Jarretts Ministry

Dear Friends and Family:

Our time here at Tenwek has gone by quickly – doesn’t all of life unless you’re waiting for your 21st birthday? I want to report on our visit to the Kenduiwo Children’s Home, and our last week here. Please click on the link to read the report and some updated prayer requests.

I met most of my objectives for my trip to Tenwek this year. I wanted to visit all of the children’s homes, encourage the children and directors, and assess progress as well as needs. Amy and I wanted to attend the dedication service in Marty’s honor for the girls’ dormitory at Kenduiwo Children’s Home. [Sometimes we spell this Kenduiwa, and it is spelled both ways on signs at the home – this is probably a function of transliteration from Kipsigis to English]. I also wanted to be certain that my medical and surgical skills were sufficient for continued medical missionary service; for that question, the answer is affirmative. The final objective was to assess opportunities for future service; it appears that the soonest I would be needed at Tenwek again is next April; they plan to have three American OBGYN specialists here for the next nine months. Could it be that God will direct me to a different hospital, like Kijabe, in the meantime?

I will let Amy describe the dedication ceremony this past Sunday: We left about 9:30 am for church at Kenduiwo at 10:00. There had not been too much rain this last week, so the road was passable up the mountain to Kenduiwo. As we pulled up to the orphan home, we heard this really loud music coming from the dining hall/ meeting room. It was like a disco beat with a gospel flare. ? — no way to really describe it. But the “Happy Boys Choir” (about 6 of the older orphan boys) did several numbers as did other groups from the three area churches that came for the service. It was great. Groups from the various churches would move up front and start their song. The keyboard player would get the beat going and then add the tones from the keyboard — very nice ?

There were lots of songs, testimonies, 5-15 min. speeches that were opened with “I don’t have much to say because of time…..” [a very Kenyan phraseology ?] but very special. I think Mom would definitely be happy because of the Glory the Lord was given. Sometimes it was very hard and I was crying. It was especially hard because I know Kenyans don’t typically show their emotions, and I was the only person in the room who seemed to be crying — never fun to cry alone! When they asked the Jarretts to come forward and give a speech, Dad was doing a good job and was about to turn to me for my turn, but I think he saw my “NO WAY” look with all my tears and graciously kept talking for us. There were about 250 people all packed in Kenyan style with about 6-8 people on a “4 is comfortable” bench. The service went straight from 10:30-till about 2:30 with the church and dedication all in one.

After the service we went to the dorm and took some pictures with the girls and their new dorm. The bronze plaque is really nice — it says
Kenduiwo Children’s Home
Girl’s Dormitory
in memory of
Mary Martha Jarrett
“Great is Thy Faithfulness O God”
After taking lots of pictures and having the dedication prayer, we went back in the meeting room where the ladies group brought a special treat. They said that if Mary was here, she would have brought a cake, so they thought they should make one for the orphans for her. ? I think they were right! They did a big presentation of it and then had Dad cut it and the three of us try a bite to “test” it for the orphans — nothing like eating a bite of cake in front of 250-300 people — must be how it is on your wedding day. Haha. Then all the orphans lined up and Dad passed the cake bites out (not a huge cake) After all this, we went to David (the home’s director) and Sarah’s house for a typical Kenyan meal — rice, beans, potatoes, and chapattis [flat bread prepared in a skillet with oil]. We finally left about 3:30 and got home after 4:00.

Paul again. Kenduiwo now has 38 children; 24 boys and 14 girls reside here. Seven children are now in secondary school [high school]. The home and children are having a major impact on the surrounding community. Many local church members visit the home and women’s Bible study groups often meet here using the large dining hall\ meeting room facility. Other groups from the community meet here so the home has a high profile and witness in the community. At a time when alcohol use is increasing in many areas following the violence and resultant disrespect of the governing authorities, this community is seeing a decrease; only two families are still brewing alcohol – the others have quit and are attending churches.

The home now has two permanent dormitories, a permanent water tank, the large meeting room, and the older semi-permanent buildings currently used for the girl’s dorm, matron’s quarters, store rooms, and a library room. A permanent kitchen building is under construction with a higher efficiency wood burning stove. The lighting at night is from battery power; a windmill generator is supposed to recharge the batteries, but has not worked since installation. We are looking into repairing the system or hooking up solar panels to recharge the batteries.

