Jarretts Ministry

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 3
Note from Marty
January 30, 2006

Dear Family and Friends:

My heart is full of praise for our Sovereign, faithful Lord so I wanted to share with you how God is working in this place.
We send you many prayer requests for ourselves but mostly for the many needs of these precious Kenyan people. We appreciate your prayers so much. It seems that finding money to pay for school fees for their high school age children is more difficult for them than ever. Unless fees are paid, the child is asked to leave school and possibly lose his place for re-entrance. There are probably many reasons for this urgent need, but one certain problem is the drought and how it affects their crops and animals.
Even many of the Kenyan staff at the hospital are seeking our help for the necessary fees. God has burdened our hearts for the orphans and widows and opened ways for us to help them. We cannot meet the needs for school fees for all these dear people coming to us from the hospital and surrounding area. The one most important help we can give them is to pray with them, put their needs in God’s loving hands, and trust Him to provide in His time according to His will.
That is exactly the way God worked in the life of one dear woman who came to me in tears last week seeking 12,000 KSh [about $175] for her daughter’s school. We prayed together seeking God’s will and petitioning for those fees if it would bring Him glory. We certainly didn’t have any answers, but we knew our Heavenly Father, who owns everything and is the great giver of all we have, knew the answer. Today this friend returned to me in tears – this time tears of joy and words of praise and thanksgiving. Here is her testimony of praise.
After much prayer, she determined that God wanted her daughter to stay in school. She took the 4,000 KSh that she had managed to collect from selling some things and traveled to the school to see the headmaster and ask for an extension of time to pay the additional 8,000 KSh. He refused and said to take the child home, and her place would be lost. My friend continued to trust the Lord regardless of no other options that she knew about except to keep crying out to the Lord. She got her daughter some lunch and left her sitting in the school’s dining hall.
My friend had seen a church nearby and felt led to go there and earnestly pray for God’s will to be done. There were several other people praying at the church during their lunch hour. As she was pouring her heart out to the Lord with her tears flowing, the pastor came and sat down beside her. He wanted to know what problem his sister-in-Christ was bringing before the Lord that seemed to cause her so much anguish. [It reminds me of Hannah in the Bible crying out in the Temple to the Lord while pleading for a child.] My friend told the pastor about the whole situation [including her husband being out of work due to an automobile accident].
As she was sharing her burden, the Lord began to impress on the pastor’s heart what His plans were for this woman’s urgent need. The pastor immediately got up and said that he was going to town and would return shortly. In a little while, he came with 8,000 KSh he had withdrawn from his bank account. He said that the Lord wanted him to loan this to her, and it didn’t need to be repaid for several months.
My Kenyan friend was so full of praise that she could not wait to come back to Tenwek and share with me about God’s faithful provision. We rejoiced together and offered up prayers of thanksgiving. We also talked about a plan of her putting aside a small amount each month in order to pay back the loan in a responsible manner. We ended by praying for God to enable her to do this. She left our home with praise on her tongue and a burning desire to testify to others with needs that God is an all-knowing and caring provider as we trust in Him alone.
This experience has reminded me once again for the need, availability, and reward of trusting God through prayer.
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
James 1:2-8 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. NIV
James 1:16-18 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created. NIV
Especially in view of all the people coming to our door with needs, this testimony of answered prayer and praise was a tremendous faith builder for me.
It is my hope and prayer that each of you will sense God’s presence in your life and your need to put your trust totally in Him. He truly cares about every detail of your life.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. NIV
Psalms 37:3-7 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. NIV
Joyfully in Jesus, Marty Jarrett

PS from Paul: I continue to experience a few glitches in posting these letters to the website. They are composed offline and then pasted to the website for distribution. In the process some of the commas, apostrophes, and dashes are sent to punctuation heaven, which is somewhere in cyberspace. And some random question marks are inserted in some copies. Go figure. So, we are not completely ignorant of the basic rules of English, but working in a foreign country, some might wonder if we’re really losing it.

