowship with Him forever in Heaven, I am filled with wonder at His splendor and majesty and yet His Humility and desire to care so perfectly for me.
II Thessalonians 2:16-17 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (NIV)
Lovingly in Jesus,
Marty

PS from Paul: Please pray for Irene Mutai, one of our clinical officers. We will likely need to induce labor a month early because of blood pressure problems at the end of her pregnancy. The baby seems to be a month behind in its growth.
Also, pray for an 18-year-old girl from the Kisii area, Willilister, who Russ White and I operated on today for a vesico-vaginal fistula. She gave birth 2 years ago in a catastrophic delivery where the baby died and her uterus was removed. She has been draining urine uncontrollably through this hole between the bladder and the upper vagina. We got a good repair accomplished which will help her immensely if it heals properly without complication.

Safe Trip to Nairobi, Giraffe Kisses, and a Drug Deal Goes Down

Dear Friends and Family:
Thanks for your prayers for our trip this weekend. Every trip away from Tenwek is an adventure into the unknown other than the constant presence of the love of God and His protection. This was once again evident as He worked out some of the unfinished details in a wonderful way.
The planned agenda called for us to leave Tenwek early enough to get to Kijabe Hospital’s Dental Clinic by 11AM. Amy and Laura were to be seen by Dr. Warren Rich before his 12-1 lunch hour. As this is a 2 and ½ hour drive on a good day, we left at 8AM. We also wanted to order meat to be frozen for our return trip, meet with Joel Kiathe, the WGM employee in Nairobi who facilitates visas, work permits, medical licenses, etc. Then we needed to find out if we had any reservations anywhere for Friday night. That’s quite a bit to coordinate in one day.
The adventure part began on the road outside Longisa, the town just down the road from Bomet. Here the road has been washed out repeatedly and the road crew was actually out repairing the road with a grader. The flagman who had us stop with the long line of cars ahead said it might be just a little while, but the foreman came up a little later and said it would be at least a half hour before they opened up. Pretty soon a group of entrepreneurs came up and asked us if we were in a hurry. We allowed as how we would like to get going pretty soon. They offered to show us the bypass around the construction. We weren’t too sure, but then I could see they were talking about the ridge along the road where some cars had obviously been. We backed up a quarter mile down the road with the escorts running along. Then we put the car in 4-wheel drive and headed “off-road”. They needed to push us a little up the muddy incline at the head of the bypass, but after that we put to good use the skills learned last month driving through the mud at Masai Mara and made good headway all the way up the hill around the construction. The escorts ran along and as we pulled back on the road, I knew they were looking for a payment. I had the girls ready with a 200 shilling note [about $2.50] and gave that to them as they came up. They wanted a thousand, but I knew that was too much. Two hundred would buy lunch for the whole gang.
We pulled into Kijabe at 11:50 and were resigned to waiting through the lunch hour, but instead Warren Rich worked through most of the lunch hour and we were finished by 12:45. We appreciated his kindness. Then we drove on to the outskirts of Nairobi where we shop for meat and vegetables each visit. We ordered meat to be frozen for our return either the next day or Saturday. After eating lunch we drove to Joel Kiathe’s office and caught him just before he was leaving for the day. He reviewed our passports and determined what was necessary. We then stopped at Doug and Lynn Adkins’ house on the same compound to check on our reservations. It turned out another missionary friend had made Friday’s reservations for us, so we went grocery shopping at the store across the road for non-perishables. We decided to order “carry-out pizza” to take to the guesthouse. It actually wasn’t too bad, in spite of the fact that most things “American” here are a pretty poor imitation. Debbye got sick with the flu bug that had been going around Tenwek, but she recovered by morning.
The next morning we were surprised by a call from Lynn Adkins asking us if we wanted to stay in their house Friday night instead of the guesthouse. They were to be out of town and were happy to have us stay there. What a treat to be in a three bedroom house instead of the European style rooms with the common bath down the hall!
Giraffe Kisses

The girls have wanted to go to Giraffe Park in Nairobi for a long time, but we never have had the opportunity. With a leisure day in Nairobi and no further business until the next day, we decided to try it. This small private park was founded about twenty years ago by a wealthy lady from New York who rescued a baby giraffe and had no place to put it, except at her suburban estate. It survived and other giraffes were brought in over the years. The estate grounds were converted into the park and the manor to a private hotel. The giraffes can look in the second story windows at the overnight guests!
A tall feeding station is set up, and you can hand feed pellets to the giraffes. An American TV production crew was filming as we came up. The narrator indicated that giraffe saliva has anti-bacterial properties and is the cleanest in the animal kingdom. That was all the girls needed to hear. They put the pellets between their lips and the giraffes licked the pellets and their faces. Marty and Becki were the only non-participants and the only ones I will now allow to kiss me. Yucch! Someday you may even see some wild kingdom program featuring the Jarrett girls as the camera crew included their antics in the filming.
We transferred our things to the Adkins’ house and headed downtown to the shopping center for the day. The girls wanted to see a movie at the Sarit Center which is an upscale mall with fast food restaurants, a video game emporium, car dealers, money exchange facilities, a grocery, and many other shops. There are lots of Indian kids and many Americans and other nationalities as well with money to burn, so this is a popular hangout. Some of the girls saw “Castaway” while two others went to “102 Dalmations”. That gave Marty and I some time to kill. Marty wanted to go to the Masai Market at the Village Market shopping center. As I am the chauffeur at this point I consented to go knowing full well that meant she would shop and I would sit and wait. I don’t enjoy the large open markets because the hawkers always doggedly pursue me trying to interest me in buying things for which I have no desire. It’s safer to sit elsewhere.
A Drug Deal at the Village Market