The director, David Koech, is headmaster at a local elementary school, which does limit the time he has to pursue outside sources of development such as the director of the Umoja home has been able to do. Nearly all the rest of his time is devoted to caring for the children, who have become like his own children. He has dreams of developing his own Christian elementary school [grades 1-8] which would provide jobs for teachers who would be around the orphans to assist them on weekends and evenings as well as holiday school sessions for the three one-month breaks during the year-round school schedule. Tuition from outside students would support the salaries.

I have long wondered why the children attend different boarding high schools in areas remote from where they live. David explained the system to me: when the students take the national exam at the end of their 8th grade year, they are supposed to list two different school choices in three different categories – national, provincial, and local; then a government education minister chooses somewhere for each student to go and sends out a letter informing them where they will attend. It is a fairly random process.

Schools generally don’t allow parental visitation except on designated days about every six weeks. David and Sarah then have the difficult choice of which of the children they will visit remote from where the children’s home is located; it’s a grave concern for Sarah that each child be visited as often as possible so that he doesn’t feel neglected. Neither they nor the home has a vehicle for their use, so there are transportation expenses for this need as well as for the hospital outpatient visits for sick children and the three who need regular check-ups for their ARV therapy for HIV.

David estimates that their expenses per child per month are $20.00. This is about half of what many organizations request for support for children in their programs. Food costs have increased worldwide and are not expected to decline. Some months the home will receive donations from the local community during harvest, but at other times Tenwek missionaries, Chuck and Amy Bemm, are buying large sacks of rice and corn as well as cooking fat. Soap, Vaseline, and sugar are often requested in addition to clothing and shoes.

They currently do not have a suitable place for visitors to stay. Relatives of the children are encouraged to visit, but a suitable room for them to stay in isn’t available. Even visitors from the States have stayed in less than ideal conditions; David and Sarah would like to put a room addition onto their home for this purpose, but he has very little disposable income with four of his own children in secondary schools.

There are many needs in all of the homes. Anyone wishing to assist in supporting our 116 children in the homes as well as community based orphans with regular or one-time support may send donations to Hope Ministries, Inc. 9902 East 200 South, Zionsville, IN 46077. Administrative costs are covered by a donor so all support reaches those caring for the children.

The pace of my work at the hospital accelerated dramatically this past week. For the past month we have had four consultant level individuals and one junior staff in addition to the four interns. One person went back to the States and two long-term staff went on vacation leaving me with the interns and junior staff member – a workload I was more accustomed to handling in past years. In addition, a visiting pediatrician from the US arrived needing an emergency abdominal operation which shifted some responsibilities for my junior staff. Then the caseload suddenly increased so that I was spending most of my time in the operating room.

On Monday, I did three cesarean sections and an emergency minor operation in addition to rounds and making final management decisions on all the admissions. I went to bed early that night as I was still tired from the long day on Sunday. Tuesday there were four major operations scheduled. I wasn’t pleased with the preparation of three patients in so far as x-rays and units of blood crossmatched; therefore I started with a patient whose wound from two previous surgeries had opened up requiring reclosure.

Peninah is a thin, young woman whose initial surgical finding over a month ago was an abscess inside the lower abdomen. After several weeks of continued fever, one of the other doctors took her back to surgery and found conclusive evidence that the continued infection was due to abdominal tuberculosis. She was started on the four drug combination regimen but her incision wasn’t healing and there was continuing copious pus drainage. Finally we noticed the inner fascia layer was no longer intact and bowel was visible; it was time to go back to surgery. I cleaned the wound and closed it using retention sutures but left an opening at the base for pus drainage. Peninah needs prayer as she is gradually getting weaker. She developed jaundice after starting the medications, probably a side effect of one of them, so she was given a five day rest and started on a lower dose. TB is really a nasty disease and remains a very deadly disease worldwide.

I had done a hysterectomy at the end of the previous week for a strange uterine cancer, but Tuesday’s second case was a more “routine” cancer of the lining of the uterus. This went very well as we saw no evidence of spread or deep invasion. We anticipated that the third case might also require a complete hysterectomy for a large complex ovarian cyst. However, the ovary and tube had twisted themselves until the blood supply was cut off so the tissue was all dead; it wasn’t necessary to remove the uterus or other ovary.