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 2
January 28, 2006

Reply: pauljar@gmail.com

Dear Friends and Family:
In our last letter we asked for prayer for many things, so I would like to tell you how God has answered. One of my personal requests had to do with some uncertainties and unknowns connected with coming back to Tenwek. I must admit that some of these concerns were pretty close to being worries; I know that I didn’t have some of the enthusiasm and joy in coming back that has been present in the past. God answered that concern with a scripture verse a few days before our return: 2 Corinthians 4:1 says “Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.” NRSV After God seemed to put highlighter across that passage, I had no more doubts. We are not here working in our own strength, planning and strategizing for how our future ministry is going to go; we’re here by God’s mercy and strength, in His timing, and doing the work that He has created in advance for us to do.
All of Alicia’s support came in before we left. God has supplied all her needs for each mission trip that she has planned. Likewise, we have had our needs provided each year for the past six years of serving God in medical missions around the world. One should never worry that God will fail to supply the needs of those who choose to trust Him while serving Him. Phil 4:19-20 says “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” NASU
It was a good trip to Chicago. It was windy, but no snow and ice which makes a huge difference. The 1987 Ford van worked just fine. Ron Van Deusen was very kind to take us. The check-in went perfectly. Each bag was within a half pound of the maximum except the action packer which couldn’t hold more due to its rigidity. We didn’t have long to wait in the lounge before boarding.
The flight was smooth and some of us slept well. In London the security line was long to get into the international terminal even though we hadn’t left a secure area. Then we just had time for breakfast — they hadn’t announced our gate yet. By the time we finished the brief meal, they were announcing the final call for boarding! In the international airports, they often don’t announce the gate until they’re ready to board, so one needs to watch his flight times and the monitors. We sat next to some former Tenwek medical volunteers that we knew who were heading to the Samaritan’s Purse hospital in Lue, Sudan.
We had no trouble with Kenya customs – they waived us through with our 5-car trolley train of luggage, all of which made the trip not too much worse for the wear and tear. One duffle bag is now retired and given away. Right on time, Raymond from SP met us and took us to Kindaruma Guest House.
The next day, the girls had a safe trip to Tenwek while Marty and I did our business. It only took about 90 minutes in Immigration to get our re-entry passes renewed and our alien registration which required full sets of fingerprints. We are viewed as residents of Kenya by the government.
As we were driven downtown by our Kenyan friend, Joel Kiathe, who is the liaison for World Gospel Mission who assists us through the maze of Immigration, he told us about his carjacking and abduction a few months ago. In broad daylight at the gate to our Kindaruma guesthouse, three men with guns forced their way into his four-passenger Toyota while he was waiting for our guard to open the gate. They made him get in the backseat. They then went on a crime spree of purse snatching. He was told to sit still and look forward. They drove casually through the police checks without attracting attention. They demanded his money which amounted to about $10. Then one of them asked him to show his wristwatch. He pulled up his sleeve to show them the present that we had given him last year – a $6.00 Wal-Mart special chronograph like the one that I wear. They pushed his arm away in disgust. It doesn’t pay to dress too flashy here. Finally, they saw another car that they liked better and got out of Joel’s car. They carjacked it by the same method and went on their way, leaving God’s servant unharmed. There is a new policy that visitors are to call the guard from their cellphone to alert him that they will be at the recessed gate in a few minutes; this is to avoid waiting in a box canyon where an ambush is too easily accomplished.
Joel also told us that the new American WGM accountant had a similar experience in Nakuru. He and his wife also were robbed, but were driven outside of town. Although this was definitely not a good sign, the robbers were very cordial and even shook hands with them before they ran off. Some cultural niceties just can’t be discarded with impunity, even by lawbreakers.
After the immigration business, Marty and I ate lunch outdoors at the new Java House at Dagoretti Corner next to the new Nakumatt [Kenya's version of a Wal-Mart]. We then shopped and bought $300 worth of dry groceries and supplies. We then drove over to ABC center [more of a strip mall] and ordered our meat for the next day, so it would be frozen. Then we went to the Mennonite guest house for the second night.
Tuesday morning, I packed the rooftop with the dry groceries in cardboard boxes and a suitcase was placed in the rooftop carrier over the top of the groceries. This added at least four feet onto the height of our car. Although we didn’t have a tarp, it hadn’t rained much in Kenya for months, and the sky was clear. Having issued this invitation for it to rain, I tried to put only things that would be safe on the roof.
Then we went to Zucchini’s for fresh fruit and vegetables. We returned and had a couple of hours to relax before lunch; at 1:30 we headed to ABC to pick up the meat. We had wanted to wait for the meat to be well frozen; we thought that we should have plenty of daylight for our trip to Tenwek. I normally don’t like to leave Nairobi so late in case of car trouble.
The meat was about $500, and the fresh veggies were about $35. Knowing that we wouldn’t be back to Nairobi for more than 5 weeks, we bought more than usual, and it was more expensive. The exchange rate isn’t very good for us right now. Our dollar only buys 71 Kenya Shillings instead of 75 to 78. Gasoline was about $4.10 a gallon.
With all the groceries and three maxed-out suitcases, we were loaded high and very heavily. At each police check [about 5], the police waived for us to stop before they could see that we were wazungu [white foreigners]. They thought we were a matatu [public transportation vehicle, subject to search].
As we came to the escarpment of the brown, bone-dry Great Rift Valley, we could see that it was raining heavily on the road ahead. The road has gotten very bad for the first half of the 120-mile trip. The rain aggravated that, since we didn’t dare drive off the road around the bad sections as we would normally do. The little 4-cylinder engine in the Pajero was really stressed on the hills. I had to shift to first gear in many places that I can normally do in 2nd or 3rd. It took about 4 and ½ hours, and it was nearly dark when we got to Tenwek.
We unloaded the car in a steady light rain. One neighbor, Jonathan Bii, stopped to help us. The only casualties were a sack of flour that I tore open in the dark and a slightly soggy box of Kleenex from the roof. The cardboard boxes were disintegrating.
We were blessed throughout the heavy rain to have the windshield wipers stay on the car. The next time we drove the car going to the orphanages, one fell off twice in the light rain. It was time for duct tape man to go into action.
I only had a day to help in setting up the house before I was schedule to work at the hospital. It didn’t take long to realize that there was still plenty of work for me to do at the hospital. I was busy continually the first two work days and was on night call the third night here.
It is now the beginning of the year for new interns. Strikes at the medical school last year delayed the graduation of new doctors, so they are just now starting instead of in November. It will take some weeks to learn all the new names and faces as well as capabilities. Limitations are assumed until proven otherwise, so I can’t delegate as much now as I will be able to later.
However, our department is well staffed with two American and one Kenyan board-qualified OBGYN specialists, as well as a Kenyan second-year OB resident, Caleb Maina, who is here until the end of February when he’ll return to Nairobi for the final year. We also have a junior staff doctor, Kays Muruka who is three years out of internship and desirous of starting a residency. I have one intern, Peter Koech, who will be with me for three months, and an American senior medical student, John Epperly, from Tucson.
One prayer request is for the new interns and staff physicians to remember the spiritual needs of the patients. Having come from secular medical schools, it will take some reminding that we are also interested in the patients’ spiritual well-being as well. One of our chaplains came to morning report to give the medical staff an overview of why the chaplains are here and how we can best interact and cooperate in ministry with them.
We have had several patients with interesting medical conditions. Most of these cases are a result of high blood pressure or rheumatic heart disease, conditions that can be more easily managed in the States than here. One woman in her thirties had a brain hemorrhage that has left her with complete paralysis on the left side. We were able to get a CT-scan in Kisii which is only an hour away; formerly, we were sending patients over three hours away to Nakuru or Eldoret for such services. Unfortunately, it looks like a permanent condition for this lady.
Just before I arrived, another patient who had delivered a week earlier at home, complained of sudden chest pain and difficulty breathing while feeding her baby. She had suffered a pulmonary embolus [blood clot from a large vein or right upper heart chamber that breaks off and flies to the lung]. She was given blood thinners, but a second clot broke off and took her life. Her life expectancy was probably limited by rheumatic heart disease, but this was an unexpected sudden end. The baby was at the hospital for tests for ambiguous genitalia. That’s a fancy word that means we can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl without some more tests.
Another 30-year-old patient who had severe high blood pressure with her fifth pregnancy was having encephalopathy – portions of her brain not working due to the uncontrolled high blood pressure. Even after a week of treatment she could walk only with assistance and her vision was so blurry that she couldn’t see me just five feet away.
Another patient came in heart failure, but she has responded to digitalis and diuretics. We’re probably going to deliver her next week. Fortunately, the baby has been doing fine. This seems to be another rheumatic heart problem. Rheumatic fever occurs after a patient has streptococcal pharyngitis [strep throat] but fails to take antibiotics long enough or at all. Only certain strains of strep will do this. The body, in its response to the streptococcus germ, will generate an immune response that temporarily attacks the lining of the joints, causing pain and swelling; but it will also attack the heart valves, most commonly the mitral valve. In time, the damaged valve may fail, either becoming too narrow [stenosis], or incompetent, allowing backwards flow in the heart [insufficiency]. Either way, part of the heart enlarges and eventually fails in its ability to pump blood. Patients in the developed world get valve replacements; people in Kenya usually die prematurely.
We’re praying that we can get a good baby for this mother and many of our other high-risk mothers. We are unable to monitor the babies at the present time except by the manual listening device invented about 1700 or 1800. All five of the fetal heart monitors have broken to the point that our repair shop can’t keep them going — even with duct tape. Repeatedly, the sensitive monitor heads have been dropped on the concrete floor, yanked on, or run over by beds or cart wheels. Samaritan’s Purse technical department in Boone, NC will try to locate the expensive replacement heads and bring them in March. In the meantime, we don’t have the early warning that a baby is about to die inside his mother and should be delivered.
Things at home have been busy as well. Several Kenyans have come seeking help — virtually stepping over the bags that we were trying to unpack to plead their cases with us. Vincent, the young man with a noticeable scar on his head, has long been vilified as the compound sneak thief. He was the first to greet me and came asking for help for hospital bills for his wife. Marty told me that 9 different people came this past Thursday
Rosaline, the women who we assisted in getting her children into Mosop School, was next –she has seen us five times in 9 days wanting more help, particularly for a tutor for her blind daughter. We finally have determined that all arrangements for her children’s schooling are already in place – the school only needs to talk with Pastor Kilel. We really need wisdom for what to do for her. She’s staying near Tenwek, but has very little where she is staying. Laura and Alicia visited her on Wednesday.
Geoffrey, a young man we are assisting with high school fees, needs some guidance and assistance on switching to a boarding school. He has no regular place to live at night now that the home where they were living was torn down, I think because of the new Tenwek road. The road clearance must be 70 foot wide. They’ve graded right up to the foundation of some buildings and torn down the ducas [small wooden shops] in front of Tenwek.
A deaf mute man, Charles, was here twice, by my invitation. That was the reason why I kept getting phone calls at 3am in the US in November — the headmaster of his school was trying to reach me to ask about assistance. This man was orphaned in 1973 as a small child– he is deaf and mute, but has been assisted through schooling; so he reads and writes English which is how we communicate – with a notepad. He’s a Luo from Homa Bay on Lake Victoria. We’ve assisted him each year for 3 years, last year quite a bit more. Now he needed $500 to set up his carpentry business to sustain himself. This had been the request of the head master, and as I prayed about it, I felt more and more led to assist him.