The Village Market is even more upscale than the Sarit Center as it is located in a wealthy residential area with many United Nations personnel living nearby. We pass the Swedish Ambassador’s Estate and a German school on the way there. This is a large open air complex of shops with a center forum with waterfalls and some tables outside the food court. The Masai Market is outside in the parking lot on Fridays each week, and many security guards patrol the mall to keep the riff-raff out so as not to disturb the shoppers. The shop owners are usually Indians and the employees are Kenyans. As help is inexpensive, there are far more employees in each store than would be noted in the States.
I decided to sit down at a table in the food court and purchased the largest size Coca-Cola [750 ml] as I knew if Marty said she’d be an hour or maybe 90 minutes that I’d best prepare for 2 hours. I didn’t have much reading material so I was “people watching” for most of the time. It wasn’t mealtime from 3-5 PM so most of the tables were occupied with families with tired kids or teenagers getting a snack. Many of the kids and wives have the cell phones that are becoming ubiquitous in Nairobi, particularly since the phone lines are so bad.
At the table next to me I noticed a well-dressed Kenyan man, whom I will call Philip, sit down at a corner table with some background separation from the outside mall provided by a support wall. He appeared to be about 35 to 40 years old. He looked different from the local business people and staff in that he wore a well-tailored suit and was overweight, which is unusual in this part of the world. He had two cell phones in operation which struck me as unusual. He was joined briefly by a woman about the same age as he was. She was attractively dressed except she carried a black backpack of the type commonly seen carried by locals. It didn’t go with her fancy white outfit at all. She set it down behind Phillip and left. He paid no attention to the bag. I assumed it was his wife and she was going shopping. Soon a waitress from the Chinese restaurant brought out a large plate of food and set it in front of Philip. He was very friendly to her and gave her a large tip. This heightened my curiosity, as no one seems to tip the people from the fast food restaurants when they bring food out to the tables.
Philip stayed busy with his cell phones and consuming the plate of food. A security guard came up to him with a message. He gave the guard some money and a cell phone and pointed up to the second level above us. Soon the guard returned with the phone and with “Tiffany”. She was a tall, attractive young woman about 24 who appeared to have been poured into her tight fitting white slacks. High heeled sandals and a tank top completed her ensemble. [No one in polite Kenyan society dresses like this in the daytime.] She carried no purse and obviously had nothing else concealed on her body. If I had to guess her profession, I would have said the oldest; but her manner was different. She wasn’t brassy or selling anything. She appeared a little nervous as she patted Phillip on the hand. Soon he gave her some money and she shortly returned with a fruit drink for Philip. Another young girl who accompanied her was about 17 years of age and wore a more traditional middle-eastern black dress. I thought, “Oh, the bag belongs to her?” She was introduced to Philip who pleasantly smiled at her and held her hand, swinging it back and forth. But she soon left without the bag that continued to lie next to Philip in the corner.
Philip and Tiffany sat quietly at the table playing with the cellphones and making a few phone calls. I figured at this point that the lady in the white dress wasn’t coming back. Soon another man in a three-piece business suit with a briefcase walked across the commons and joined them at the table. “Alex” appeared to be about 50 and looked like a Washington DC lawyer. Likewise, he bore no resemblance to the local Kenyans. They greeted each other in a friendly way but not with the typical Kenyan handshake of friends, which would go through a variety of grip and position changes. Both men appeared to be calm and relaxed. I thought that he might be a salesman of some sort, but they did not seem to enter into any business discussion. I looked around to see if there were any “body guard” types around, but both men were alone except for Tiffany. She was soon asked to bring “Alex” a fruit drink. In her absence the men sat quietly. Neither seemed to pay any attention to her provocative attire. She soon returned with the drink. Alex brought out a business card and gave it to Tiffany. She wrote something on the back as she received instructions from Philip and Alex. She then left with one of the cell phones and exited the mall area towards the parking lot. Soon the cellphone rang again which Philip answered. Within a few minutes, he and Alex shook hands and Alex stood up picking up his briefcase and the backpack and walked out of the mall. Philip never touched or even looked at the backpack. He then left the mall without so much as a furtive glance about him.
In the movies, this is when the cops should make the bust. Alex probably had the money and Tiffany was probably outside with the drugs waiting for Philip. I decided to end my fantasy at this point and didn’t follow to see if my suspicions were correct. I’d had enough entertainment for one afternoon. Marty soon appeared with her purchases, and we headed back to the Sarit center to meet the girls.
As I contemplated what I had witnessed that afternoon, some scripture came to mind:
Ps 64:5-10 They encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares; they say, “Who will see them?” They plot injustice and say, “We have devised a perfect plan!” Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning. But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn. All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him! (NIV)
Job 20:4-8 “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since man was placed on the earth, that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night. (NIV)
Philip and Alex may have triumphed today, but God’s Word says it will be a brief victory. We do not need to be envious of those who have gained much in material wealth at the expense of their integrity and perhaps eventually their souls. Maybe I should have given Philip a tract like Marty was passing out in the marketplace as she shopped. These tracts explain in Swahili the gospel of Jesus Christ. After all, that’s why we’re here in Kenya. Maybe Philip will hear it from someone else. Maybe not. Romans 10:14-15 says “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (NIV)
Thank you for sending us. Pray that God gives us many opportunities to share the Good News with those who are perishing apart from Him.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (NIV)

Paul, Marty, Debbye, Becki, Amy, Laura, and Rachel Jarrett
Serving Jesus with you.

Dear Friends and Family:
It seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve written, but the e-mail has been down so much that it has discouraged us from writing the longer letters. In fact, the postmaster had to ask the Tenwek families not to send letters until the backlog of incoming mail was cleared. The transmission over the phone lines to Nairobi was so poor that as soon as the outgoing mail cleared, the connection was lost, blocking the incoming mail. At one time there were over 500 messages waiting to come through. Sorry that we were unable to answer your letters promptly.
Comings and Goings

The end of January brought many changes in personnel at the hospital as some visiting staff left and others have arrived. In addition we have a new long-term doctor and his wife, Dr. Eric Miller and Jodi, who are here for the next three years. He is a family practitioner and will take over many of the responsibilities from Phil Renfroe when that family leaves on furlough in July. The Russ White family will also leave about the same time for a year. We are excited that our friend Howard Johnson, a general surgeon from Oregon, will come in May and take Russ’s place for the year. New medical students have replaced those who left and two large families have come for the month. The Ruckers from North Carolina are new friends we met at Prescription for Renewal in October. Bill is a general surgeon. He and Lorraine have 3 children, Matt, John, and Anna. And David Brown’s sister and brother in law, Jeff and Laura Childes, from Muncie, Indiana are here with their six children. Jeff is an anesthesiologist. Added to this are two doctor Kammels from New York, a father and son, and Dr. Doug Lehman, a career missionary who will begin service in Tanzania as the only doctor at a small hospital. All in all, it has been a very busy time getting acquainted with all the new people and getting them oriented. We’re now among the “old pros” who can show the newcomers the ropes.
A surprise visitor

One of the interesting features of Asperger’s syndrome that our daughter Rachel manifests is the inappropriate use of emotion and expression. Like last year when she accidentally started a fire in the bathroom where we were using an oil lamp; she calmly came into the living room and stated, matter of factly, “I think there’s a fire in the bathroom.” Last week she walked into the kitchen and announced in a calm manner, “Mary Ellen is here”. When asked what she meant, she just repeated the same statement with a little more emphasis. Marty came out of the kitchen to find a surprise guest from Indiana, Mary Ellen Kessler, in our living room. She was in another part of Kenya on a short-term mission trip and traveled 5 hours by matatu to spend a day and 2 nights with us. Her e-mail to us announcing her intentions to visit us had not been received. We were very excited to have her here. We promise a more enthusiastic greeting to any of you who decide to drop in on us when you’re in the neighborhood.
Patient updates