The last case concerned me the most; a 39-year-old mother of four had a large mass completely filling the pelvis and extending to the side walls of the abdomen. It certainly looked like a large cancer of the ovary, but there was no sign of spread to the upper abdomen or chest. The patient was moderately anemic so we gave her a unit of blood which didn’t leave us enough for after surgery if we lost as much blood as I anticipated likely. I decided to postpone the surgery until Wednesday morning when we could start early with blood available; I hoped to finish early enough to get to our weekly GYN clinic later that morning. I asked a visiting cancer surgeon to be available to scrub in with me. I also wanted to have the chaplain meet with the patient as I wasn’t sure she would survive surgery if we got into big trouble. He found that Recho is a Christian.

My prediction was accurate: the mass was a large cyst arising from the area of the right ovary but nearly every surface in the lower abdomen was stuck fast to an adjoining structure. Several loops of small bowel were stuck to the top of the mass and required removal and reanastomosis [hooking the sections of bowel back together in the proper sequence and direction]. I called John Salo, the cancer surgeon, to come help. We worked for nearly three hours to get the uterus and ovary freed up and removed; he worked an additional three hours repairing the bowel. When we had finished, everything looked pretty good with no obvious residual tumor. It will be three weeks before we even know what kind of cancer this was; ovary or fallopian tube are possibilities. After three days, Recho is making fairly normal progress in her recovery.

Thursday I had another hysterectomy for a large fibroid which went well. We did two dilation and curettage operations [D & C] for some very unusual cases; we will also have to wait three weeks to know exactly what the problem was for these two cases but neither looked like cancer. Friday I did an emergency cesarean for twins with the first baby presenting footling breech. Today I did a section for severe fetal distress, but the baby has done well following resuscitation. Six days in a row in major surgery is a far cry from no surgery for 2 and ½ years, but I haven’t felt uncomfortable in any way other than being tired.
My grandson, Nathan, has enjoyed his time here. He and Amy reorganized the shelves of the nursing school library and worked in orthopedic clinic on Wednesdays. He has enjoyed observing orthopedic surgery as well as one of my hysterectomies. He and Amy will go out into a distant community with the Community Health team on Monday. Besides the orphan visits, we have had meals in the homes of some of our staff here, so he has had a pretty thorough cultural immersion experience. He has given instruction in karate to a group of the missionary kids; on Sunday afternoon they will hold a demonstration of their newly acquired skills for parents and the missionary “aunts and uncles.”

Thank you so much for your prayers for our time here at Tenwek and our travel home. We will be saying our goodbyes to our many friends over the next few days. We drive to Nairobi on Tuesday with our flight to London leaving late at night local time. We don’t arrive in Indianapolis until early Wednesday evening – over 24 hours in transit.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul for the Jarretts in Kenya

Dear Friends and Family:
Today was our surgery day for the Obstetrics-Gynecology service. This evening, Nathan and I went out into an area remote from Tenwek. Please follow the link to the website to read the stories and prayer requests. We appreciate your prayers very much.

I had two major cases scheduled today with three of the “chiefs” gone; the junior staff member, Anthony, was here to do a scheduled cesarean and other cases as they arose. First was a hysterectomy for uterine fibroids, benign tumors that often cause pain and bleeding. Dr. Caleb Maina had scheduled the patient for me to do when he was on vacation, so I had not examined her; I might have lost some sleep if I had done so. These fibroids were BIG!

One decision in my preparation for doing such a case is whether to wear a vinyl apron under by scrub gown. Whereas the drapes and gowns are permeable to all liquids including blood, the vinyl apron is impermeable but also very hot. Neglecting to wear one sometimes results in being soaked to the skin by the end of the case in a very red liquid. I decided to wear one today. Fifteen minutes into the case I was pleading for the air conditioner to be turned on and needing my glasses taped to my forehead to prevent them from sliding down my very sweaty nose.

The large tumors required me to make a very large incision; even so it was difficult to manipulate the large uterus and safely ligate the blood supply. After getting two of the four large vessels and some branches of the uterine arteries, I morcelated [chopped into pieces] the largest portion of the fibroids to reduce the uterus to a manageable size. Then the bleeding was fairly quickly brought under control as I could get at the major arteries more easily.