Charles, who is a Christian, wrote me an e-mail just before we came about a used suitcase for his things. As we now sat on our porch, I confirmed with him what seemed to be his reasonable plan for his business. He has a bank account in Nairobi, so I could give him a check rather than cash. We gave him some clothes, a pen, a Bible, and the blue Totes bag that we had decided to retire from international travel. The confirmation from God came when I went to the safe to get the checkbook, I also felt led to give him KSh 3000 [about $40] that he hadn’t asked for. I knew the check wouldn’t clear for awhile and he would need transportation and expenses in the meantime. So, when I gave him all the things and the check but not the cash, he humbly added that he would need KSh 3000 for the purposes that I had anticipated. I had only to open my hand to give it to him. One of our supporters had given me money for this kind of ministry back in September, so I think this was all anticipated by God. I also gave him the name of our pastor friend, Peter Jeremano in Nairobi for friendship and fellowship. Please pray for Charles as he finally “leaves the nest” of outside assistance.
We have thus far visited two of the children’s homes, but we’ve seen all four directors. Kenduiwa home now has 18 children. Recently, a large water tank was donated, so they are in the process of installing it along with enough gutter material to catch the rain during rainy season. Additional land was purchased from the farmer adjoining the property. It already has a large hole dug for a latrine to supplement the existing one. And there may be water on the new property since there is a spring on the opposite side of the road. Someday Director David Koech wants to have a well dug there that would give water year round. Please pray for this possibility. They also just obtained a water filter to purify the drinking water. Other improvements include a new cow for milk, an earthen cooking stove, a corn crib, and a firewood shelter. We have some donated funds from the children at Heritage Christian School in Indianapolis for additional improvements.
Kitoben Vision Children’s Home at the airstrip now is a family of 46 including Alice, Samuel, and their four biological children. Many are at boarding school, but overcrowding is still an issue. The chicken coop is nearly finished, and the 200 future residents are growing in a cage at Community Health. This project should provide both protein from eggs and some income from sales in the local community. The new metal stove makes the kitchen smokeless while using less firewood. Still, firewood is a constant need. A new shed was made to keep the wood dry and secure. There is a new sheep pen and some storage rooms and a room where some older boys are staying. The new acre of land will provide grazing for the sheep and some cows.
One of the biggest headaches here is the pit latrine [choo] which had failed last year during rainy season; the Health Commissioner mandated that they expand it or close the home. A local architect drew up plans for a rather elaborate latrine and bathhouse that was nicer than most homes here. This was modified, but it has still ended up being a terribly expensive project costing several thousand US$.
The soil at the airstrip is black cotton – sort of like a giant sponge. We’ve gotten stuck many times in this soil out on safari on the Masai Mara when it’s been wet. The ambitious 8-seater [or squatter] project began during rainy season. The workers would dig the hole to the proper width and depth for a day’s worth of digging. The next morning, the hole had collapsed and was full of dirt and water. The next day was spent redigging; the following morning it would be filled in again. Brick and wire reinforcements would collapse. Finally, with an eight-foot wide ring of rocks around the walled hole, the floor has been laid over the hole. The walls had begun to rise, but now the work has stopped.
The contractor has several other jobs going that take his attention. He wants even more money to complete the project. Discussions with him have broken down, even though there have been different attempts at reconciliation. Please pray that this situation can be quickly and fairly remedied.
We are having a meeting with Alice’s pastor and their church’s council this Wednesday, Feb. 1. It will be about 9AM Indianapolis time. We are hopeful that the local church will come alongside Alice as we have seen happening at the other orphanage projects. They had a meeting last month with the Chupps for the purpose of filling out papers for an NGO to come to the site and build a large dormitory. Mike Chupp already has met with the donor who has pledged to build the dorms at any of the qualifying children’s homes, but each must meet the established criteria of the charity that he will contribute through. He is coming sometime in March or April. Please pray not only for this meeting, but for this specific dormitory project that could potentially assist Kitoben, Kenduiwa, and Bosto. Clear land title is one of the prerequisites – something that is very difficult to obtain in Kenya.
There is one other prayer request for Kitoben. One of the 7-year-olds, Vicki, has a heart problem that she was born with. Her younger sisters are much bigger than she is. She’s the size of many of the four-year-olds at the home. She has recently had heart catheterization studies in Nairobi; it has been determined that the defect [totally anomalous pulmonary vasculature] is correctable. [Just in case you don't know what that means – I think that it means that all the blood flow from the veins in the lungs is all messed up in its routing]. Alice took her to Nairobi five days ago for what she thought was an outpatient follow up visit at Mater Hospital. Through a large charity in UK, the surgery is supposed to be done at no cost. They were short of funds and couldn’t schedule it when Alice took Vicki there a few months ago. Now that Alice hasn’t returned, we’re suspicious that Vicki is going to have the surgery now or even may have had it already. Alice’s husband hasn’t been able to reach her on her cell phone, so no one here knows anything. Please pray for Vicki and Alice’s safety and for a successful procedure.
The Bosto home opened in November with 18 girls and 2 goats. We lack about $1000 of funds to complete the boy’s dorm and the apartment for the managing couple or matron. A single mother is looking after the girls at the present time. The dairy goats are causing quite a stir in the community, since they give a gallon a day apiece. Additional funds for two more goats are in the process of clearing the bank as is some of the construction money.
What has been happening at Bosto with church support has been very encouraging. Although the AGC church is the official sponsor, other churches in the area including the local Catholic Church have come alongside and are supporting the children. They have seen that there was no discrimination of selection of the children – orphans are being cared for no matter which church their parents were attending when they were alive. Each church has agreed to supply the needs for two children apiece. They sat down and figured out how much maize, sugar, soap, etc. it would take to raise two children and have committed to this. They are also to be visiting the children and taking them to their churches as well. One of the elder men in the community has taken the responsibility to go to each of the churches to check on their follow through on their commitment.
The town council and the Minister of Parliament for the area have become excited and are pledging more land and funding respectively. The vision of caring for the orphans is spreading! We pray that many others will catch the vision — particularly Alice’s church at this time. It helps to be able to show what others are doing, but each church must feel the conviction to do it themselves.
Although I have enough material for a second letter at this point, I think I will close with a few more requests. Rachel broke out with scabies within five days of our arrival. We have no idea where she got the burrowing skin mites, since she hasn’t been to the hospital yet. That’s where our Pediatrician has picked it up several times. These itchy little red bumps started on her hands, and looked like poison ivy for a day or two, but then started looking like spider bites all over. I got some medicine from the hospital pharmacy at our neighbor’s advice, but even the 4th and 5th days, she was getting some new places. This is one of the joys of missionary life; we’re thankful that God is watching over us. Corrie ten Boom has a chapter in her book The Hiding Place, where she was thankful for the fleas that bit them in the dormitory of the concentration camp. The guards wouldn’t come into their dorm and abuse the women because of the fleas.
My neck continues to be sore and I’m on my third cold in 5 weeks, but otherwise, I’m doing well. Marty is making the emotional adjustment much quicker this time, but continue to pray for all of us for the pains of separation from loved ones. Laura is regularly greeting us in Japanese, so she says. Sounds like Greek to me. But she is very diligent in her language study as well as her two Bible correspondence courses. She and Alicia have already been a blessing to many with their music ministry as well as the grooming ministry – lots of restyled hair.
We still haven’t received the container at Tenwek with hospital equipment and many of our personal ministry supplies. We will be hit personally awith duty for our soccer balls that are on the shipment, but we don’t know how much.
Today, I unpacked 7 mail bags full of Bibles, commentaries, devotionals, and Sunday school materials. Sharon Kelly mailed the ones from Castleview on Jan. 20, 2004. They came to Tenwek sometime in Sept. 2005, so I am opening them 2 years after they were sent. Others from a church in Shelby, NC were also sent in 2004. But we’re happy to have them, none the worse for having sat in Mombassa for 1-2 years. Pray that the Bibles that have been shipped recently will make it a bit sooner. There continues to be a real hunger for people to have the Word of God in their hands.
Pray for the Nursing School building’s assessment and eventual reconstruction. As you have seen in the headlines recently with deaths from a building collapse in Nairobi, construction here is sometimes of poor quality for any number of reasons.
We are so appreciative of your prayers and support. It is the Body of Christ working together that will help God to build His Kingdom. In His Kingdom, there is no faulty construction – it will last forever – even when the earth crumbles.
Serving Jesus with you,
Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya

PS: Please pray for Becki and Peter as they are driving a U-Haul to Fort Lauderdale, FL this weekend with Susanna Gordon and Tom Burke helping.

Dear Friends and Family:
Thanks for your prayers. We are safely at Tenwek with all of our bags intact. We have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do before my first day at work on Thursday at the hospital. There is already a long line of shaggy missionaries forming for Alicia’s services.
The drought has been very severe in Kenya. Even camels have been dying in the north! But it has rained the last three days at Tenwek, and we drove through a heavy rain most of the way from Nairobi. The road has deteriorated between Nairobi and Narok, so the drive that had been reduced to three hours in May took 4 and 1\2 hours today. God was gracious that I was able to stay alert the entire time despite jet lag, rain, and a heavy load of groceries and luggage in the car.
I’ll update you with new prayer requests after I see what all is happening here, but for now, we’re just praising God for our safe arrival.

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 1
January 3, 2006

Dear Friends and Family:

We’re now in the final days of our time at home before returning to Kenya. We are planning on staying until July 2, returning in time for Debbye’s wedding August 5, 2006. We’re currently in Charlotte, NC visiting Jon’s family and Beth before returning on the 7th of January to Indianapolis. We have several personal prayer requests to share with you as well as many pertaining to our ministry.

The first requests relate to our preparation for departure. There are five of us returning on January 14. Paul, Marty, and Rachel will be in Kenya for the entire first half of the year. Laura and Alicia will come for the first six weeks. It is anticipated that Amy and granddaughter Elissa will join us in early May for 2 months after Amy’s fourth semester at Indiana Wesleyan is completed.

We again have been generously given the extra bag per person allowance from British Air whose baggage allowance remains at 70lbs per bag in contrast to many other airlines which have gone to 50 lbs. I have packed and loaded into our van eight of the 15 bags; six of these are entirely filled with clothing for orphans. The remaining bags are in the process of being packed with personal belongings and supplies including suture and ministry materials like crayons, pencils, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. We have adequate amounts of these supplies thanks to your generous contributions in the past year.

Our departure is scheduled from Chicago at 6:35pm on January 14, 2006. Our full-service insurance agent, Ron Van Deusen, has volunteered to drive us there. Our 1987 15-passenger van continues to give us reliable service and will be asked to make the trip once again. Please pray for good weather for roundtrip travel that day and for our check-in around 3pm. Last year a sympathetic ticket agent upgraded us to business class for the first flight, but things have not always been smooth getting the promised extra bag allowance.