I’m happy to report all the patients that I have mentioned for prayer have continued to do well. Esther Langat left the hospital under her own power but using a cane. She is still draining infection from her incision, but didn’t require additional surgery at this time. Her original problem was long-obstructed labor requiring a cesarean section.
Alice recovered quickly from her hysterectomy for cervical cancer, but her incision is now infected and she has returned to the hospital for care of this problem. Peris was back in the clinic and is doing well after 5 weeks. Unfortunately, her uterine tumor was a high grade sarcoma [a malignancy] as I suspected. I will need to review some literature before recommending further treatment.
In the meantime, I have had several challenging cases. Last week I had a “routine” hysterectomy scheduled for uterine fibroids. A technician who is still in training had done the ultrasound that established the diagnosis. Consequently, I allowed Williter’s case to be done under spinal anesthesia which would last two hours, and I made a low horizontal [Pfannenstiel] incision. This incision is less roomy but is more cosmetic and heals without danger of a hernia forming. As soon as we got inside the abdomen, I knew we were in trouble with the wrong incision and the wrong anesthetic because everything was stuck together from an abscess involving the tubes and ovaries. This surgery required four and a half hours. As the spinal anesthesia wore off, the usual procedure would have been to administer Ketamine to disassociate the patient’s brain from the rest of her body or to put her to sleep with general anesthesia. For some reason we were out of Ketamine and the anesthesia personnel most familiar with general anesthesia were trying to help a quarry worker whose face had been smashed with a boulder. Consequently, my patient got a lot of Demerol, and we had a real wrestling match on our hands trying to complete the surgery with already limited exposure. As we had used the last unit of blood in the blood bank early in the case, we stopped short of removing the cervical portion of the uterus that would have taken another hour [and more blood at the rate we were going]. When it was time to close the incision, the patient was too uncomfortable; she pushed all of her intestines out of the abdomen. What a struggle it was to get everything back inside! Later in the day, I went to check on her in the recovery room. She was smiling broadly and very grateful for the surgery. My guess is that after you have an abscess removed you feel so much better that even this kind of surgery can be appreciated. Williter is a new Christian, and I encouraged her to become a regular blood donor for the hospital when she makes a full recovery.
I have had several cases of pregnant patients with severe malaria come in this week. In fact, we are having a malaria epidemic. The mosquitoes have bred more abundantly during the extended rainy season and when there are more people who are infected for them to bite, they spread the disease to the next person, and an epidemic begins. Consequently, I’ve ordered more blood transfusions the past few weeks than at any time in my career. The blood bank is always running low. We recruit any family and visitors of patients to drop by the blood bank and make a donation. Despite what the Jehovah’s Witnesses who lobby against transfusion of blood say, there is no substitute for blood in many of these cases. The life is truly in the blood as the scripture says. With our new fetal monitor we see immediate evidence of improvement of a baby’s condition in the womb as we administer the oxygen-carrying red blood cells to the mother whose blood has been destroyed by malaria.
One young Masai woman, Ramato, is another example. This 18-year-old was infected with severe malaria causing her to lose her 4-month pregnancy. By the time she reached the hospital, her body was too weak to expel the placenta. Infection, the presence of which was obvious from the bad odor, had begun to weaken her further. She was arousable but unable to communicate very much information to us. It was difficult even to examine her because of the narrowing of the opening from the genital mutilation she had undergone at puberty. At first I thought she might have a placental cancer like I have seen here all too frequently; but after more complete examination, I realized the stringy mass of flesh we were seeing was just the infected placenta turned inside out. We removed it with gentle traction and began a blood transfusion and antibiotics. She has made a very nice recovery and before she was discharged from the hospital yesterday, we were able to lead her to Christ with the assistance of our intern who could translate the gospel into Swahili.
Several other patients have made professions of faith the past two weeks including an unmarried 18-year-old, Chebet, who came in having convulsions from eclampsia, the high blood pressure condition brought on by pregnancy. I was able to stop her seizures with an intravenous solution of magnesium sulfate. In a few hours she regained consciousness and delivered a healthy baby a few hours after that. Despite all the difficulties and challenges we are facing, God is still working in a mighty way bringing people into His kingdom. It is evident that it is God working through the staff for medical successes so that patients may have the opportunity to receive eternal life, the ultimate victory.
Eyeball stories

While Dave Brown is taking a week off to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro with some of the other doctors who are visiting, Sam Powdrill is running the eye unit. Debbye and Becki were given the opportunity to watch him do cataract surgery. They both reported that eye surgery was the most amazing event they have ever witnessed. [And here I thought my deliveries were the coolest.] Each girl expressed excitement at the reminder of God’s awesome, intricate design of the human body. With Sam’s careful, expert instruction, they could observe the fascinating way God created the eye to respond to repairs and even heal itself. The following morning revealed evidence of God’s healing hand as one woman had the bandages removed from her only functioning eye. Humanly speaking, there had been little hope for a good result in this eye as the damage had been so severe. The woman smiled gratefully as she reported that she could see again. [“For nothing is impossible for God” Luke 1:37]
Sam’s wife, Rachel, returned to the States for further tests on her blood-clotting problem. Saturday night, he had a most challenging case. A drunken man attacked his nephew with a “jimba”, a heavy-duty hoe about the weight of a pick axe. The young man was struck squarely across the front of his head shaving off his frontal bone [the forehead bone] through the frontal and ethmoid sinuses down to the globe of each eyeball. [Equivalent to Exedrin headache #32] Sam had to reattach some of the eye muscles while the surgeons wired the bones back together. Miraculously, the brain was just missed and the eyesight was still intact. The eyelids needed to be reattached as they were on the shaved-off side. God must have something in mind for this young man, as apparently, his time had not yet come to leave this world.
Alcohol abuse is a problem all over the world. In the United States the drunks kill with guns, knives, and automobiles. Here they kill and maim with machetes, jimbas, spears, and bows and arrows. The only answer to this problem is a changed life for the individual through rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit of God. In the meantime, we continue to try to pick up the pieces of the shattered bodies and lives that are brought to us each day.
Making a Grocery Run to Nairobi