Now the case proceeded in a more orderly fashion and we finished up. The nurse estimated the uterus weighed as much as a term baby – about 7 pounds. I let my assistant close the incision and disrobed my gown and apron. I was absolutely drenched with sweat but not bloodied. I went home to change clothes and drink some fluids – I felt dehydrated the rest of the afternoon.

Each year I schedule a laparoscopy and afterwards tell myself I wouldn’t do another. It is true that the equipment is improving and the general surgeons are doing a lot of these cases compared to times past. So I asked Jason Fader, a young general surgeon to assist me. We waited three hours to start the case while the electrician repaired some of the equipment that wasn’t working properly, which was better than making the repairs after starting the procedure. We struggled through the case, changing several pieces of equipment as we went until we found a workable [and working] combination. We completed the case, so I am telling myself I won’t do another without a general surgeon in my corner to help. People who do these cases in the US are blessed by coordinated, new or disposable equipment that makes the cases a very nice alternative to open incisions with their longer recoveries.

I finished the day by 4pm to meet Reverend David Kilel who wanted me to go to an area east of Bomet near his local church. He had heard of some orphans in need of help nearby. We parked on the side of the main highway and climbed a gate leading to a lane between corn fields which are beginning to be harvested. Children began to appear from the road, fields, and houses; they walked along with us to the house we were headed for, so it seemed we were expected. We entered the modest, clean house after being greeted by Eric and Sophie Chelule, who owned this house; several of the children were theirs. We sat in their main room with cushioned wooden chairs and tables covered with decorative cloth. Soon, other children not dressed so nicely and some other men joined us. They began to share the story with David, my grandson, Nathan, and me.

Two girls and a boy, ages about 6-12, were orphans. Julius, a man who appeared slightly younger than me, was the grandfather who is caring for them. The children’s father had worked at the Masai Mara game preserve but contracted HIV. He came home sick in 2005 and died shortly thereafter of AIDS. The mother died the following year, having contracted the disease from her husband. The youngest girl is HIV positive and is on highly active antiretroviral drug therapy [HAART] as an out patient at the local district hospital, Longisa. The relationship between Eric Chelule and the father was a friendship dating back to their circumcision class at age 13; that’s the first time I had heard of that being a meaningful ongoing relationship in Kipsigis culture.

Julius, a God-fearing church attender, has one young son in 9th grade and two sons living at home who are drunkards. The next crisis in the family occurred recently when Julius’s wife became so stressed by the situation that she hung herself. Now Julius tries to support the family by farming but has no one to cook for the family. Food preparation is pretty much a full-time job of women in this culture when they’re not working in the garden or doing other domestic chores. He’s too poor to remarry, and it wouldn’t even work for him to hire a woman to cook for him if he could afford it; it wouldn’t be socially appropriate for a woman to be at the home of a single man. I could definitely empathize with Julius in his situation.

An older man, Eric’s father, joined us as we drank chai with the family; we told stories of where we were from and our families. The father asked me if I knew “Mosonik” as I reminded him of this man. He couldn’t have given me a greater compliment. Mosonik [the left-handed one] was the Kipsigis name for Dr. Ernie Steury, the legendary first doctor at Tenwek. I was pleased to say that I had known him.

We prayed for the family’s needs including deliverance of the two sons from alcohol. It may be possible to assist the younger children to enter Mosop Mission School in January when a new school year begins; David will continue to investigate.

As we left, we were asked to stop next door at another home. Karen Chelule lived there with her four small children ages 5, 4, 3, and 2. She is Eric’s sister-in-law; her husband was one of the 1300 people killed in 2008 in the post-election violence. He was working away from home in a non-Kipsigis area and set upon by the local tribe who were in opposition to the Kipsigis people. Karen is a member of David’s church which is trying to assist. Generally speaking, women in her situation are not likely to be asked to remarry; her children belong to the father’s family. Please remember Karen and Julius in your prayers as you think of them.

I was glad Nathan was able to go with me on the adventure; we didn’t get soaked by rain, chased by dogs or bulls, or fall in a creek, but it was a good trip without the extra excitement.

The dedication of the dormitory at Kenduiwa Children’s Home is this Sunday rather than Saturday. Amy and Nathan will visit RVA again on Saturday with Beth White who will drive over to see her son, Adam, play rugby. Please pray for their safety.