Our first 8-hour flight is scheduled to arrive in London at 2:15am [Indianapolis time]. We have a three hour layover departing at 5:05am Indy time. The flight to Nairobi arrives after dark at 9:20pm, which is 1:20 pm on Sunday, Jan. 15 in Indianapolis. So, think of us as the Colts kick off the post season. Please pray for adequate sleep for all the travelers on the flights and that all the luggage will remain intact and accompany us. Theft from the bags has occurred at Heathrow airport in the past on a few occasions. Please pray for our passage through customs in Nairobi as well.

We plan on staying Sunday night at the WGM guesthouse. On Monday, Laura, Alicia, and Rachel will travel on to Tenwek with the Samaritan’s Purse drivers who will also meet us at the airport. The girls will try to get the house set up for our arrival the next day. Fellow Tenwek missionaries will host us for meals the first few days while we are getting organized. Marty and I will try to get the necessary work permits, alien registration, and/or reentry permits renewed and do some grocery shopping while in Nairobi. We will switch to the Mennonite guesthouse for Monday night and then drive ourselves to Tenwek on Tuesday. Someone will drive our car to Nairobi in anticipation of our arrival. It sounds complicated, but it has worked before. Please pray for success with all the business and arrangements. Also pray for safety in Nairobi. Street crime and carjackings continue to increase in frequency, and there remain the usual terrorist threat warnings from the US State Dept. However, road travel due to poor roads and poorly maintained vehicles is still the greatest hazard for foreign missionaries.

We anticipate many of the ministry opportunities that we have this year will be the same, but each year there are changes and challenges. The Russ White family will be in the States this year, and we will miss them greatly. We look forward to our reunion with the rest of our extended family at Tenwek.

Brian and Jane Myers have been at Tenwek since July 2005. He is an OBGYN fresh out of residency on a special 2-year assignment through World Medical Mission. I worked with him twice before as a senior medical student and as a second year resident, so I am very comfortable with our relationship. Yet this will be a new situation with two full-time Americans in the OB department along with our Kenyan colleague, John Mbogo. Will the workload be adequate for so many “chiefs”? Will this allow me more time for our rewarding work with orphans? Please pray about this situation as well.

The new operating theatre building was dedicated in November, but won’t begin full operation until March at the earliest. The long-delayed two containers of equipment were in Nairobi at last report, and Tenwek’s administration had negotiated paying “only” a $12,000 import tariff on the donated medical equipment and other supplies. We have somewhere between 15 and 25 boxes of ministry supplies on this shipment. It’s been a year since I sent it to Marion, Indiana for shipping, so I can’t remember what is in some of the boxes or even how many there are. I also haven’t been able to get an answer as to what portion, if any, of the tariff is my responsibility. Please pray for the immediate release of this needed equipment, its transportation to Tenwek, and any charges we might need to pay.

There is a large second story medical education floor in this new surgery building that will be a great blessing to our hospital. Yet, I foresee some changes in the dynamics of the hospital; for example, instead of the doctor’s office\library being in the very center of the action, it will be “out of the flow” and less accessible to the clinics and x-ray for consultation. Since the communication system is always a weak link in the chain, more places for people to be closeted may make locating them more difficult. Certainly, the changes will be nearly all positive, but change is always stressful whether it is good or bad. Adjustments will need to be made by everyone to keep effective ministry as the focus of all operations.

How the maternity department will interface with the new operating theatre is also a major question. We have always done the majority of our cesarean sections in the main operating room, but where we will now be working primarily is a question mark during the transition time and the future. The general surgeons have expanded the scope of what they are doing with a large number of heart surgeries being performed in recent months. The surgical caseload most certainly will continue to expand; will hospital revenues and staff hiring be able to keep up with the demands?

Kenya has not gotten the “short rains” in November and December this year. Drought and his brother, Famine, have already made their fearful appearance in northern Kenya as well as neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia. The president of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, is appealing for international assistance for feeding people and animals, which are necessary for the livelihood of so many in this primarily agricultural country. In past years, when the local farmers have had bad seasons, clinic visits, surgeries, and patient revenues dropped off. Will National Health Insurance make up the shortfalls? These are chronic problems for mission hospitals, and it’s not my job to worry about them or fix them, but please pray for wisdom for the administration team, Steven Mutai, Geoffrey Langat, Dr. Mark Freije, and many others who have to contend with these issues. And please pray for rain for the farmers.

While one new building has been going up, another new building has been falling down. The new nursing school building that cost over a quarter of a million US dollars has been found to have some structural flaws that have necessitated closing some areas of the building. The cost of correction of the flaws is estimated to be about $100,000. Please pray for funds to be raised to cover this expense. The Tenwek Nursing School produces about 14 graduates each year; the majority of them place among the highest on national exams. Please remember our nursing faculty and students during this difficult time.

One perennial problem at Tenwek is being solved; our road has been graded and is being rebuilt. The road has been a very rough and dangerous welcome to patients of Tenwek Hospital, but the local government had refused the hospital permission to fix the problem for many, many years. Even promises of repairs from two presidents of the country had been unfulfilled. Perhaps it was the sight of Carol Trachsel, our visiting staff coordinator who is nearing retirement, filling the holes with a shovel that shamed the local authorities into action.

There are still serious issues with the government that may affect ministry at Tenwek. Taxation of full-time missionaries’ income has been in dispute and negotiation for several years. This affects all missionaries of every denomination throughout the country. Recently, a decision was reached that all [100%] of missionary income from the home mission agencies will be taxable income and subject to Kenyan taxes. The tax burden for each missionary will thereby increase 250% requiring them to raise additional support to cover this shortfall. Some missionary organizations have chosen to leave Kenya rather than bear this additional large burden, apparently feeling that their limited missionary dollars can be used better elsewhere. I haven’t heard at this point whether back taxes from previous years are included in this ruling; it still must be decided whether the benefits that missionaries receive as part of their compensation will also be taxed. I don’t believe that this affects our own personal financial status, since we are serving essentially self-guaranteed –paying our own costs of ministry with the help of our supporters, on an expense reimbursement rather than salary basis. Please pray for wisdom and finances for the missionary organizations and even reversal of this decision.

All the reports that I have received from our orphanages have been very encouraging. Each of the three functioning children’s homes has been “adopted” by at least one of the full-time missionary families. And after postponement of the opening dedication of the Bosto project, it is scheduled to open this week with 20 young girls – about half of its capacity.

The Mike Chupp family has adopted the Kitoben Children’s Home. Along with the visiting Michael Cheatham family, they had a special Christmas celebration at the orphanage. What an encouragement to us and to the children to see the interest that has arisen in these precious children! The homes are becoming “must see” stops for visiting staff and work teams, which may lead to long-term relationships.

The Phil Renfroe family has visited the Kenduiwa Children’s Home on several occasions including Christmas. They have been our eyes and ears for necessary projects and requests for these children. They have also had a great spiritual ministry at the home utilizing the talents of some of the Kipsigis-speaking Tenwek staff.

The Mark Freije family had Christmas with the children at Umoja which was a great encouragement to the children. I recognize some of the hospital’s interns in the accompanying pictures which the Freije’s sent out; this means that they are also being exposed to the vision of caring for these special children of God.

The Chuck Bemm family has visited several of the homes and assisted us with the administration of the donated funds during our time in the States. So God is raising up many people with the vision of caring for orphans. I know that the Whites and Manchesters have also been involved in the past. What an encouragement they have all been! Please continue to pray for these children and that God will raise up other local congregations to begin projects in support of the many orphans in the Tenwek area.

The last group of requests is for family. It is always a difficult time when we prepare to leave our loved ones for six months. Marty, particularly, has difficulty with the transition back to Kenya, although it affects all of us. Please pray for God’s comfort during these times of loneliness and separation. Although we appreciate prayer for all of the children, I’ll list the more recent transitions where prayer is needed.

I seem to have strained my lower neck muscles while shoveling snow three weeks ago. It remains sore and is aggravated when I lift things like 70 lb bags. Fortunately, there is no numbness in my hands, so I don’t believe that I’ve slipped a disk; the pain responds to massage, so I am imposing on my daughters’ goodwill and physical therapy skills. Please pray that this problem will resolve completely.

With the warm weather after Christmas, Frank Sallee and I were able to get up on the roof and repair a leak that began in mid-December. We could see some additional work will be needed next summer as well. Debbye, Alicia, Laura, Amy, and cousin Abby will live at the house at different times this term; Susie and Chris Gordon may also move in for a month or two this spring while their new townhouse is being built. They anticipate living on the northwest side of Indianapolis for the next 4 to 8 years as Chris begins medical school in September. I had anticipated selling our home sometime after beginning our ministry in 2000, but it continues to be a blessing to our family; our Lord has enabled us to keep it much longer than I had thought possible. Please pray that God will protect the house, old vehicles, and especially the children and grandchildren while we’re gone.

Our oldest daughter, Beth, will be continuing in professional baseball with the Washington Nationals organization. Tentatively, she is scheduled to return to the AA club at Harrisburg, PA, but there is a possibility of the position opening up in the AAA franchise in New Orleans. Although she volunteered with the Indianapolis Indians for many years, this would be a whole different ballgame [figuratively speaking]. There would be many additional considerations for moving into the recovering disaster area. Please pray for God’s perfect plan for her in all areas of her life.

Laura is definitely planning on a year in Sapporo, Japan beginning right after Debbye’s wedding in August. She needs prayer for learning Japanese as well as the usual logistical issues and raising some support later this year. Her account will be handled by Castleview Baptist Church; I’ll include more information as it becomes available. Also, she needs wisdom on whether to attend a language acquisition course in Colorado in March or April of this year. The costs of such a course would be a consideration – it is about $1,500 – almost as much as she anticipates needing for the year in Japan which will be subsidized by her teaching conversational English to local Japanese. She will live with a pastor and his family at the church where she will be ministering in music, evangelism, and discipleship among other areas. She also needs wisdom for selecting online classes to take through Moody Bible Institute.

Please continue to pray for Alicia Bechtle as she raises support for her trip to Kenya with us. God has provided for her needs each year in just the right amount.

Debbye will be student teaching in inner-city Indianapolis this year. Please pray for safety for her as she drives each day downtown into high crime areas. Although her wedding plans are fairly complete, prayer for this major event in her life is also appreciated.

Peter and Becki Burke are considering relocation to Ft. Lauderdale with his work. This would mean that Becki would be leaving her teaching position and trying to find something mid-year in Florida. Pray that they will have wisdom for discerning God’s will in this situation.

We appreciate your standing behind us in prayer. We know that the battle is not ours, but the Lord’s. That’s why prayer is so important to us. If we think for a moment that we are going to do any of God’s work in our own strength, we would not succeed. We need His strength and your prayers.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts

PS:
I have posted prayer letters from our first year of ministry on the website. Support information is also available there. Check it out at http://jarrettsministry.org

Our e-mail can be sent to pauljar@gmail.com which will be forwarded to our Tenwek account. We should lose less e-mail by setting it up this way – instead of not knowing that the Tenwek server is down or your getting a rejection notice, we should be able to retrieve our lost mail from the gmail site.