We are planning on traveling to Nairobi on Thursday and Friday this week to have dental appointments for Amy and Laura and restock on groceries, as we are out of many things. We have only been able to confirm reservations for Thursday night with the communication difficulties. Please pray for safe travel and a place to stay for Friday night if the Lord wills that we stay two nights. The girls are looking forward to some R & R away from the compound. I’m looking forward to something other than Wheatabix [a hopeful dry wheat cereal biscuit that turns to a disappointing mush when milk is added to it.] I do not recommend that General Mills or Kellogg’s import this recipe. On the other hand Mornflake, a granola cereal with dried red raspberries imported from England, would be a success, I’m sure.
Marty has declined to “tack on” her report to mine, as she says that mine is too long already. I hope that this indicates she will write soon. She does get credit for editing and comma reduction. She is spending a lot of time at the computer communicating with our sons and daughters at home while hoping for return replies. Competition for the now well-behaved laptop computer remains strong, especially after the desktop monitor decided that it was tired of displaying any green or yellow colors. I have no idea what has happened to the monitor, but it sure makes my eyes see strange colors after typing this letter on it. I fear it’s a permanent alteration, but I’m asking God to work on it anyway. New monitors are difficult to come by.
Thanks so much for your letters of encouragement, prayers, and support. We are rejoicing to be able to serve the Lord in Kenya and in the abundance of His blessings here.

Yours in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul for all the Jarretts in Kenya

Colossians 4:3-4. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ …. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Ask God to give you boldness.

Dear Family and Friends:
Thank you for your prayers. We were blessed to have our daughter, Beth, and her friends, Amy and Erica Dryden spend two weeks with us. They have arrived safely back in the USA and seem to have enjoyed their African adventure. The lost luggage pieces arrived a week after their arrival. The girls were glad to have their own clothes back, and the fetal monitors and other equipment were all intact.
Fetal Monitors are Here and Working!

I am happy to report that the fetal monitors are working properly as the paper that fit the monitors was in the luggage that came late. I had forgotten that some extra paper was included in the shipment and that is why I was having difficulty making the pen write; as the extra paper doesn’t seem to be thermal sensitive. I guess I must have slept through the bioengineering lectures in medical school if we even had any. Before we put the monitors in the labor room, it has been decided to build protective cabinets for them as it is feared patients might pull them off the bedside tables. Hopefully the carpenter’s shop will move quickly on these.
Patient Updates

The patients I have mentioned in the last two letters are doing well. Thanks for your prayers on their behalf.
Esther, the mother with a wound abscess, is still quite ill but improving. She had experienced a long delay in delivering her baby which had died. The incision and the uterus became infected and the nerves to her feet had been compressed so long by the baby’s head in the birth canal that she is unable to flex her ankles upwards [bilateral foot drop]. She is now walking with a walker and we struggle with a decision whether to take her infected uterus out, since she is improving daily but still draining lots of pus out of the wound. This is a difficult clinical decision to make as are many that we are faced with on a regular basis. God’s wisdom and direction are always needed.
Peris, the woman who nearly exsanguinated during surgery, had a totally uneventful post-operative recovery. We hope to have a pathology report in a few weeks so that we will know what else will be necessary.
Alice is a new patient this week who has done well after a difficult surgery. She is a 32-year-old mother of 4 who came to clinic with a long history of bleeding. A large cervical cancer [about the size of a tangerine] was found to be the problem. I believed that I could cut around it since the pelvic sidewalls, bladder, and rectum all seemed to be free of involvement. Her hemoglobin was only 4.8 [Of course, by now you know that normal is 12-14], so it was necessary to give her two pints of blood before beginning surgery. One more unit of B pos was located so we began surgery knowing we had little margin for error. The dissections went well with this surgery, and I was able to get out the uterus and cervix without incident other than having lost enough blood to give the remaining unit. I could feel that the lymph nodes on the left side of the pelvis were enlarged and undoubtedly contained tumor. But, as this would not be the last place in the lymph node chain that tumor would be found, I felt it better to quit at this point as we could ill afford to get into major bleeding with no more blood available. Radiation may be a possibility as the family my have enough finances to go to Nairobi for therapy. Alice actually looked better the day after surgery than she had before and was begging for ugali [corn and millet meal] on the first day after surgery. Even if we don’t have a cure of her cancer, her life expectancy is now considerably longer than before surgery.
Mary Chelule, a patient I operated on in April 1999 with a tumor like Alice’s, was back in clinic this week. She now is in the end stages of her cervical cancer with both ureters [the drainpipe from the kidney to the bladder] nearly blocked from the spread of the disease. She will die of kidney failure. She didn’t recognize me as she had in September so I know it is only a matter of weeks now before she goes to be with the Lord. This disease is nearly always detected in a curable stage by routine Pap smears, but that is a luxury unavailable in the third world, so it retains its reign as the leading cancer cause of death in women in this part of the world. Pray for her as she is experiencing some pain.
I have additional help on the service now, but with it comes additional teaching responsibility. I now have Japheth, a medical officer intern; Bernard, a clinical officer intern; Elijah, a clinical officer student, and Amanda, a senior medical student from West Virginia. Every other week, I need to prepare a lecture for all the interns as well as the daily supervision and evaluation of these individuals. The lectures for the nursing staff went well.
More Travels in Kenya