We do appreciate so much your prayers and support. We have only two weeks left before coming home and have a lot of activities to cram into the remaining time. Amy is doing a great job of cooking and running the house, so it is very likely Nate and I will survive.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts at Tenwek

Dear Friends and Family:
Amy and Nathan arrived safely this week and have joined me in a small house near the hospital where we are setting up housekeeping for the remainder of our time here. Please click on the link to the website to read about our orphan adventures and prayer requests.
Thanks for praying for Amy and Nate’s travel here this past week. After spending one night in Nairobi and another at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya, they arrived at Tenwek on Thursday afternoon minus one pokey suitcase which came on Friday. Amy’s visit to Rift Valley Academy had a two-fold purpose: visiting with the five missionary kids from Tenwek who go to high school there and meeting with staff members with whom she would be working next year if she is successful in raising support as a full-time missionary with Africa Inland Mission. She will attend an AIM camp in New York in August after which she can begin that process.
Today we set out to visit Bosto Children’s home which is nearly 50 kilometers away over some rough roads. Actually, the road is much improved; the tarmac section has been repaved and the macadam road has been improved because of a tea factory being built about 4 kilometers from Bosto. Chuck Bemm drove his Land Rover into which we packed four visitors, his daughter, Abby, Pastor Elkana Rotich and his wife, Irene, and three Jarretts. Our trip was uneventful until we had a flat tire right in the middle of a small village about 5 kilometers downhill from Bosto.
Chuck and Dan Matthews, who is as adept at changing flat tires as he is with setting broken bones, sprang into action while the rest of us entertained a crowd of small children and curious onlookers. A few inebriated individuals tried to converse with us in Kipsigis or beg for coins. After mounting the spare we noted that the spare tire had a significant sidewall tear which had been repaired when another visitor borrowed it and went on safari. The tire we just lost had a sidewall tear that couldn’t be fixed. Chuck was understandably reluctant to go over the worst section of road with the questionable repair and no spare.
We debated options while making cell phone calls back to Tenwek. No one was available to help us and the only vehicle with identical tires to Chuck’s was in Nairobi, which is the only place one can safely buy quality tires for the car. We settled on a plan where a friend from the village would drive Elkana and Irene, Nate and I, and Dan and his daughter, Jordan, to the Bosto home in his Toyota Corolla station wagon while Chuck, Abby, Amy, and two other guests, Robert and Carolyn would drive slowly back towards Tenwek and stop at Umoja Children’s Home for a visit. At least it would be easy to get home from there if there were car trouble. Elkana negotiated a 3,000 Kenya Shilling fare [$40] for the ride to Bosto and back to Tenwek – a pretty fair deal.
Bosto opened in late 2005 after our home church contributed funds for construction of the permanent dormitory and furnishings. We had a dedication in early 2006 after 20 beautiful little girls arrived to live here. In 2007, 19 boys and 1 additional girl arrived. A second building was erected and serves as a dining hall and study room. A permanent water tank holding 33,000 liters of water was added in 2009. Trips to the river for water are only necessary in dry season, which is fortunate since the river is at least 1,000 feet lower in elevation at the base of the very steep hill situated at the edge of the Mau Forest.
The children sang songs for us and told us their names. They appear well fed and clean; the boys are much less rowdy than when I first met them in 2007. All enjoyed playing with the small toys that Jordan brought for them. Both Dan and I gave a message to the children. We toured the buildings but decided not to stay too late as a rain storm was coming into the area.
Bosto has the same matron, Margaret, who was there at the opening, which is a blessing to the children. A pastor and his wife stayed with the children for about three years but left about a year ago. A new pastor, David Tangus, is now with the children each day. Elkana serves as manager and visits the home regularly as it is near his father’s home; Irene works in the office at Tenwek.
The 5 acres of land for the home were donated by the Litein Town Council after it selected the children’s home project from among 55 applicants for use of the land. Situated at the top of a high mountain, the soil is not good for growing crops, which has limited the success of the dairy goat project. Without the nourishing Napier grass, the goats produce less milk than is ordinarily possible. There are currently 10 goats — 1 male and 9 female.