We hope to be able to communicate by internet voice messaging this year with family and friends at home. You must download the free software and set up a free account to be able to talk with us. Check it out at: http://skype.com

Dear Family and friends,
Thank you for the outpouring of prayers and encouragement for us as we went through several stressful hours. As always, God was faithful and I feel the need to share with you His perfect provision for us.
Sept. 11,2000 The day began routinely enough as I started packing for our eagerly anticipated trip home. I was also making some pies for our lunch guests who Paul had invited for that day. Then the storms began as I received a call from Paul saying that his previous 4 days of mild pain (initially thought to be a urinary tract infection) had become intense pain so he was going to see Dr. Phil Renfroe. The next call I get is from Phil telling me that Paul is vomiting, in great pain, and “out of it” due to sedation. Phil was running some tests to determine a diagnosis and would let me know the results.
Ironically, our lunch guestswere 3 of his Kenyan residents who work with Paul, but he would not be able to join us, of course, as he lay in a hospital bed “laboring” with a kidney stone . Amy, Laura, Rachel, and I did our best to entertain our guests without Paul’s input and all the while wondering how our patient was doing. All we could do at that point was pray for Paul and the doctors caring for him.
My next phone call from Phil informed me that all of Paul’s symptoms pointed to kidney stones, but the test results were a little surprising and inconclusive as to the condition of Paul’s kidneys. To counter those annoying dark “what if” questions that began to form in my mind (what if we can’t go home next Monday—what if I have to deal with all daily family and business matters by myself in Africa—-what if Paul has some serious kidney problem, etc., etc.,), I immediately turned my thoughts to God’s promises, His past faithfulness, His sovereignty, and the POWER of PRAYER. I called some friends and asked them to pray, and one came right over to pray with me. After our lunch guests left, she also went up to the hospital with me to check on Paul which was very comforting. One of the hospital chaplains that I know well stopped me on the sidewalk and prayed with me. We were surrounded by loving people and many prayers.
My short visit with Paul was interesting to say the least. He was definitely in pain and not too coherent. When I asked him to instruct me in the mechanics of sending an E-mail prayer request to our whole list of friends back home (I am still considered to be computer illiterate), he started mumbling instructions for delivering his patient who was in distress—-something about “give me the forceps quickly”. I realized then that God was going to have to provide alternative help for all my questions today. To add to my list of concerns needing immediate attention (without Paul’s capable administration which I have taken for granted –wow), I received an E-mail requesting information about our alien registration (I didn’t have a clue). I also had a phone call from a hospital secretary saying she had received a fax with immigration papers for us to fill out (turns out she had called the wrong family). I was certainly being tested to see if I would remember that God is in control of all things and is totally sufficient for all our needs. The Lord sent a friend to help me get my prayer request sent to all of you. What a relief to see all your responses come across the screen that evening!!! I knew that God had enabled me to use modern technology to gather necessary prayer support. Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three come together (even by E-mail) in my name, there am I with them.”
Dr. Renfroe admitted Paul to the hospital for the night to receive IV fluids and medication and suggested that someone stay with Paul to alert nurses to any problems. Amy, Laura, and I took turns, and I took the night shift. As many of you know, I am not fond of doctor appointments (Paul says I am a bad example to other women for regularly visiting their Gynecologist) or hospital stays. Well, my over-night experience at Tenwek Hospital far exceeded my expectations of unusual sights, sounds, and odors!!! (That is a whole different story!) The good news though was Paul’s relief from pain about 3:30 in the morning (yes, I was WIDE awake—most of the night) and the hope that he might be counted among the living again. He actually made some sense when I asked him a question. Since he seemed to be past the crisis stage and could get help on his own if he needed something, I decided to stumble home about 7A.M. and see if Rachel had stayed out of trouble.
Sept. 12—-A couple of hours after returning to the house, I got an encouraging call from Phil saying that Paul’s kidney test results looked better, he was still free from pain, seemed more alert, and could come home. Praise God. In His grace and mercy, our prayers had been answered so quickly and without need for surgical proceedures. I was reminded of our daughter,Beth’s, trial with kidney stones back in May, and how God chose a different answer to our prayers for her but still provided for all her needs. (Her bus ride from Canada to Pennsylvania with all that accompanying pain of a kidney stone must have been a nightmare–God certainly goes through each and every trial with us.)
I was reading God’s Word when Phil called. Part of my devotional time is reading a Psalm each morning, and that morning the Lord had brought me to Psalm 100 which was an incredible expression of my exact feelings at that moment. Psalm 100 gives thanks to an Almighty God as I was doing. “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His FAITHFULNESS continues through all generations.” Then I continued my time of worship in a devotional by Oswald Chambers called “My Utmost for His Highest’. God is so good. He uses so many situations and resources to gently but pointedly remind me of His perfect character (Most assuredly of His faithfulness). The Sept.12 entry was as follows: Spiritual Confusion — There are times in spiritual life when there is confusion, and it is no way out to say that there ought not to be confusion. It is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of God taking you by a way which in the meantime you do not understand, and it is only by going through the confusion that you will get at what God wants. “The Shrouding of His Friendship”—-Luke 11:5-8. Jesus gave the illustration of the man who looked as if he did not care for his friend, and He said that that is how the Heavenly Father will appear to you at times.You will think He is an unkind friend, but remember He is not; the time will come when everything will be explained. There is a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller communion. When God looks completely shrouded, will you hang on in confidencve in Him? “The Shadow on His Fatherhood.”—Luke 11:11-13. Jesus says there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father, as if He were callous and indifferent, but remember He is not; I have told you–”Everyone that asketh receiveth.” If there is a shadow on the face of the Father just now, hang onto it that He will ultimately give clear revealing and justify Himself in all that He permitted. “The Strangeness of His Faithfulness.” Luke 18:1-8. “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Will He find the faith which banks on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand off in faith believing that what Jesus said is true, though in the meantime you do not understand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you ask.
I hope this devotional will be an encouraging reminder for you of God’s perfect faithfulness even when you don’t understand the trials He allows in your life. It certainly summarized accurately for me all my thoughts and choices of the previous day. When those dark thoughts would begin to descend on me, I knew the best remedy would be to focus on scripture and engage in the battle with PRAYER. God surrounded us with caring,capable, loving people at Tenwek; and He continually brought His Word to my mind to counter the discouraging “what ifs” that I mentioned earlier. The book of Isaiah is one of my favorites in the Bible. Some of the passages that kept coming to mind were these. Isaiah 49:13b, 16—-For the Lord comforts His peopleand will have compassion on His afflicted ones. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, (remember, we are surrounded by mountains here) , yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 55:8-9 “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.” My earlier thoughts of “Why now ,Lord, when we are about to go home?” became praises of “Thank you, Lord, for allowing this to happen now and not when Paul is on that 18 hour plane ride home!” God’s Word has an incredible way of changing perspective from self to His view.
Well, Paul spent the day at home sleeping and recovering from the stress on his body. When he was lying on his hospital bed that morning, feeling a little better, he thought he might be able to tackle some scheduled surgery later that day—-which proved to be wishful thinking as his body told him he needed rest. He is back at work today (Sept. 13 -Happy 19th Birthday, Susanna) with a heavy schedule of clinics. Please continue to pray for his strength and complete healing from any further pain. We do hope that the stone did in fact pass. One definite result of this “laboring experience” for Paul will be his increased compassion for his pregnant patients!
Thank you again for lifting us up in prayer. We certainly felt the presence of the Great Physician and appreciated His provision of excellent doctors, loving Tenwek friends, and faithful prayers of all of you! We just got word that Dr.Ernie Steury (Pioneer doctor at Tenwek for many years but retired and living in Florida now) has been hospitalized with a bowel obstruction and is very ill. I am requesting that all of our prayer warriors pray for this dedicated man of God. Thank you on behalf of his family who are missionaries in several different locations.
Lord willing, we will see many of you soon. We are looking forward to the time God has planned for us to be with you in the 3 months we are home before returning to the work He has called us to in Kenya. Love in Jesus precious name, Marty for the Jarretts

Tenwek wrap-up

Dear Friends and Family:
As we finish our time at Tenwek for this term, I wanted to share some final updates on previous patient situations, including my own, and some ideas about our next term for future prayer consideration. I also wanted to share some insights into my recent adventure as I have had the opportunity to reflect and pray about it.
Previously, I had mentioned Anne Cheboset, whose name I might have changed accidentally in one letter. She is a mother of several children who had a terrible wound infection after a cesarean section for a stillborn child who couldn’t be delivered normally. She has made remarkable progress after several wound debridement operations, and today she was released from the hospital. Her smile today exceeded only slightly another patient’s in the bed next to hers.
I had not had the opportunity yet to mention this new patient to you because of my unplanned down time for communication. She is a 15 year old Masai girl [actually a married woman] who came in last week with a very serious situation. Due to the language barrier, the true story took several days to come to light. Initially it was clear she had come from Narok, a desert town an hour east of here. She had labored three days out in the bush before being brought to town where a Cesarean section was performed. The baby had died and then she was brought to Tenwek sometime later. Her incision was broken down in several areas with dead tissue coming out of it. She was loosing urine and stool uncontrollably. How long since these events had transpired was the mystery. One story was 4 days, another was 1 year, and a third and ultimately true story was one month. We were presented with an emotionally and physically whipped patient who was in dire need of competent care. Even trying to examine her wounds was impossible as she would not cooperate for any accurate assessments of her condition. Every vein in her body seemed inaccessible for starting an intravenous line.
We decided to do her assessment under anesthesia which required an intravenous line to even begin. Philip Langat, the very skilled clinical officer anesthetist, first tried a subclavian vein. This has some risk as it is necessary to go in just under the clavicle [collarbone] near the sternum [breastbone] but not so deep as to puncture the lung. This is not an easy task in a cooperative patient let alone one who is terrified. It was frustrating watching him successfully enter the vein but be unsuccessful due to equipment malfunction when threading in the canula which would be left in place. It was difficult to wait and watch him working on this very small patient who was the same age as our Amy and Laura; her foot was actually smaller than my hand. After nearly 60 minutes of failure, he was able to place a line in a jugular vein. Finally, we could begin.
It was evident from the condition of the tissues that the injuries were at least 2 weeks old and therefore too late to even attempt to close the hole between the bladder and the upper vagina. We couldn’t find a vaginal opening into the rectum and correctly concluded that the patient was merely incontinent of stool due to stress and illness rather than also having a recto-vaginal fistula. The abdominal incision was opened to find that the skin had merely healed over a mass of dead tissue that used to be the abdominal wall. As we cut away dead tissue, we found that we were not into the peritoneal cavity where the intestines and uterus would be involved so we were able to stop at that point by packing the incision for future daily dressing changes which continue the debridement process.
The following day the patient began to cry when I walked onto the ward. I felt like I was the guy in the black cowboy hat. Her mother was with her that morning and we got the straight story of the duration of her illness. After we changed the dressing which was relatively well tolerated, I asked the mother to explain to her that we wouldn’t be hurting her anymore than we had just done, and that she should not be afraid of us. Every day after that she was less fearful. In fact, after my absence on rounds for a day due to my kidney stone she now has a smile for me when we shake hands in the morning. Her wound is looking good and she will live, Lord willing. It will be six months before the fistula can be repaired and she will have a large abdominal hernia. But if you live in a mud house where the floor is composed of six inches of cow dung, urine loss may not be as noticeable as if it were on carpeting. Obviously, this young girl named Kijoolu Ole could use your prayers.
September 13 was my last day in Gyn clinic. I was seeing a number of patients in follow-up of their surgeries from the weeks past. Anne, the pastor’s wife, who we had done a cesarean section on before scooping out a 19 cm diameter ovarian tumor in pieces from her abdomen returned to learn that the tumor was a benign fibrothecoma. I thought for certain that it would be malignant, but now she has a normal life expectancy, associated with this part of the world. While reviewing the pathology reports, I found one for Beatrice Towett, who we had operated on twice before for abdominal abscesses only to find what looked like widespread ovarian cancer on the second operation. Her good news was that it was ONLY tuberculosis for which we had already started treatment in hopes that was the diagnosis. At least she’ll have a chance to recover from that problem.
Agnes Lebo, the patient with choriocarcinoma metastatic to the vagina, continues to have dropping levels of pregnancy hormone in her body indicating she may be indeed cured of this awful disease. She still needs prayer. She and her husband are now both Christians and very grateful to God.
Two patients who had recto-vaginal fistula repairs came in with improvement of their conditions. One was completely satisfied, and the other whose repair partially broke down within a week still experiences some improvement as she only looses control of liquid stool and even that not into the vagina. I guess I got discouraged too quickly on that one. All the rest of the “elective” surgeries, meaning not “life saving” surgeries, did well during the time here with no major misadventures. As we asked and relied on God for His help before each surgery, we must give Him the glory.
One other gigantic praise is for Jackson Meli’s niece’s safe delivery of a healthy boy on September 8 in Nairobi. You may recall her story of being paralyzed in a matatu [bus]accident in May. She is now undergoing some rehabilitative therapy. Thank you for your prayers for her and the baby.
Perhaps one of the greatest miracles I have seen during my time at Tenwek involved Mercy, the 17 year old mother with a month old child whose bone marrow had shut down completely. As her platlet count dropped to less than a few thousand, she began bleeding from her intestinal tract. I ordered another unit of blood, but thought perhaps the next day the bed would be empty. The next day the bleeding had stopped and a few days later the CBC and Reticulocyte count indicated her bone marrow had resumed full funtion. As I had asked for your prayers on her behalf, I must now thank you and God for her miracle.
God has provided additional help this week during my time of physical weakness. Other physicians stepped forward to volunteer for my night call which I have been too weak to cover. I’ve made it through the day hours with Tylenol and delegation of tasks but collapsing into bed early at night. Dr. John Mbogo has been a godsend. He is a Tenwek national physician who is on leave for 3 years while taking an OBGYN residency in Nairobi. As he is completing his first year, he has passed his first exam and requested 10 days off to visit his family here at Tenwek. [Families are often split up for periods of time for education or work purposes and are unable to relocate] [Jackson Meli has to travel 3 hours to Nakuru to see his wife and 3 year old daughter.] But John is so anxious to learn and have good teaching and the supervision that he doesn’t get in Nairobi, that he has spent 4 days of his vacation working with me. I learn about as much from him as he does from me. He will have next year at Tenwek as a “research” year, and I will be his “supervisor”. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity to both learn and teach. John is about 44 years old. He seems to have recovered from his depression caused by the death of his 18 year old daughter. This was 2 years ago due to negligent treatment of her acute appendicitis while she was a student at the University of Nairobi where he is now an obstetrical resident. He and his wife, Lenore, are cheerful, seemingly godly people who we are enjoying getting to know. John hopes to get a donation of an older laptop for word processing and has asked that we remember him in prayer.
In addition, we at Tenwek need continuing prayer now for next year. As of the present time, we have one medical intern for next year which will be important in keeping the program going. Dr. Chupp and the administration need wisdom in selection of clinical officer interns to fill the gaps. Also, Dr. Caleb Maina, one of our current interns will come on staff next year, but there will likely be no net gain unless another individual is hired since Dr. Zecahariah Kasepoi will leave for a surgical residency. And the INFAMED residency program is staggering as Moi University has done nothing on their end to help develop it.
It seems the challenges will continue up until our departure. This week I have had a myomectomy [removal of a uterine fibroid], a pelvic abscess drainage procedure, eclamptic seizures in a woman referred in after 3 days of labor, a patient with severe heart disease at 36 weeks into her eleventh pregnancy, and some usual and unusual cesarean sections. I believe I saw a rare case of secondary syphilis in an 18-year-old orphan from Kisii who was brought in by a kindly national Catholic priest for repair of her vesico-vaginal fistula. If her tests confirm the diagnosis,we’ll need to get permission to test her for HIV. Unfortunately, one of the widespread beliefs in Central Africa is that a man can be cured of his “thin-man” disease [AIDS] by sleeping with a virgin. This belief may have not only contributed to this young woman’s situation, but also to the abduction of young girls by Ugandan rebels in border areas for later sale to older men suffering from AIDS.
I also saw a young woman with an incomplete miscarriage who had a rather striking physical abnormality. She had two big toes on each foot! This condition called polydactyly or supernumerary digits [extra toes for those who hate big words], is not all that unusual; but the extra toes or fingers are usually on the little toe side and often don’t have a bone in them. They are often tied off at birth and are forgotten. This girl had two fully developed big toes that were partially webbed together [syndactyly for you medical terminology aficionados] This created one gigantic toe on each foot which in the states would be a problem of finding shoes to fit. But here it isn’t necessary to wear more than sandals or any footwear at all; so perhaps for her the only inconvenience is 20% more toenail trimming time.
A favorite pastime of mine is to see what Russ White is up to in surgery. Today, he was working on a man who had been gored by a Cape buffalo, one of the meaner tempered wild animals found in this part of the world. Russ observed that the stomach had been punctured, the duodenum severed and right kidney and ureter, [for which I have new respect], had been neatly dissected out without disturbing any of the nearby great vessels. Russ said that it would have taken him over an hour to do what the buffalo did in one second. The observation that any buffalo can be a general surgeon left Russ uncharacteristically without a retort.
There is another gifted general surgeon, Mike Chupp, here at Tenwek. He is from Mooresville, Indiana and trained at Methodist Hospital. He has a “not so secret” love of orthopedics and occasional neurosurgery, both of which give me the “willys” so I stay out of his room more often than not.
I hope the kidney stone problems are gone forever. I must admit that all the years of observing Lamaze training were fruitless in this challenge. I couldn’t come up with the words in either Kipsigis or Swahili for “GIVE ME A FOCAL POINT”. I was most happy to accept the offer of drugs to deal with the pain instead of enduring the natural childbirth. If an epidural had been available, I would have begged for it.
I have had a little time to pray about the recent episode with the “huge” kidney stone. Since it was unobserved, it has grown larger with each retelling of the story. One could be accused of spritualizing any experience, but we know from scripture that every hair on our heads is numbered and not a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly father’s knowledge. And we know that we are being conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that such an experience may have an intended lesson for us. Such lessons I find often appear in context with current Bible study. So, although it might not seem wise to build doctrine upon a cornerstone of a large kidney stone, here goes.
I have been reading Martyn Lloyd -Jones “Spiritual Depression” most recently, and the last chapter I read last weekend was an exposition of Hebrews 12: 5-11 which he entitled “In God’s Gymnasium”. The passage deals with the concept that those who are true sons of God [that is, a Christian] will undergo chastening which at the time seems grievous, but if responded to properly yields fruit in the life of the believer. He starts with certain premises: God chastises us to safeguard us from certain temptations that are always threatening us – the dangers of pride, self-satisfaction, and smugness, and the danger of drifting away and becoming worldly without realizing it. Positively, He does this to stimulate the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. Further, in order to benefit from the chastisement, the Christian must apply the teaching of it to himself. He states that “The Bible does not teach that everything everyone suffers is sent from God; the teaching is that illness may be sent from God and that God does chastise us by means of illness as well as those various other circumstances.”
There are wrong ways of reacting to God’s chastisement, trials and tribulations. The first is to despise it, that is, to pay no attention to it, to shake it off and go on as if nothing happened. The second wrong way is to feel hopeless and become discouraged. The third is to become bitter. If we react in any of these ways, then we fail to benefit from the experience.
Positively, to benefit we must put everything within the context of Scripture and the biblical worldview and not that of the secular. We must follow the arguments of the Word of God. “So it is God doing this to you, and He is doing it because you are His child, He is doing it for your good because you are His child.”
The sense of the word “exercised” in the passage means that we are stripped naked in God’s gymnasium. The instructor can thus see our flabby areas that are in need of spiritual exercise. He can also see diseased areas of our lives. To benefit from this we must listen to the instructor and do as he says.
Lloyd-Jones says “The moment any untoward event happens to us we must say: ‘I am in the gymnasium. Something must be the matter. What has been going wrong? Where is my trouble? That is the way the Christian should always react to any one of these things that happen.’– be it illness, an accident, a failure, a disappointment, someone’s death. We must examine ourselves and ask ‘have I been negligent in my spiritual life, have I been forgetting God, have I become self-satisfied, have I sinned or done any wrong?’ If we find the sin, then we must confess it honestly and completely to God. Keep exercising these sore muscles, because this is not only preparation for our life in this world but for eternity as well. He is putting us through all this treatment to promote our holiness. If God does not reveal a sin area then accept His trial as an opportunity to grow closer and bring glory to Him.
Finally, he says “look at the One who subjected Himself to it all, though He need not have done so -‘Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame.’ He endured it all for the joy that was laid up for Him and for your salvation and for mine.” So when you feel that the trial or discipline is too much and that it is too painful … look unto Him, keep looking at Him, and follow Him.” “And as certainly as we do so we shall find that this which for the moment is so painful and grievous will afterward yield, even in this life and world, and still more in glory, this wonderful fruit of health and righteousness.”
As I approached God about this experience, He took me back to my devotion of the morning before the attack which I had regarded too lightly, that is the immensity of the suffering of our Lord for my sin. As I contemplated my brief and momentary suffering in comparison to what my Lord has done for me, I had to confess my sins of ingratitude and complacency. “Lord, continue to make me more like your Son.”