With our guests here last week, we wanted to let them see a little more of Kenya than our little mountainside location. I had Thursday through Sunday off and their requests were a safari and a trip to Lake Victoria. We had not been west to the lake, so we agreed to my driving to Kisumu, the declining port city on the lake. The decline began in 1977 with the breakup of a trade agreement with Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, consequently, the major shipping on the second largest fresh-water lake in the world [only Lake Superior is larger] came to a virtual halt.
I am a little reluctant to drive somewhere I’ve never been before as roads are poorly marked, and conditions usually vary between bad and poor. And there are nuances like unmarked speed bumps that appear without warning so it helps to know where these and other hazards await unsuspecting drivers. Nevertheless, we set out with directions from Sam Powdrill for an alternate route over a better route through the sugar cane fields for part of the way. The drive was supposed to take two hours but ended up being nearly four with a stop in Kericho for gas and a detour over the equator and back. This occurred without fanfare as it was only in retrospect that we realized that when we took a wrong turn into the Nandi Hills we had crisscrossed the equator. There was no yellow line on the road or sign to mark the spot.
We entered Kisumu on Kenyatta Street. Every city in Kenya has a Kenyatta Street in honor of the first president. We searched the map in vain for a Moi Avenue as every other town has a Moi Avenue. In reading some of the history of the area however, it seems that a local political hero who was greatly revered by the Kisumu townspeople [mostly of the Luo tribe] was assassinated during Moi’s rise to power. I suspect that has something to do with the omission.
We located the local craft market so Marty and the girls could shop. I guarded the car and declined offers to purchase a variety of the local vendors’ wares and fended off the beggars who approached the car. Kisumu was a more comfortable city than Nakuru where the beggars were much more aggressive and even hostile. Then we ate lunch at a hotel with limited vista of the lake. As the day was nearly gone, we went to a local park near the lake. Here we saw two leopards in some not too secure looking cages. It seems these big cats had made nuisances of themselves by feasting on local dogs, goats, and chickens.
We then walked out to near the edge of the lake. Among the papyrus reeds we saw lots of the snails which have made the lake totally unsafe for swimming. In fact, just getting a splash of the lake’s water on your skin can allow access to the little cercariae organisms which cause a debilitating illness, bilharziasis. [you may know it by it's other name, schistosomiasis, but then again maybe not]. Three hundred million people in the world are intimately familiar with this disease by its effects if not by its name. Most rivers and lakes in this part of the world are totally unsafe because of it. The snails are the reason for the problem. We declined the canoe ride out to see the hippopotamus family playing in the lake. We chased the monkeys off the car and headed back to town.
After stopping at the Nakumatt grocery which wasn’t as well stocked as Nakuru or Nairobi, we headed back for home. The car was fairly well packed with people without room for additional groceries anyway. We found the main road was completely blocked by construction with no detour signs so we made a u-turn and looked for a different street. We then hit one of the hidden speed bumps with enough force to crash Beth’s head into the roof of the car. She didn’t say much for a while so we weren’t sure if we knocked her unconscious or she was just too stunned to speak. At any rate, she seemed to recover her good spirits a few hours later after some Tylenol and sleep. The two-hour trip back took only two hours going by the main road without getting lost.
Flush with success in our travel adventures, we headed for the Masai Mara the next morning. This place has been called one of the world’s greatest vacation adventures by some travel experts who apparently have never been on the roads that we have to drive on to get there. In fact, most of the guests at the lodge fly in from Nairobi or Mombassa. It is only 90 Kilometers [54 miles] from our house to the Mara where most species of African wildlife are found. Fifty-seven of those kilometers are over dirt roads.
It rained all night long before we were to go. Someone said there had been four inches of rain down at the Mara. In fact we were told at the lodge that it had rained every day since Dec. 20 [and this is the dry season – the Lord must be balancing out the 3 previous years of drought.] The main problem with dirt roads here is that they become mud roads when it rains. And the roads have not been graded since rainy season. Consequently, the roads were virtually indescribably bad. Along some areas, a four-foot deep gully awaited anyone who slid too far to the side. Other areas had long stretches of foot deep mud.
When we got to the half-way point, the road got worse. A petrol lorry [gasoline tanker truck] was stuck in the ditch and some tractors were trying to pull it out. Here I learned first hand about the notorious “black cotton” soil of the Mara area. I decided to pull off the road and up onto the flat table land above the road. That was fine for about 100 yards; but before I could find a place to get back on the road, I sunk down to the axle on the front wheel. There was no tree to attach the power winch, which is located on the front end of the four-wheel drive Land Cruiser. So the tractors temporarily abandoned the lorry and pulled us out. The driver’s advice was to stay on the road. Lesson number one cost only 200 shillings [$3.00 US] Lesson number two was learned from a group of nuns from the town down the road. We stopped to exchange information with each other on the road conditions. Their advice was “follow the tracks” of the other cars. This proved to be invaluable information as we left the road only where other cars had previously gone and avoided impassable spots.
Driving through the mud down the hills was more like driving a boat than a car. The wheel ruts dictated where I went more than the steering wheel did. One time we slid perpendicular to the road and ended up stuck against an embankment. A ditch was behind us– if we went too far backwards, we would be stuck in it. The 7 girls climbed out and got their tennis shoes all muddy. By placing their feet against the embankment and pushing the front of the car, they got us unstuck. [God has blessed us with strong daughters!]
Next we got stuck in a long trench of muck when we lost our forward momentum in a moment of timidity on the part of the driver. Lesson number three is keep your momentum. The girls climbed back out and fastened the towrope to the back of the car. Then like a train of mules on the Erie Canal, they pulled us back out of the muck as they ran along the higher ground beside the road. I wish we had a video of the experience, but Marty was too busy praying and I driving to record the event. The remaining journey was white-knuckled but uneventful. The girls all cheered when we pulled up to the safari club gates. The two-hour drive had taken five hours.
We had a great time viewing the animals. The professional drivers took us out in the big Land Cruisers which are remarkably durable vehicles. We saw lots of lions this time including three mating pairs who separate from the others in the pride and go for a week without eating. The black cotton soil got us repeatedly stuck, but the drivers stuck together and pulled each other out [at least it was their problem now and not mine]. The girls offered helpful advice based on their now seasoned experience, including putting rocks under the wheels that helped on one occasion. The sun shone for the next two days, and the return trip was uneventful over the dried out roads.
Rachel Powdrill

Rachel had more difficulty this week with pulmonary emboli. Russ White put in the umbrella shield device [another first at Tenwek] that should block any further clots from going to the lungs. Rachel is somewhat sore but is up and around and thankful for your continuing prayers for her. Her purse is still somewhere in Nairobi as the phone lines were down, and she was unable to find the lady who had found the purse and originally contacted her.
Tammie King’s Memorial Service

I would be remiss if I didn’t report the wonderful service of praise and thanksgiving we had for Tammie King here at Tenwek. It lasted over two hours, although it seemed a much shorter time. Many people gave testimony of how Tammie had touched their lives. The student nurses wrote and sang a moving song for the occasion. A missionary friend from Burundi sent a very beautiful poem that she had written in honor of Tammie. The singing was joyful and therapeutic for all Tammie’s friends. We felt God’s presence and His comfort throughout the service and He continues to remain with us in the time that has followed as He promises to do forever. Only those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior can know the joy of anticipation of a certain reunion with a loved one who has gone ahead in Christ. In this separation there is pain but not as for those who do not have the Blessed Hope. Praise His Holy Name! [1Thess. 4:13-18]
Russ White Family

Debbye and Amy are babysitting for three days for Russ and Beth White as they go on a retreat without their 4 boys. Keep Russ in your prayers as he has certainly born a heavy load in caring for the Tenwek family during the past two weeks in addition to his heavy schedule of every other night general surgery call. We are thankful for the safe arrival of Dr. Billy Rucker and his family to share this load for the month of February.
We are so thankful for your love and prayers. Thanks also to those who have sent notes and letters of encouragement. The e-mails come through in batches several days apart, but God’s peace has come through continually without interruption. Psalm 105:1 Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.