Currently, the home lacks electricity although there are now power poles at the edge of the property. A donor has pledged the $900 necessary for hook-up and wiring, which should provide light as well as saving money on Kerosene for lamps. This should improve safety and study conditions in the evening hours. The petrol generator used in the past proved too expensive.
The district health commissioner recommended a permanent building for the cooking shed and store house; the semi-permanent building proved too easy for rodents to enter. Currently the stored food is locked in the office building, but the space is inadequate. The home awaits another inspection for its national registration permit. A high efficiency stove in a new cooking facility would conserve funds used for firewood. These additions would probably cost an additional $10,000.
Many of the children are coming of age for higher education; six children are in 8th grade and will sit for the national exam later this year. All are good students and expected to pass. One student is in Form 3 [high school junior]; two others are in technical school learning tailoring and knitting. All students assist in planting and weeding the leased 1 acre garden plot nearby.
I was impressed with the cleanliness of both the girls and boys dormitories. The wooden beds and mattresses have held up well. This speaks volumes to me about the management of the home and the training of the children. They need shelving for personal belongings. Two additional bunk beds are required. The children need new school uniforms. Another long range goal is for a technical school situated on the property where students could learn sewing, cobbler work, and other technical skills.
We bade the children goodbye and drove down the muddy road ahead of the storm which broke after we arrived at Tenwek. Our driver should have been named Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He drove two speeds – fast and way too fast. He also preferred the right side of the road instead of the left where he was supposed to be. Oncoming cars flashed their lights at us and headed for the side of the road. I’m not sure what his hurry was, but World Cup Fever is affecting a lot of the people around here in strange ways.
Thanks for praying for the two new mothers who were on the ventilators, Linner and Betty; God answered your prayers in two different ways. Unbeknownst to me, Linner died just before I sent the request. Her baby stayed in the nursery this week while relatives made arrangements. It turns out there was a second wife in the family who is infertile. It has been decided she will care for the baby and the other children. This is one of the few cases where polygamy seems to have provided a reasonable answer to a difficult problem.
The other patient, Betty, has made a remarkable recovery. I mentioned that she is a nurse in the hospital where her cesarean section was done. She had a seizure and cardiac arrest during the surgery, was resuscitated, and transferred to Tenwek. She was weaned off the ventilator and seems to have recovered all normal functions.
Friday morning Betty was standing at her bedside telling me that she was having some difficulty breathing but was otherwise doing well; we added another antibiotic to help with the lung infection that she seems to be battling fairly well. Later that afternoon I saw the Longisa doctor, Birech, visiting with her and Caleb Maina, my Kenyan OB colleague. Birech told me that Betty had been so far gone that her pupils were dilated. The anesthetist said that it was time to stop the CPR attempts, but Birech pleaded to keep going a little longer. Her heart started beating again and she recovered enough to be brought to Tenwek. Thank you, Lord.
We appreciate your prayers very much. The next two weeks will be busy with some of the doctors away from the hospital. I will try to visit some orphans on Tuesday with Pastor David Kilel as well as talk to him about future plans. He will be retiring soon, so wisdom will be needed for administering the funds for orphans. We will be visiting some of the evenings with national friends in their homes. I’ve planned a surgery on Tuesday to try to restore fertility to one of our staff who miscarried her only pregnancy 12 years ago. Please pray for skill and God’s blessing.
Please continue to pray for the sale of our house. It will be officially listed this coming week. We need wisdom on the timing and placement of the septic system and new driveway. Please pray for my son, Patrick, as he has many things going on in addition to managing our house. Also, please pray for my father, Paul, Sr. who is in the hospital with pelvic pain after a fall from a chair last week.