Yours in Christ’s Service,
Paul Jarrett

August 27, 2000

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners:
Thanks for praying for the girls’ travel. They arrived safely and on schedule. We miss them already, and look forward to Sept. 19, when we will see them again, Lord willing. We had a good three days and two nights in Nairobi. I feel like I’m getting to know my way around pretty well.
Our trip away from the hospital reminded us how dry the rest of the country remains. The hope is for at least average rains in the “short season” in November and December. That wouldn’t replenish the deficit, but it might give some relief. This is the worst drought in 40 years and is the third year of deficit. Deforestation has contributed to the problem, so it may be that problems will continue long term . As we look at our overflowing river at Tenwek, we are amazed at God’s provision for our needs here in Kenya’s southwest corner.
As we traveled last month at the time of wheat harvest, we observed a scene reminiscent of Biblical times. Large numbers of women followed the reapers, gleaning the leftover heads of grain and straw. Herds of cattle waited to move in behind them. Now the zebras and wildebeests have moved in looking for grazing area. Having tried my hand at a patch of wheat last year, I realize the intensity of labor needed to grow, harvest, and separate the grain from the chaff for a very small reward. How much more work it must be gleaning the leftovers from the combine! The people here spend much of their time in just surviving. The average family must gather 15 to 25 lbs. of firewood a day to cook. Think of this next time you’re in the grocery store with all the choices of bread displayed before you. Sugar is currently in short supply and purchases are restricted when it is even available.
The trip through the Great Rift Valley is like driving through Texas — lots of wind and dust and scattered herds of animals. There is a large panorama in most places, and in the distance clouds of dust rise up either from the moving cattle or from the “dust devils” which look like small brown tornadoes rising in the sky. Road kill here takes on an entirely different dimension. On this trip we saw the remains of both a zebra and a donkey as well as a baboon on the road.
The trip up to Kijabe Hospital is always exciting. It is located on the escarpment looking over the valley on a very desolate and winding road. There have been armed carjackings on the road including one involving Dan Tolan, one of our former missionaries a year or two previous. We must ascend this road for Laura’s orthodontic visit every 4-6 weeks. I’m sure the trip to Carmel to see Dr. Barbour will not seem so exciting in the future although crossing Meridian Street may be just as dangerous if not as well publicized. Laura’s dental work is going very well.
On the same day we traveled, not far from Kijabe up the road towards Nakuru there was a murder of an American Catholic priest, Father John Kaiser. We are aware that his death made the international news. It was made to look like a robbery, but the real motive was revenge for his outspoken criticism of corrupt political figures and his testimony in a rape trial of a Member of Parliament. Also it was his contention that the tribal conflicts I have alluded to in the last letter have been as a result of title disputes due to official corruption. Consequently, he had many people who wanted him to be silent. In this part of the world, democracy takes on a different flavor than what we are used to, even with all the shenanigans in Washington, D.C. It is hard to decide where the line must be drawn in caring for your flock and too much involvement in civilian affairs. I am reminded of the verse that I used last Sunday in my sermon: 2 Tim 2:4 No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs– he wants to please his commanding officer. (NIV) Clearly Father Kaiser was involved heavily in civilian affairs but with an ultimate good intended. All Christians and missionaries need wisdom in this area. There is no general persecution of missionaries going on in Kenya at the present time.
This visit to Nairobi we stayed at the Mennonite Guesthouse. It was built in 1965 and has spacious grounds on what must be very valuable land. The room had its own bath and a separate bedroom for the girls. The rent of 990 KSh.[$13] per person includes 3 meals each day. They were in the process of putting in a generator so we were limited to power from 10PM to 8AM as there is still power rationing in all of Kenya. Each meal the host and hostess, who are from Victoria, Canada, assign seats at different tables so you are encouraged to meet new people. This is very enjoyable and educational as well. The first night we sat with a German lady. She spoke English well enough that I didn’t even try my rusty German. She was visiting various mission projects. The second meal we ate with a single male nurse originally from Toledo, Ohio working in Tanzania for the past 22 years in a Mennonite nurses’ training school.
The next meal we sat with the Hootens, a Southern Baptist family. They were returning from furlough in the States to Mozambique which is 1000 miles to the south. However, they were enrolling their two children in Rift Valley Academy for the fall term. Both parents grew up in Africa in missionary families so they had trouble answering the question “Where are you from”. We have met many people on the mission field who are US citizens but have never lived there or anywhere else for very long. They had met as students at Rift Valley and now they were sending their children there for the first time. How difficult it must be to send away a fifth and seventh grade or even a ninth grade student for a minimum of 3 months to a boarding school! Yet this is the kind of sacrifice we see people making for the cause of Christ. We are such firm believers in homeschooling that we try to encourage families to consider it when we have the opportunity. Pray for the Hootens if you think of them.
Mozambique is a former Communist country which has opened up for the first time to Christian missions. Many people are nominally Muslim, although few mosques exist. It is a former colony of Portugal so Portuguese is the trade language. Local dialects are spoken as well. The Hootens are church planting and teaching agriculture and live without electricity or telephone in an area that takes 11 hours to reach by dirt roads. They work side by side with four American workers from Youth With a Mission as well a Portuguese-speaking couple from Brazil who are with Assemblies of God. Denominational lines blur considerably on the mission field.
They must fly in through Harare, Zimbabwe. That country, although completely evangelized, is coming apart at the seams with blacks attacking white landowners many of whom are fourth generation families in Africa. Ninety percent of land is owned by whites and Asians as are most businesses. Despite not having the skills to run the farms once they have taken them over, the nationals are impatient for change after so many years of colonial rule which ended in this country in the 80’s. Satan loves to divide Christians and uses whatever opportunity he has to create division and strife among brothers and sisters, whether it be by skin color, wealth, language, or tribe.
We also are seeing different ways of sending missionaries. In the Southern Baptist denomination, missionaries are accountable to and paid by an overall governing body rather than individual churches. This facilitates oversight of individuals and guarantees financial support. Therefore they are not doing fundraising while on furlough but reporting to many different churches. There is a disadvantage I see here as well, as they do not have the close contact with individual churches and people who can support them intimately in prayer. This so necessary in spiritual warfare. Also some churches in the denomination never get missionary visits and no real vision for missions develops even though part of their tithe goes to international missions.
Another young couple we met is from California and are presently living near Eldoret, Kenya. They are hosting short-term work teams 6 months of the year and teaching life skills to nationals. Improved gardening, water purification, and job skills are just a few areas in which they are involved in training in addition to evangelism.
We also met a young woman from my brother David’s home church in Baltimore. Cathie Burke is teaching sewing skills to disadvantaged women who are the sole breadwinners for their families for a variety of reasons. They are taught to make crafts such as quilts, bags, dolls, banners, and fireless cookers [which are insulated baskets which continue cooking a meal after initial heating on the fire] All of these products are sold with the proceeds going entirely to the women. They are taught business skills as well as participate in Bible study and prayer. They used pedal driven sewing machines for much of the work. This has raised their standard of living above most of their fellow residents of the slums and spreads the witness of Christ into these areas as well. Cathie is preparing to leave in the next 6 months for Rwanda to establish a branch of the project there. We hope to bring home some of the crafts to enable you to participate in the relief of the very needy people in Kenya.
The purpose of mentioning all of these people and their ministries is to show you that virtually any skill can be transferred to the mission field. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. I mentioned the Missions Conference at Castleview Baptist Church upcoming [September 27-Oct. 1] in previous letters. Whether or not you are a member of our church or denomination, if you’re in Central Indiana please consider attending some of the events of this conference as I know it will enhance your vision of how you can serve the body of Christ and the furtherance of His Kingdom. I will send a full schedule as it becomes finalized but this is the tentative schedule:
The conference theme is “Whoever, Wherever, Whenever” and our key verses are Romans 10:14-15.The conference schedule is as follows:
September 27 Wednesday:Women’s Luncheon (Noon) Marty will be speaking along with several others. Evening Prayer Service (7:00 PM)
September 28 Thursday:Small Group Home Fellowships (7:00 PM)
September 29 Friday:Men’s Prayer Breakfast (6:30 AM);Missions Banquet (6:30 PM)
September 30 Saturday:Small Group Home Dinners (TBA)
October 1 Sunday:Worship Services and Sunday School (9:00 AM)(10:30 AM);Closing Service (6:00 PM)
Travelling in Nairobi this time I found a newly working stoplight bringing the total to two in the Capitol city of Kenya. The lack of infrastructure has been lamented before. They had two tragic accidents in the country this week with massive loss of lives directly attributable to the neglect. A bus ran off the Athi River bridge which is on the Mombassa road we traveled in June. At least 50 people were killed. It is somewhat blind in the approach down a hill from both sides and as a result 158 people have been killed there in numerous accidents over the last 5 years. The government regrets the accidents but doesn’t follow through with the installation of speed bumps which would help greatly. A railroad accident killed 32 and burned another 30 people when petroleum cars became uncoupled and rolled back down a hill into another train near some houses. Lack of maintenance is suspected although sabotage has not been ruled out.
We had fun relaxing for a day in Nairobi before driving back. Marty wanted to shop at the native markets. She is frequently recognized as she has made a few trips to the “dukas” as the small shops are called. On Thursday she had taken Deidra Wingerter there to shop for souvenirs. Deidra traded some old jeans and Marty a fanny pack for some items. On Friday, she went to another market and was greeted by the same people proudly wearing the items they had traded on Thursday. One lady who greeted her said she had met Marty two months ago. Marty asked her how she remembered her, and the lady replied it was because of her beautiful blond hair. She was frustrated because she was unable to get her black hair to be the same color as Marty’s. It ended up being just red tinged. Marty was able to encourage her that her hair was beautiful just the way God had made it. The hunger of the people for things American is amazing. One sees jackets from seed companies in Iowa, bowling shirts from all over the states, and occasionally an Indiana University T-shirt. . Cam Cameron would be encouraged to know that the IU football team must have a larger following over here than it does at home. [If they only could afford season tickets!] Perhaps Bobby Knight could be the successor to President Moi as there is no heir apparent.
On a more serious note, please pray for Mick Madden, our missionary pharmacist. He was driving the 5 km route back to his house in Bomet last week when he struck and killed a 6 year old boy. The boy darted out from behind a tractor-pulled wagon or fell off trying to climb on it. In either event, Mick had no opportunity to avoid hitting him. He scooped him up and brought him back to Tenwek where a code was called, but to no avail. Naturally, Mick was devastated but seems to be recovering emotionally. He has paid for the funeral of the boy out of his own goodwill and now the family wants some cows as compensation; when they have those, they will decide if there has been satisfactory compensation. Because it involves a foreigner, the criminal portion of the case will go before the attorney general of Kenya. Such is the reality of being a deep-pocketed foreigner in a third world country. Mick and his wife Jan, a physical therapist, have been here as volunteers after many years in Bangladesh. Mick came to Kenya as a non-Christian Peace Corps worker many years ago, and was led to the Lord by a Kenyan national. [Sort of a reversal of the usual evangelism that is done.]
Today, Russ White and I visited a primary [grade 1-8] mission school named Mosop which has been started in the area. We took some money to the headmaster so they could build some sidewalks from the dormitory to the school. This is necessary as the school which was founded to care for Kenyan national missionary children [Yes, the local church is also sending out missionaries.] and for orphans has recently began accepting amputee children who have been treated at Tenwek. The amputees can’t get to the dormitory from the school because of mud and rough terrain that they can’t negotiate on crutches or in wheelchairs.
Naturally the visit took awhile after we had taken Chai [tea with milk and sugar]. The headmaster’s office was adorned with postcards of Indianapolis and rural scenes of Indiana. It seems that a Peace Corps worker who happened to be a Christian came through here and her home church, Our Redeemer Lutheran in Indianapolis, gave some money for a library extension that was completed in three days. [It seems that workers are standing by ready to go whenever money is obtained for building materials. The footings for the sidewalk around the building were built in a day after Russ said we'd bring some money. Try getting a contractor in Indianapolis to respond that fast.] The library for the 113 children is not as well equipped as our schoolroom at home in Indiana. The typing room had three vintage typewriters that would have been antiques when I was young. The sewing machines are the kind with the foot treadle my grandmother had in her house. Some of the floors are mud and some are wooden planks. Concrete cement is fairly expensive. A workteam from Berne, Indiana came through this summer and built the dormitory that is very nice. It needs windows before school starts next week. The materials for beds are in a woodpile out back. The story of one of the girls who will live there is poignant.
Chepkoech is now 16 years old. Eighteen months ago she developed some sort of vascular inflammation that resulted in the loss of blood supply to all her extremities. She was apparently placed in a dark corner by her family and allowed to develop bedsores everywhere. When she was brought to Tenwek, she was covered with feces and her hands and feet were black. The mother seems mentally unbalanced and the father is an alcoholic who is frequently gone for long periods of time. Initially the father refused the necessary surgery insisting that medicine be given her instead. Russ White, who can be an in-your-face kind of guy when necessary, took a gangrenous toe off with his hand and gave it to the father while asking, “What kind of medicine would you like me to give her to treat these?” Needless to say, the father backed down and consented to surgery. Both feet and both hands were amputated and the bedsores patiently treated. We are still in the process of getting artificial limbs and planning rehabilitation with the hope that she can learn some skill for future use. These problems are big enough with all the resources in the world available; but here in Kenya, they sometimes seem insurmountable. Yet God has preserved her life for a purpose, and we will try to help her find it with the assistance of the local church. The father initially refused to have her come to Mosop, but the village headman went to the father and told him what must be done and physically carried her out. [In the states we'd have to get a court order to obtain the same result and would end up with a disgruntled family]. We’re trying to get a wheelchair for her and will contact the Lion’s Club in Nairobi or perhaps Joni and Friends for help. This is another example of how Tenwek is involved in the community beyond the walls of the compound. Sometimes medical and spiritual care are not enough without more involvement.
Medically I had a busy week with three hysterectomies and lots of cesareans. One case was particularly difficult. Hannah Chelangat had a cesarean section for her eighth child because of a shoulder presentation and prolapsed cord. The baby was dead. Despite three antibiotics commencing at surgery, over the next week she developed increasing pain and fever. The ultrasound couldn’t demonstrate an abscess which I’m sure you are already suspicious of given the education you’ve received from me. I asked the Australian surgeon, Michael Stathis, to see her with me and he agreed she needed additional surgery. That is always a difficult decision to make– much harder than the decision to operate initially. We found a large diffuse collection of pus underneath the fascia which looked dead and shredded. We put in drains and cut away dead tissue [debridement] and sewed the fascia while leaving the skin open with packing. She has made a slow recovery over the past four days but isn’t out of the woods. Please pray for her. She is a Christian.
And as if this letter isn’t long enough, I have an excerpt from Russ White’s letter to include because I know you enjoy his stories and so far this one has a happy ending.
“Please pray for a patient. Samson Mosonik is a 50 year old man who I happened to have operated on last Sunday afternoon and evening. He was involved in some of the recent tribal clashes we have had between the Kipsigis and Maasai tribes. These have been violent outbreaks occurring about 25 miles away from us here at Tenwek. I have treated a number of the victims from these clashes recently. Samson was brought in Sunday afternoon after having been shot with a bow and arrow in the back of his neck. The arrow was sticking out at the top of his neck just below his skull. He had a bit of weakness in his left arm, but was otherwise all right (other than the fact, of course, that there was a large arrow protruding from his neck). The Xrays showed that the arrow had entered his spinal canal between his first and second cervical vertebrae. It had entered just off the midline, but the tip had ended exactly in the midline where the spinal cord should be. This is a particular part of human anatomy into which I have never been (at least in a living patient), but we proceeded to try to remove the arrow. After putting him to sleep, I opened the area down to the spinal canal, removing part of the second cervical vertebrae to get in. As we were carefully moving the arrow shaft, it became apparent that the arrow had severed his vertebral artery. This is one of two arteries that supplies blood to the base of the brain. This particular artery is essentially impossible to control in this area. In America, this would be controlled angiographically to stop the bleeding. However, we have no such luxury, and the vessel was bleeding nearly uncontrollably. Despite a variety of different attempts to control the bleeding by many methods, we simply could not control it. I had planned to carefully open the spinal canal, move the spinal cord out of the way, and remove the arrow from the bone on the other side of the cord. However, given all the bleeding, I really thought the patient was going to die on the table. I decided to simply pull out the arrow and pack the wound to stop the bleeding. After a bit of pulling the arrow came out– minus one of the barbs on the side of the arrow. We packed the wound tightly and closed the skin. I honestly thought that the bleeding would continue and compress the spinal cord. In this case, Samson would have stopped breathing and died. In fact, I instructed the nurses not to attempt to resucitate him if he stopped breathing. I was actually quite surprised to see him breathing comfortably in the ICU late in the evening. I talked to him then and he seemed to be waking up normally and was moving all parts of his body well. I left the packing in the wound for two days and then took him back to the operating room on Wednesday. We were all praying that God would have done the angiography for us and embolized the verterbal artery in order to stop the bleeding! I was expecting the bleeding to begin again after removal of packing, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that there was no significant bleeding after removing the packs. In addition, I could see a very large hole into the spinal canal with the spinal cord visible, and there– impaled in the spinal cord– was the piece of the arrow. I carefully removed it with no further bleeding. We closed up the large hole in the spinal canal to stop the leak of spinal fluid. I was still concerned that Samson would have paralysis at the least, and possibly overwhelming infection. However, he has done well, and will probably be able to go home soon. He still has mild weakness in the left arm, but this seems a small price to pay.
I plan to talk to Samson tomorrow after church about his spiritual life. I don’t believe he is a Christian. I can only believe he is alive today because of God’s intervention in his life. Pray for me as I share with him tomorrow about his need for Jesus to save not only his life, but his soul.”
PS. Samson made a commitment to the Lord today that Russ feels is genuine.
Thanks for your prayers and support. We could do nothing without them. The days ahead will be lonesome without our three girls, and the nearness of our return makes it imperative that we use our remaining time wisely. Today we sang “It Is Well With My Soul” in church. I was thankful that God didn’t call me to make the same sacrifice that Horatio Spafford did before writing that song. His three daughters were drowned in the Atlantic on a journey in which his wife was “saved alone”. As the father of seven daughters, I can’t get through that song without my voice breaking. But it expresses his ultimate confidence in God and the hope of His soon return which I share with him.” And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall re-sound and the Lord shall descend “Even so,” it is well with my soul.
Love, Paul for all the Jarretts remaining in Kenya.

Newsflash: One of Amy and Laura’s chickens laid her first egg today! [thus deferring the flock of four's transfer from coop to frying-pan.]