Love to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul for the Jarretts in Kenya

This is the second letter from this trip back to Kenya. If you missed the first one last week, send a reply and a request to this address and I will forward a copy of it to you if you are interested. As this is the first letter from the reconstruction of the reconstructed e-mail list, you may have received a copy and have no desire for another. Please send a reply back to this address and I will delete you from the list. Please note the return address if you want to mail us, as the old AOL address is having trouble forwarding here – the contents are blank. Sorry if we haven’t written back in response to any letter you may have sent. We are now receiving mail whenever it isn’t raining, but it’s still raining every day!
Death of a Tenwek Missionary

Dear Family and Friends:
This has been a difficult weekend at Tenwek Hospital. One of our missionary family members, Tammie King, was killed in an automobile accident on Saturday evening, January 20, 2001. She has been a fulltime missionary nurse with World Gospel Mission for many years. Her main area of ministry here was serving as the “principal” of the nursing school at Tenwek as well as being the main instructor in midwifery. She has also served as official midwife to the Tenwek community, attending the births of each of the missionary family babies, Kayla Chupp, Jamie White, and Evan Brown, all born in the last 19 months. She has been loved by all of us as one of the single [unmarried] members of the “Tenwek family” who serve as “aunts” to the mission children. Her gift of a cheerful spirit will be missed by all of us.
I wanted to include a narrative of the events of the past few days for those who knew Tammy and are hungry for more details of the tragedy which is so difficult to comprehend. But others may be interested in the differences in how such an event is “handled” in rural Kenya and by a Christian community.
Steven Mutai, the national administrator for Tenwek Hospital, received a call Saturday evening about 7 PM stating that one of the missionaries had been involved in an automobile accident on the road near Mulot. This is a small village at the beginning of the new stretch of road from Bomet to Narok to Nairobi that has just been completed. It is about 40 minutes from Tenwek. He notified Russ White who was “off duty”. Russ gathered some emergency equipment from the surgery and casualty departments, loaded it into his Toyota Land Cruiser and headed down the road towards the accident scene. The informant had indicated it was believed a driver was dead, but that was the extent of the information.
Beth White called the Tenwek family members to ask for prayer. The only missionary who was expected to arrive that night was Tammie, although the Stanfields were also in Nairobi as were the Powdrills. Tammie had gone back to Nairobi to have more repairs done on her Mitsubishi Pantera [identical to the Montero model sold in the US]. It had been in the week before and was not fixed properly, so it was necessary to return. The Powdrills were delayed in Nairobi as Rachel’s purse was stolen from their car as they stood in traffic. They lost their passports, drivers’ licenses, and other valuables. The Stanfields were visiting their daughter at Rift Valley Academy. All the remaining missionaries began to pray for Tammie and whoever else might be injured.
As Russ and Steven made their way down the road through the rain at dusk, they encountered a bus and a van stuck in the middle of the blacktop [tarmac] road where the rains and traffic have washed it out. It was only possible to get through with 4-wheel drive. As they approached Mulot they met policemen who said that a white missionary woman was dead. They hurried on hoping that there was some mistake or that something could be done.
Ironically, the accident was on the new portion of the road where it is possible to travel 60 mile and hour quite easily. The country is wide open with few trees and the road is somewhat elevated. The area is sparsely populated. When they arrived at the scene it was now some 2 hours after the accident. Tammie was dead and lying outside the vehicle. Her neck had been broken and she had massive head injuries. Remarkably there were witnesses to the accident who remained to tell them the story. A car traveling in front of Tammie had seen some children dart out in front of Tammie after the first vehicle had passed them. She had swerved to avoid hitting them causing her SUV to flip end over end and then roll down the road. The other car stopped and pulled Tammie from her car, but she was already dead. She had been killed instantly. The driver of the other car lived near Tenwek and had taken the initiative to call the hospital from the police station in Mulot. If not for his assistance, it may have taken much longer for us to learn of the situation.
There are no ambulances, paramedics, or even funeral homes in this part of Kenya. No wreckers are available. It was up to Russ and Steven to pick up Tammie and bring her back to Tenwek. They secured her belongings and began the long, sad trip back to the hospital.
The word spread quickly among the hospital and mission families. Soon all the missionaries gathered in the White’s home to share their grief with each other. Many Kenyan national staff members also began to arrive. We sang songs such as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine”. We prayed. We expressed anger, disbelief, doubts, and all the other emotions that people experience at such a time. But we came back again and again to the realization of the sovereignty of God and the certainty of His love and the trustworthiness of His character, all of which gave comfort.
As the meeting broke up, we went outside to the car where Tammie lay. Russ drove the car up to the hospital as the rest walked up the hill to the hospital morgue. The men lifted Tammie out of the car. Inside the morgue three of Tammie’s special nursing friends washed her body in a scene reminiscent of pioneer days, but with modern day participants. Although it was unintentional, the three nurses represented three continents –one American, one Japanese, and one Kenyan. This certainly symbolized the diversity of the body of Christ united in a common cause. Even at the late hour of 11 PM, a large crowd gathered outside the morgue and the head chaplain, David Killel, led in prayer. We then dispersed to our various homes for a fitful night sleep.
The next morning we gathered for our Sunday morning worship at the regular time. Instead of a formal sermon, we had a time of praise and worship. Tammie’s 21 nursing students came forward and sang three songs with choked voices and tears streaming down their faces. The moderator [head] of the Africa Gospel Church from Kericho cancelled his preaching engagement and came to the service to minister to us.
After the service, we gathered again at the White’s house as a mission family for a pitch in meal. The field director for World Gospel Mission, Terry Duncan, arrived from Nakuru, some 3 hours away. He had been in touch with the US embassy and secured their willing assistance in getting Tammie’s body back to the US, as was her expressed desire in a form filled out at the beginning of her service with WGM. This was the first death on the field in 36 years for this mission agency, and the foresight of the early leaders in providing for this contingency was helpful. A “family” meeting took place to give all members access to information and make decisions on a memorial service, transport of Tammie to Nairobi for embalming prior to the trip to Indianapolis. It was decided that Robyn Moore would accompany Tammie to Indiana and represent the Tenwek family to her loved ones back home.
We then had an open house at our house and virtually all the mission families came with their children who had not been included in the prior meetings. The sense of our being a member of a large family is very strong here. This includes the Kenyan National staff members of the hospital family and the extended family of the World Gospel Mission working in other parts of Kenya, most of whom have now arrived for the memorial service on Tuesday.
Today at the hospital a service was held in the chapel at 10AM. Over 150 members of the staff were there. It was announced that Tammie would be flown to Nairobi by one of the other mission agency’s planes. About noon the plane flew over to announce its arrival. It seemed like the entire hospital staff gathered in the courtyard outside the morgue. Over 400 people came out to sing and pray and pay their last respects to Tammie as she was brought out to a truck to drive her the 5 miles to the airstrip at Bomet. As the truck pulled away and the crowd dispersed, the gentle sprinkle broke forth in a torrent of rain, thunder, and hail. It was fairly brief however. An hour later the plane circled back over Tenwek in a final salute to Tammie’s friends and coworkers.
Please pray for Tammie’s father, stepmother, brother and sister and other loved ones back home as well as for her “Tenwek family ” Also, pray for God to fill the gigantic hole in the nursing school faculty left by her departure.
Jarrett Family News

Thanks for your prayers on our behalf this week. We received the 2 missing suitcases this Wednesday. No theft was noted, so the only casualty of the shipment was a word processor for the missionary and handicap children’s [Mosop] boarding school. And that may not be a lost cause as someone may be able to reassemble the scrambled pieces and make it work. I do have a donated Macintosh laptop for that school, although it has no printer.
While I’m on the subject of that school, you may remember the teenage girl who is attending there who has lost all four limbs. One of Russ White’s supporting churches has donated artificial limbs and provided funds for fitting and training her in the use of them. We haven’t been up to the school yet, but we hope to go soon. Some of the materials we brought for the school are in the luggage that “almost” accompanied Beth and the Dryden sisters this Wednesday.
New Prayer Request for Missing Luggage.

We now have 9 suitcases in transit somewhere in the 8000 miles between here and home. I thought that by planning a 3-hour layover in Chicago for travel there would be plenty of time for getting all of the luggage on board the plane. Wrong! Beth’s flight from Indy to Chicago was cancelled, and they were placed on a later flight giving them just enough time to make the London flight but without the luggage. Included in the luggage is a lot of medical equipment including 2 fetal monitors and 90 boxes of suture as well as the girls’ personal belongings. Sure would like to see it show up soon!
One Fetal Monitor is Here, but not Working Perfectly

After assembling the components for the first fetal monitor in the delivery room, we found that the paper that was sold as being the right size for the monitor does not actually fit and the pen is not writing on it. I’m not sure if the problem is that the pen isn’t heating or if the paper isn’t sensitive to the temperature. That was more than a little frustrating. I would have even read the owner’s manual if there had been one. [That would be against my male nature]. If the other 2 monitors don’t work, I’ll try to contact some technical people for suggestions. Every other part of it works; it just doesn’t create a paper record.
I Don’t Remember Being This Busy Last Year

I have hit the ground running with the medical work. Although the census is down at the hospital, the complexity of the work is greater thus far. On Thursday I began what was to be an extremely busy, tiring day. I started with a Cesarean Section in the Maternity Operating Theatre at 7 AM. It must have been the first time I’d done one at that time of day in that room. The sun coming over the mountain shone through the window with such brilliance that I could hardly see to operate! Since there were no blinds, I had the scrub nurse move between me and the window to shade my eyes.
Then after rounds, I began what was supposed to be a routine hysterectomy for uterine fibroids in a 47-year-old woman from Kisii named Peris. The ultrasound had measured the fibroid mass at 12 cm. in diameter, but my examination made me a little uncertain if this diagnosis was correct. My gut feeling was confirmed on opening the abdomen. The mass, which was up to the navel, seemed to extend into the sacrum [tailbone] and the sigmoid colon [large bowel segment in the pelvis]. The upper uterus was normal and the lower part was normal, but the middle part was involved with this mass which also extended out to the right side wall of the pelvis where the blood supply comes in and lots of other vital structures are located.
Thus began a nearly 5-hour operation where I never really felt like I had control of bleeding or sufficient identification of the anatomy to be confident that we would get Peris off the operating table alive. Help was a little sparse this day as Russ White had the day off and Mike Chupp was running from fire to fire, so to speak, including setting the fracture of his own son’s wrist. After isolating 3 of the 4 main arteries to the uterus, I was unable to get to the right uterine artery. I finally had to begin a morcellation technique; that is a fancy way of saying that I just chopped up the tumor into little pieces rather than removing it as a whole. It was a risky move made in desperation that paid off; I was able to remove 90% of the tumor before exhausting all the available blood in the blood bank [just 3 pints].
The remaining tumor wasn’t bleeding too much. After we ascertained that we hadn’t entered the bowel or urinary tract anywhere, we decided to close and await the pathology report in a few weeks. We’ll then decide on additional therapy or surgery if Peris survives the postoperative period. Please pray for her. She is already a Christian. I didn’t think the tumor looked like an aggressive cancer if it is indeed malignant as I suspect. Most days we really miss having a pathologist available!
The day wasn’t over yet as I had to do another csection for Zeddy, a 27-year-old mother who was severely toxemic at 28 weeks into her third pregnancy. The baby was 3 weeks behind in growth and the monitor indicated that it was in imminent danger of dying before labor even began. We had administered steroids to Zeddy over the past 2 days to prepare the baby for life outside the womb at 7 months, but he lived only 3 hours. A baby of this size would survive 95% of the time in the US, but here in Kenya only a tiny fraction of babies born before 31 weeks will make it.
So ended my first week back at Tenwek in which I did 6 cesarean sections, 4 vacuum forceps deliveries, the hysterectomy, and at least 5 minor surgeries that I can remember. I was also asked to prepare a lecture for the nurses and residents for Monday of next week which I completed, although we postponed it a week after the events of the weekend.
Thanks so much for your prayers and support. I leave you with Paul’s words to the early church explaining our hope of resurrection and reunion with loved ones in Christ who have gone before us. God’s promises have been a great comfort in the past few days.