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners in God’s Work in Kenya:
I wanted to take this early opportunity to thank you for your prayers on our behalf this week. It actually has been an unbelievably good week, despite all the pressure of deadlines. And I must give God the glory and the thanks for His enablement. Let me elaborate.
The week began on Monday morning with the safe arrival of our friend and neighbor, Deidre Wingerter, who will visit for 11 days until she returns with Susanna, Debbye and Becki. We were thankful for her early arrival and safe travel alone from Indiana to Tenwek. It seemed like right away on Monday ideas for organization for my lecture began to come into my mind. It had seemed such a muddle before.
The process was interrupted for business as usual at Tenwek, however. First thing, Monday morning, I was called to the labor room to see a young mother who was having seizures continually. The story began to come out from her mother who accompanied her to the hospital that she was 16 years old and had been sent back home to her family by the man she married; he claimed she was sick all the time. She was felt to be near term in her pregnancy when she began to complain of back pain. Then she began having the seizures and vomiting. They took her by the pharmacy where she was given an injection of Valium, not a bad choice considering the things we usually see from the chemists. As the seizures continued, they brought her to Tenwek.
As I began assessing the problem, the likelihood of the reason for her seizures being eclampsia [convulsions from toxemia of pregnancy] was high. This was further confirmed by finding her blood pressure to be very high. I started an intravenous containing large doses of Magnesium Sulfate [Epsom Salts if you put it in your bath]. This controlled the seizures right away. We couldn’t hear any fetal heart beat which was no great surprise as the mother doesn’t breathe properly during seizures. I performed an ultrasound that showed the term size baby to be dead. I began to think in terms of how we could get her delivered. As I did an examination I noted that she had been circumcised. That is a nice word for what is called in our country ritual female genital mutilation. Although the practice is dying out world wide due to the hue and cry of women’s interest groups, it is still practiced among many people groups in Africa. We regularly see women who have had this experience at puberty, but most patients in this area are in an older age group as the procedure is certainly on the decline.
I was pleased to find that she was completely dilated. She had gone through labor during the time she had been unconscious unbeknownst to anyone. We first tried a vacuum assisted delivery, but found it too tight and switched to forceps. The nurses used to hide these because they are frightened of the damage they can do to patients, or so they have heard. Most have never seen them used. I’ve convinced them that they can save lives, and often they’re available now with a little coaxing. We delivered the mother with a large episiotomy as the baby was nearly too big for her. It was an otherwise perfect male child. We transferred the mother to ICU and started antibiotics to treat her for the possibility of aspiration pneumonia from the vomiting while unconscious. By Wednesday, she knew where she was and was ready to go home on Friday. The chaplain visited her and led her to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior. She had attended church previously, but had not made any commitment to God until now.
Monday night I was on call but had a completely quiet night and was able to work on my paper all evening. Tuesday is the normal day for surgery for Gynecology, but this was the first day since I’ve been here that we had no scheduled cases. Consequently, I stayed home all day after rounds were over at 10 AM and worked on the paper. I nearly finished it by Tuesday evening after a break for an emergency D&C and a lecture I gave the residents at 5 PM. [I forgot to mention for you to pray for that, but that was included in the routine work]. Meanwhile, Marty began to put together the outline for the talk we are to give together, and filled in my part on Wednesday, and I finished both papers by Thursday. I began to receive inspiration for the outline for my sermon on Sunday, as the papers were finished. I even sent in the papers a day before the deadline.
Gynecology clinic on Wednesday was the best since I’ve been here in terms of getting through early and feeling good about the time spent with patients. It was necessary to schedule a hysterectomy for Thursday on another patient with choriocarcinoma.
I was so disappointed last month when a mother left the hospital without treatment for the same disease, presumably for lack of money. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again this time, so we asked for blood donors but no up-front money. I already had a good relationship with this Masai couple from when she was hospitalized last month for delivery of a hydatidiform mole [abnormal placenta growth]. Unfortunately the cancer follows in at least 37% of cases in older mothers, and she is 45. I was surprised to see her back with heavy bleeding before her scheduled appointment. She had developed a metastasis [spread] of the tumor near the rectum. Since it was the only evidence of spread, I think she has a chance following the hysterectomy and excision of the metastasis we did on Thursday, particularly if we start chemotherapy right away which we do have available. This mother, too, prayed to receive Christ when she met with the chaplain. If you think to pray for her, her name is Agnes Lebo.
Thursday afternoon we did two Cesarean Sections, one for what the nurses called a “precious baby.” This mother was having her first child at age 36 after trying unsuccessfully for 16 years to conceive. The labor was non-progressive and the nurses, who were extremely emotional and protective of her, were about fit to be tied. After I did her delivery and got a very nice looking baby, I needed to do another cesarean delivery for fetal distress. I couldn’t see where one baby looked more precious than the other, but what do I know? The agony of her long wait does say something of the value placed on having children in African society.
Friday we did three more cesareans after Dr. Renfroe had done two more the night before. It seems that so many of our deliveries are high risk. I guess that’s because we’re seeing the failures of attempted home births. Apparently most are successful. We see the ones where either the baby or the placenta fails to come out. It makes for a good training experience for the medical students and interns. I let the senior medical student do one of the cesareans on Friday after she had helped on so many.
I had one cesarean at 5 am Saturday, and then had time to put the sermon in its final form. Saturday night we did a vaginal breech delivery on a 16-year-old first time mother. She had been married for two years. She never let out a peep through a very difficult delivery where the head was trapped for several minutes. Fortunately, we were able to resuscitate the baby quickly but not without some anxious moments. I still think breech deliveries are a good idea in this setting. But some are as we say, “simply awful” rather than the “awfully simple” ones that we hope for. I had the nurse reaching for the Piper forceps after I took over the delivery from the intern; I finally got the head dislodged safely. Debbye had already cut my hair earlier in the day, but I think I’ll have her cut out the new gray ones that seem to have appeared as a result.
This morning the sermon went well. God continues to speak to me about trusting Him for all our needs. In preparing for this message, God brought to mind the following scripture:
2 Tim 2:3-7 Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs– he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. (NIV)
I see in this text a challenge to the Christian who is a soldier in the Lord’s army. There will be times of hardship which we are to endure. We are not to be so involved in civilian affiars, that is the pursuit of money, if we’re to please God. Following His rules of service, we will gain a victor’s crown. And as a laborer in the field, we will share in the harvest, both in the spiritual sense by bringing souls into His kingdom and in the material sense, that our needs will be provided for. As He challenged me, I challenge you to reflect on what He is saying, and His promise is to give you insight into it as it applies to your life.
I have some follow-up on some other patients to give you. Chebet Towett, the 18-year-old who needed a hysterectomy after sloughing out the uterus and part of the bladder and upper vagina following an unsuccessful vaginal delivery and subsequent cesarean section was discharged from the hospital. She has been here all week waiting for the family to come and get her and pay something on her hospital bill. It’s nice to see her smile and shake my hand each morning.
Dr. Russ White has passed along a follow up of the story of Kiplangat, the young boy with an aortic graft surgery. I will forward it to you in his words. “So many of you prayed for Wesley Kiplangat Rono. He is the 15 year old boy who suffered the ruptured thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysm. I honestly never thought he could survive, and by all medical criteria, he should not be alive today– let alone walking without any paralysis. Beth and I and the boys attended an event yesterday to celebrate the recovery of Wesley. It was held at his home, which is about 40 kilometers from Tenwek–over some very rough roads.
We had lunch with his family including his parents, brothers and sisters (13 of them) and all his aunts and uncles. Following lunch there was a large gathering of all the people of the village including some of the county political officials and the local chief. After many other speakers who thanked God for the healing of Wesley, I shared with them the account of his time at Tenwek Hospital. For most of them, it was the first time they had actually heard what happened to Wesley. They hung on every word, and were amazed to learn that we had essentially replaced Wesley’s entire blood volume. There were cheers of joy when the story came to the parts of God’s clear, unmistakable intervention in the situation.
At the end of the meeting, hundreds of people came forward to contribute something to help the family pay their bill to Tenwek. One of the county officials commented that he was not a Christian. However, after hearing of God’s divine intervention, he was going to give his life to the Lord! There was such joy on the faces of all the family members. They shared how at the time Wesley was brought to Tenwek– remember that he traveled 40 kilometers vomiting blood the entire way– they were certain they would never see him alive again. It was a wonderful day of praise! Although it was a long day for the kids, we were all grateful to be a part of it!”
It is a pleasure to work with people like Russ White at Tenwek. There are several others like him working in other specialties or general medical work. They are highly skilled individuals who are seeking to serve God with their talents instead of pursuing personal financial gains in the world — something they easily could do successfully. On Tuesday this week, I watched Russ work on a woman who could not even swallow water anymore due to cancer blocking her esophagus. In years past I had seen people die a slow starvation death with this condition. In about an hour-long procedure, he inserted a stent through an endoscope which then expanded to hold open the esophagus for the forseeable future. She will still die someday of her cancer but not by starvation and dehydration; and she has some time left in this world to either serve God or perhaps be reconciled to Him for the first time.
It has continued to rain in our area throughout this traditional dry time. Thank you for praying. In Nairobi and elsewhere civil strife as a result of the drought continues to take lives. Today we have a Kipsigis man with an arrow wound in his neck from a conflict with the Maasai. Last week it was a bullet wound in a survivor of a battle in which several were killed. People in Nairobi are upset that the Maasai have driven their cattle onto the elite golf course and up and down the main highway in town [ignoring the only working traffic light]. It seems the cattle can’t tell the difference between forbidden and permissable grass.
Please pray for safety for travel for Susanna, Debbye, Becki, and Deidre, as they fly out on British Air next Thursday night, August 24th. Their journey begins at 2 PM Indianapolis time. They are scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Friday, August 25th at 5:31 PM on American Eagle from Chicago. Also, continue to pray for Marty’s mother, Frances Alley, as she seems to have had a small stroke this week and is weaker than before. We all look forward to seeing her on our return. It has been hard to be away during her illnesses. My father, Paul Sr., had successful cataract surgery this past week as well. We are thankful for the success of this procedure.
As always, we so appreciate your prayers and notes of encouragement. This week in particular, we could see direct result of your activity. Asanteni! [Thanks to all of you].
Love in Christ’s Service,
Paul for all the Jarretts in Kenya

Dear Family and Friends,
Chamegay. (The friendly greeting we exchange with the Kipsigis who live in the Tenwek area)
After four months of living and working here and settling in our second home, we have established a daily routine. (Always subject to changes as God directs.) Many of you have asked for a glimpse into my life as a “Kenyan housewife”, so I will attempt to help you experience this present calling on my life.
Days begin early with the boisterous sounds of over 100 Kenyan boarding school students who live across the street. It is not unusual for them to be up at about 5:30 A.M. engaging in a hilarious time of laughing, singing, and moving around desks and chairs. Additional sounds that compete with the honor of awaking me are donkeys braying, roosters crowing, dogs barking, rattling carts, and pedestrians chattering and scurrying along to early morning hospital jobs. The road by our house is a main pathway for foot travel and an occasional car clunking up and down the hilly, rocky road. Hope for a warm shower (more likely now that we have enough daily power to turn on our water heater from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M.) gets me out of bed to the sounds of our girls’ Tae-Bo kicking and punching in the living room. My daily devotions are usually brought to a close with Becki and Debbye’s final warning for their teacher to report for school at 8:30 A.M.
Lessons stop briefly while I greet Richard (our house-help who we hire so he might provide for his family), pray with him, and give him instruction for the day. Even though he is a great cook, I am so thrilled that the girls are getting many opportunities to be “Martha Stewart”. Because most recipes are made from scratch, much cooking is necessary; the girls are rising to the occasion. Some of them even turn out a mouth-watering loaf of cinnamon bread.
As we return to our school lessons, we spend about four hours going over assignments, reading history and missionary biographies, and watching educational videos. It pleases me that we seem to get more accomplished here than at home as there are fewer outside responsibilities and distractions. One of the marvelous highlights of our studies here has been the Bible study that the girls and I are doing together. God’s Priceless Woman has been eye and heart-opening for each one of us as we search the Scriptures to view God’s intended role for a godly woman. What a joy to grow in the Lord together as mother and daughters, each desiring to be the woman God has planned for us to be!
Along with morning lessons, we get dishes washed, dried, and put away, and laundry washed and hung on the line. Another praise item is the recent availability of electricity so that we can wash our many loads of clothes more often than the previous 7-9 A.M. time period. I actually look forward to any opportunity to get outside to hang the laundry so I can enjoy the beauty of God’s creation and the typically pleasant weather that we have in the mornings. One other common morning activity involves greeting a seemingly continuous stream of Kenyans selling their produce, eggs, and handicrafts at our door. We also have frequent requests for money for local churches and school fundraisers. Three of these ladies have become special friends of mine. Even though we don’t speak the same language, each of us has the same one, true God at the center of our lives. It is special to greet one another as sisters in Christ which forms our close bond.
Our daily school time ends about 1:00 each weekday which is the appointed lunch hour. This is the traditional big meal of the day at Tenwek, and we do quite a bit of entertaining then. Visiting staff and work teams are provided with meals at the missionaries’ homes so we get to meet many people and often develop close relationships. (Which helps relieve our bouts of homesickness.) Afternoons are usually filled with various ministry opportunities. Community Health staff appreciate our help with counting and packaging medicine to be taken to the nearby villages. Our weekly visit to the Pediatric ward continues to be one of our favorite ministries. The girls’ singing, puppetry, soap-bubble blowing, and passing out coloring pages and crayons never fails to bring “award-winning” smiles to the faces of precious children (and parents) who are so receptive to expressions of God’s love for them. Their enthusiastic responses warm our hearts as we see pitiful physical conditions forgotten for a moment as they are filled with joy. The girls also keep busy with baby-sitting, hair cutting, running errands, fixing broken E-mail servers up at the hospital (very important for all the Tenwek community), and singing for various prayer time groups. My afternoons pass quickly with school for Rachel, food preparation, fruit and vegetable bleaching (making them safe to eat), personal reading opportunities, attempts at E-mailing (I am slow, but learning), and visiting with missionary wives to encourage them and pray together. Evenings are filled with walks around the compound, cooking suppers, and kitchen clean up. We spend time in family prayer for all of you or do Bible study and enjoy card games, board games, or a video together. Visits with other missionaries are also a highlight of many evenings. I am more thana ready for bed by 10 P.M.
I want to close this letter to you by sharing an exciting answer to prayer which led to another ministry for me. God has directed me in a very special way to deal with a heavy burden on my heart. For the past year I have been troubled about the beggar children who come to our door continually asking for food, pencils, soap, school fees, and endless other items. I have repeatedly prayed and asked God for His guidance to balance my need to respond to His admonition to care for the needy and to encourage those who want to eat to see the importance of using their hands to work and not being idle. Conversations with other missionaried did not seem to bring me any closer to a solution as they all struggle with the same problem. Also, we seemed to run out of jobs to offer these children which was an earlier attempt to deal with this situation. Then one morning three weeks ago as I was spending time with the Lord, He gave me specific leading for the solution to my dilemma. God reminded me of everyone’s need for two kinds of food- physical and spiritual. An idea began to form that the Lord wanted me to put into practice with these children. I needed to share with them about their need for the two kinds of food and then give them Bible verses to memorize. I told them that each time they hide God’s word in their hearts (this “food” can never be taken away from them), I will also give them physical food for their bodies. I had already given each of them a Bible during the early weeks of our stay. Then I asked God to direct me to the verses to assign them, and my God-given ministry was begun. What a blessing to see some of the children (especially two 12-year old boys, Geoffery and Patrick) eagerly respond to this challenge and learn a new verse each day. They even chose to learn the books of the Bible and accomplished this goal in one week. I am developing a relationship of teacher-student and friends in Christ with each child. What a privilege to pray with them and encourage each one to read God’s Word daily and to trust and obey the Lord in every area of his life. Patrick’s mother has been diagnosed with cancer so I have been praying with him about this trial. Please pray for her healing and God’s provision for that family. Also, please pray that I will effectively instruct these young people with God’s word so that their lives may glorify the Lord.
I hope this brief look into my daily life has given you a sample of my personal experiences here at Tenwek. Even better would be a visit from any of you to participate in this work God has opened for us.
I want to thank each one of you for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support that make it possible for my family to be here at Tenwek to minister in Jesus’ name to these precious, needy people. God has used each of you in a special way to help us be fellow workers with Him to reach the people of Kenya with His life-saving, gospel message.
Serving God with you,
Marty Jarrett
Isaiah 25:1 “Oh Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in PERFECT FAITHFULNESS you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
Isaiah 26:12 “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished YOU HAVE DONE FOR US.”
Message from E-mail:
“What If…”
What if God couldn’t take the time to bless us today because we couldn’t take the time to thank Him yesterday?
What if God decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we did not follow Him today?
What if we never saw another flower because we grumbled when God sent the rain?
What if God didn’t walk with us today because we failed to recognize it as His day?
What if God took away the Bible tomorrow because we would not read it today?
What if God took away His message because we failed to listen to His messenger?
What if the door of the church was closed because we did not open the door of our heart?
What if God stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?
What if God would not hear us today because we would not listen to Him yesterday?
What if God answered our prayers the way we answer His call for service?
What if God met our needs the way we give Him our lives?
PS. From Paul. Thanks for your prayers for 18 year old Chebet Toet. She may get to go home soon. Her incision is healing and her fever has dissapated. Her incontinence has diminished somewhat, but will likely be a long term problem, but at least we can now begin to think about her having a long term. A sterile, uneducated, unmarried young woman has a fairly bleak future, but all things are possible with God, and she does acknowledge Jesus as her Savior. The 34 year old mother of 13 with choriocarcinoma has left the hospital without treatment. Even though this disease is curable 95% of the time in the States, she will surely die unless she returns for care, and even then her chances are not great. Similarly, the mother who has a 12 week fetus and apparently coexistant molar pregnancy has not returned for follow-up care. Unfortunately, it is not an unusual occurence for a patient not to comply with a follow-up appointment. Jackson Meli’s niece who was paralyzed in the accident in May is now 3 weeks from delivery. After that she could begin physical therapy. Rain is still needed throughout Kenya.
Our postal address is Jarretts, c/o Tenwek Hospital, P.O. Box 39, Bomet, Kenya, East Africa
Support is sent to: Account #2355, Jarretts, World Medical Mission, P. O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607

Dear Friends:
Sorry about the long “header” on this letter, but it’s the only way I know to update our relay person at church of the additions to the E-mail list. Usually, I’ll send carbon copies as a blind copy which won’t give you a header like this one.
First, I should give you some feedback on answered prayer. Kiplangat, the boy with the aorta graft, has recovered and was back for a visit in the clinic. He is doing well and has a future to look forward to here on earth as well as in heaven. Also,Caleb’s brother, who was in jail wrongly accused of stealing money from his place of employment has been exonerated of all charges. Initially, Caleb was able to get him out of jail on bond. {Being in jail in a third world country is dangerous as the police can be very violent and often beat prisoners. We have had some fatalities brought in from police beatings. These beatings are not racially [or tribally] motivated as we might assume in the US — “the heart of man is desparately wicked; who can understand it”.} Afterwards, the real thief was apprehended and he confessed. This carrying out of justice is unusual in this part of the world and many people linger in prisons without the benefit of having had a trial at all, let alone being convicted and sentenced. We see this as a direct result of your prayers.
Marty’s mother, Frances Alley, has made some recovery from her heart failure, although she has not regained her former strength which was already feeble. She is staying with Marty’s brother Charles and his family. Pray for strength and wisdom for them as well as continued healing for Frances. Her memory of recent events is not always clear which is a new problem and a frustration for her.
Beth has done fairly well after kidney stone surgery, although she had a recurrence of pain and a new stone has been diagnosed. She may have fairly large medical bills as well, as I’m not sure how good her insurance coverage will be. Please uphold her in prayer as she travels with her baseball team throughout the northeast US and Canada.
We are all well and are coping with the homesickness. It helps to get off the mission compound for a “breather” now and then and we are looking forward to going to the beach at Mombassa on the Indian Ocean beginning June 29. We will try to stop and get Laura’s braces adjusted and then drive on to Nairobi. Then Marty, Rachel, and Becki will fly on to Mombassa with 2 members of the Renbarger family while the rest of us drive down in Renbarger’s car. The trip takes 8-11 hours. Power rationing is in effect throughout Kenya and there is famine in some areas. But missionaries who have just returned from Mombassa report everything is functioning normally, even though the hotel just went into receivership. They have generators there and in Nairobi at the places where we would be going. There has been no civil unrest other than in border areas with Sudan and Somalia which is remote from where we are and will travel. I have debated the wisdom of travel but at this time we have peace about it. Please pray for our safety and wisdom for these kind of decisions. Rain is still needed throughout the area.
Last night, I was on call without an intern and it had been fairly quiet. Then at 10 oclock I got a phone call to come see a woman bleeding heavily with a miscarriage. As I dressed for that, the phone rang again and the maternity unit informed me of a patient who was suddenly coughing up blood. The patient, Jennifer — age 20 was allegedly 36 weeks pregnant with her fourth child. She had been admitted 5 hours earlier by Caleb with a diagnosis of malaria and had a hemoglobin of 3 which you all know by now is very low {Normal 12-14]. She had begun to receive a transfusion, but now that things were falling apart, I was notified of her admission and the change in her condition. I went there first, and could see she was in trouble. Her lungs sounded as if they had a lot of fluid in them. I asked the nurse to put on the pulse oximeter which would take awhile to locate. Meanwhile, I went to Casualty to see the woman who as miscarrying. They had another woman with malaria for me to see as well. I sent the patient to theatre for preparation for a D & C and hurried back to Maternity. Jennifer’s oxygen saturation was about 86% which is down a little from normal.
I determined that we should transfer her to ICU and start oxygen. I called John Delew, the internal medicine specialist from Wheaton, Illinois, and discussed the situation with him. He didn’t think the diagnosis of malaria would account for what I was seeing and predicted the chest xray would show pneumonia. He readily agreed to come up the hill and see the patient with me. That is a consistent type of response that I have experienced with John and other staff. There is no put-down of my abilities or condescencion which one might encounter in Indianapolis or other places in the US, but a willingness to help without grumbling.
He started potent antibiotics and oxygen while I did the D & C and then admitted the patient with malaria. I stopped by ICU and was home by midnight. At 2 am, the ICU nurse called and said the patient’s oxygen saturation was now 46%. I talked with John and he said the only thing we could do was to put her on a ventilator and perhaps deliver her by cesarean which might ease her breathing. I hustled back up the hill, now in need of oxygen myself, and went to ICU. She was still conscious, but obviously in real trouble. I determined to deliver her and called up all the support people to begin surgery and ventilator care. As I prayed for wisdom, the Holy Spirit prompted me to inquire if the patient was a Christian. The nurse spoke with her and she said she was not. I asked for the chaplain to come, which he promptly did. There in the ICU as we prepared her for surgery, the chaplain led her to pray the sinner’s prayer of confession and she accepted Christ as her savior.
As Jennifer’s oxygen saturation was now 38%, it was clear I had to act. We hurried off to surgery where she was intubated and suctioned of a great amount of fluid from her lungs. We hurriedly did a cesarean as her blood pressure began a freefall to zero. Her tissue color looked like that of the patient on whom I’d done an autopsy a few weeks before. Blood vessels barely oozed. The baby was much smaller than 36 weeks, probably only 28 or 30, and had no pulse. It could not be resuscitated. Jennifer’s blood pressure did not respond to epinephrine or a dopamine drip, and as I put in the last suture in the skin closure, her heart stopped beating.
No family members were around to talk with as I completed the death certificate and informed the nurses from the various units what had happened. All were encouraged when I told them of Jennifer’s 11th hour conversion, and I had noticed many of them praying through the events of the evening. Sleep has escaped me this morning as I returned to bed at 4am. So I decided to write you. Mike Chupp, one of the surgeons who is here full-time told me the other day, that hardly a day goes by when he doesn’t do some procedure or see a condition that he has never encountered before. I guess that I’m experiencing the same type of thing. I never have had to do a post-mortem cesarean section before, and this came close to that kind of event, although our intent was to save the mother as well as the baby. The responsibility of making such decisions is heavy, and the obligation to consider the patient’s eternal condition with respect to Jesus Christ is something I must keep in the fore of my mind. Please pray that I will be alert to situations and sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading each moment of the day.
There are some other issues I would ask for prayer for as well. I have been asked to give a lecture on Obstetrics and Gynecology on the mission field at the Prescription for Renewal conference in Asheville, NC on October 5th after our return. Also, Marty and I are both to lead a panel discussion on preparing the family for service on the mission field. This is a pretty daunting task to prepare a scholarly 45 minute lecture with no more experience than I’ve had and resources that I have available. But I have agreed to do so and will count on your prayers and God’s enablement to do it. Marty, likewise, has no great love of public speaking, but is willing as she is called to do so and has been used effectively in the past.
I have had other adventures in recent days, including an operation for cervical cancer which went well under the circumstances, and a tuboplasty, a fertility restoration operation which has a good chance for success. Both cancer and infertility are desparate circumstances. I saw a patient back in clinic yesterday who we had drained a large abcess from the week before as she made a nice recovery. We see many challenging gynecologic cases which are difficult to deal with when you have adequate rescources let alone the skeleton tools we have.
Please pray for staffing needs for Tenwek. John Delew will leave in a few weeks leaving a big hole in the Medicine department. Please pray for him and his family as they decide on their future career plans. We selfishly pray that God will direct them to come back here full time as he has such compassion and skills which are needed here. Mark Freije, a family practitioner from Indianapolis, is raising support in order to come by January, 2001. Please pray {or contribute} for their fund raising. The workload is heavy and the laborers are few.
Marty is travelling for the next 4 days with 3 single women missionaries and Amy, Laura, and Becki will go to Nairobi for a teen event this weekend. In addition, Chuck Morgan from Indianapolis {CPMorgan} will visit us on Friday for a few hours and I have not been able to arrange backup coverage to guarantee my availability for his visit. We hope to have some time for this, so please pray for a quiet day at the hospital.
Thanks so much for your support and prayers. We couldn’t be here without your knocking on the gates of heaven on our behalf.
Please write when you get a chance. jarretts@maf.or.ke or P.O.Box 39, Bomet, Kenya, East Africa
Love from all the Jarretts,
Paul

Dear Friends: I add this note as an addendum to the last letter. {minus the header(>:}
In going to prayer this morning I received comfort from God’s Word in Ecclesiastes 7:2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.
Also, Psalm 90
Ps 90:1-17
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning–
6 though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.
7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
10 The length of our days is seventy years– or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us– yes, establish the work of our hands.
(NIV)
Love, Paul