1 Corinthians 15:51-57 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(NIV)

Co-workers for Jesus with you,
Paul for the Jarretts in Kenya

Dear Friends and Family:
Thank you for your prayers on our behalf during our travel and arrival in Kenya. We are back at Tenwek and getting back into the routine of life in Africa. Although most things are the same, there are already many differences apparent to us in the three months we have been away.
Weather

This is the “summer” in Kenya although we are just south of the equator, so seasons are defined more by wet and dry. As you may know, we have had a three-year drought necessitating power rationing throughout East Africa below the Sahara. The “short” rainy season of November and December came as hoped for, and January has continued to be very wet even though it is supposed to be the driest time of the year.
The night before we arrived in Nairobi, there were 4 inches of rain. The town was a muddy mess! As we drove through the Great Rift Valley we were surprised how green it is. When we left, it was as brown and dusty as West Texas in the summer. Now all the fields were planted and lush green grasses and wildflowers were everywhere.
The new road from Narok to Bomet was completed which is both good and bad news. The good news is that this segment which caused so much delay and difficulty with the roadblocks and permit checkers is complete. The bad news is that it is open to public traffic that is destroying the road on either side of the new segment. Large sections of the pavement are just gone where the rains and the traffic have worked together to destroy it.
It has rained all day and all night since our arrival. None of the missionaries can recall such a time period. Brief spells of sunshine have allowed us to dry some clothes and get out for a bit but always with an umbrella. Those of you who are still praying for rain can ease up on that prayer request. It has been answered abundantly! It appears we will have power for some time as the falls by the hydroelectric plant more resemble Niagara Falls than the gentle stream that is usually here.
Ministry

Marty had been ministering to “beggar” children during our past six-month term, most particularly to 3 young teens, Geoffrey, Patrick, and Vincent. We have returned to find this door closed at the present.
Patrick’s mother died of cancer in November, and he has been sent away to a boarding school. Although not impoverished, he has always been a willing helper and an eager student of the Bible. Please pray for him.
Vincent had always been a little more devious in his action and manner. He invariably came at night and always asked for things that were out of the ordinary [batteries, pillows, peanut butter, and watches] – things which were not necessities. He viewed us as the local Wal-Mart. During our three month absence he became more and more bold in entering the houses of visiting staff. He also became more intimidating to visitors despite Marty’s past rebukes of this behavior. Finally, he was turned over to the police and banned from the compound.
Geoffrey was our daily visitor to help with outside chores in order to earn money for food for his siblings and himself. He often stayed to play or watch a video with Rachel. He was learning Bible verses and was an eager, if not accomplished, student. He was accused of stealing from one of the other families who had had trouble with him in the past. The guards were called and he was caned [beaten] and banned from the compound. Please pray for wisdom for us as our hearts’ desire would be to help rehabilitate Geoffrey in particular; but at present we do not see how this is possible.
Medical

I start back as head of the OBGYN service on Monday. Already I have been called in to work a half-day on Friday, while Caleb Maina, who is now on staff after completing his internship, was called to court to testify in a medical case. Despite his being the only physician on the OB service, the judge was not agreeable to his pleas for postponement and in fact was quite angry when Caleb had sent a letter last week instead of appearing. [Remember Russ White's experience with the legal system?] I did a difficult repeat cesarean section on a Kenyan National Missionary’s wife during this time as well as help deliver 2 other babies and evaluate 3 more mothers.
One difficult challenge I have been given for the next month is the evaluation of one of the clinical officers whose performance has been disappointing thus far. His career is in my hands in a sense, so please pray for great wisdom for me and the other doctors in evaluating and helping him.
Even though I’m not on call, I went up today to see Esther Langat, a patient who has a serious infection following a c/s. Caleb opened her incision today to drain the infection but she may require a hysterectomy in the next few days. I’m sure there will be many other challenges as well.
Communication

The laptop is functioning well again and we hope to assemble the desktop tomorrow with the spare parts. If it doesn’t work, we hope to be able to notify Beth in time for her to bring new components. We have not yet been able to receive e-mail at our normal address. Our server apparently has not been notified we are here. I’m not sure if we have letters waiting to be sent or if they have been returned to sender as undeliverable. Please keep trying if you’ve been rejected (>:
Loneliness, etc.

Coming back has been a mixed bag emotionally. Marty in particular is feeling the pain of separation from family, particularly Susanna. The sunshine today and the church service in particular have ministered to our spirits. We are happy to be here serving God in the place He has called us, but it is not without some struggle.
Travel

Beth is coming for 2 weeks with Amy and Erica Dryden. They are coming as tourists rather than workers, but we will be sure they get a vision for the ministry here. Pray for safety for them as well as passage through customs. They leave at 5:20 PM on Monday, January 15 and arrive at 2 AM Wednesday Indianapolis time. They are bringing 6 of our bags of medical and ministry equipment as well as trying to find our 2 lost bags. We’ve heard nothing so far about the location of our luggage.
The flights here were of the smoothest flying conditions that we’ve experienced. [And no terrorists were allowed on board.] Thank you for praying.
Updates

Rachel Powdrill continues to do well. So well, in fact, that we haven’t seen her as she traveled back to Nairobi this weekend to send off her family members who are returning to the States.
Aggrey Chegeney from technical services is back and at work. He was thrown through the windshield of the van in which he was riding Eight people were killed including those on either side of him. He will be working to put the fetal monitors in service.

Again, thank you for your prayers and encouragement. We love you and we miss you!

Paul for the Jarretts in Kenya

Thanksgiving, 2003.

Since the very first days of Mission to Ukraine’s existence, it was evident that its ministry could have emerged, developed, and functioned only by God’s grace and leading. Only God could put the lives of so many diverse and yet related people together. Christ endowed us with various talents making us different, but it is He who unites us. He has chosen us, citizens of different countries, to come together in one ministry and make us one family.

It is our privilege to be a part of God’s work and we thank Him for it daily. Today, however, on Thanksgiving, we would like to express our special gratitude to Christ.

He truly is our strength and our inspiration. He provides the supporters with funds, opens the doors in various governmental structures, gives wisdom to our administration, counselors, doctors and teachers, and softens the hearts of our visitors. In other words, Jesus gives us love to share with others.

During these 6 years of the Foundation’s existence, hundreds of lives have been touched and positively affected through MTU’s workers. These are expressions of thanks of the Mission’s visitors:

“I thank God for sending MTU to our city. I am happy that you care for children disabled with cerebral palsy.”

“You are like the sun, giving joy and warmth to us, visitors!”

“May your deeds be blessed and may they continue bringing joy into people’s lives. Thank you very much for the optimism and hope you have given us!”

“Thank you for being there and having time to listen and give advice”.
(from MTU’s Guest book)

It is our joy to hear our visitors praising God for the Mission, for it is truly Christ who does all the good work here. So, all the glory goes to Him only!

Of course, we have just started. There is still so much to be done! So many hearts are still seeking the Truth, so many people need guidance and help, and certainly we still have many problems.

However, we are certain that if we are faithful to God, He will prove Himself strong and will not leave us. We are ready to continue our work and are excited to see what God will do in the future with MTU.

- Olya Mangusheva