Serving Jesus with you,
Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya

Dear Friends and Family:
I promised an update on the orphans we assist through the generosity of our supporters. Please follow the link to the website to read the entire story. We continue to have many challenges in the hospital as well as in our orphan homes, but we continue to find God more than sufficient to meet all of our needs.
I have met with all four directors of orphan homes in the immediate area and have visited three of the homes. I have yet to visit the Bosto home located farthest from Tenwek but plan on doing that next Saturday. I will revisit the Kenduiwa home on June 20 for the dedication of the girls’ dormitory named in honor of Marty. I hope to save time for a report on those two homes later this month.
First, I will report on Umoja (Swahili for “First”) Children’s home. This home is the most successful in obtaining support from a variety of sources. Its location is the easiest to access from Tenwek, so it receives more visitors. In addition the director, Joseph Chepkwony, is a visionary man who has enlisted the aid of some NGOs [charitable, non-government organizations]. The home was founded in 2003 when Marty, David Kilel, and I had met Joseph after praying for God to show us how He wanted us to start a children’s home to care for abandoned children.
By that time, the AIDS crisis had overwhelmed the ability of local families to care for the children of their extended families. Joseph’s mother, who was an orphan herself, donated land, and members of her local church met with us expressing their burden to do something for local children with unmet needs. One of our supporters gave money to build the cement floor of the first semi-permanent building which served as the first dormitory. So you could say that we got in on the ground floor.
Within the first two years, other buildings were erected to serve as a kitchen, food store, dining hall, classroom, and toilet and shower facilities. A security fence and gate were also needed as was fencing for animals. As the orphanage grew, so did the need for staff and other supporters. The home needed a cook, a matron, and a security guard in addition to the services of the director and his family.
Meanwhile, the vision spread and committees were formed to begin the home named in honor of a local evangelist, Paul Kenduiwa, and the home farther north next to the Bosto AGC church. A key ingredient to ongoing support of all three homes was the participation of local churches, particularly those of the Africa Gospel Church denomination. AGC participation made it possible for Tenwek missionaries sent by World Gospel Mission to fund projects at the homes. WGM is the founder of the AGC denomination as well as Tenwek Hospital.
Joseph initially made contact with a NGO called ActionAid. They built a very large water tank to catch and store rainwater — a constant need since there is no local water supply in this rural area other than the river. Even today during dry season people make many trips to the river for water using large containers and donkeys or carry a gallon jug in each hand. Think of going down a steep hill to the river for every drop of water you use in your daily life!
Later we assisted Joseph to build a chicken coop and Action Aid provided the chickens and chicken feed for their first six months of growth. Joseph then developed a market for the eggs at Tenwek and in the local town to provide revenue for the home as well as the ongoing expenses of raising and replacing the chickens. Chickens that stop laying become a good source of protein for the children. There have been many bumps in the road during the learning process, but the chicken project seems viable.
As time progressed, Marty and I met regularly with the directors of these three homes as well as Alice, a Tenwek employee who runs a private orphanage on the other side of Bomet. I will say more about her later in this letter. We shared common problems and needs as well as solutions and failures which was a big help to each home.
When Marty and I went home, WGM missionaries, Dr. Chuck and Amy Bemm, took over the director meetings and in addition developed a fund within WGM to support the homes. During the Bemms’ year on home assignment, Dr. Ben and Jenny Roberts met with the directors. Other Tenwek missionary families, the Whites, Freijes, Renfroes, Manchesters, Chupps, Spriegels, and Galats began visiting the homes. Some of these families organized work teams from their supporting churches in the US to construct permanent dormitories and dining halls at the various homes. Another visitor, Dr. David Hoover, has begun a US charity called Friends of Tenwek which is raising support for building projects at Tenwek and the children’s homes.
We have continued support of the homes through a 501(c) (3) charity called Hope Ministries, Inc. Through this fund, we do some things that can’t be done through the WGM fund including paying salaries of employees of the homes and providing educational support for orphans living in the local areas remote from these homes in addition to some of the children residing in the homes when they become old enough for private secondary boarding schools [essentially the only mechanism for high school education for children throughout Kenya]. Some of the children from the homes have school support through WGM as well.
Umoja now has 37 orphans including some children in boarding schools who return to the home during month-long breaks from school three times a year. In addition, Joseph started a nursery school by hiring a local teacher and enrolling 21 children from the local community who pay a little more than $5 per month in tuition. This generates a small income for the home.
Five of the resident children are HIV positive. Three of these are now receiving anti-retroviral therapy as outpatients at Tenwek through the PEPFAR program, a US AIDS drug program initiated during the Bush administration. One boy has been on the drugs for over 5 years. He was very sickly and weak when I first met him; now he appears as strong and active as the other children, which is a testimony to Joseph’s faithfulness in getting him to clinic and caring for his needs.
During my visit with some guests from Tenwek, the children sang songs and greeted us warmly. When they had first learned of Marty’s illness, they had prayed and fasted for three days as did the children at the private orphanage, Kitoben Vision. The children were very sad when Marty passed away in January and were happy to see pictures of her and my daughters whom they also fondly remember. I gave a brief message to the children and another guest led them in a new song with lots of actions which the children love. We enjoyed spending time with the children playing games and singing.
The new dormitories at the home are permanent buildings with lighting for a few hours at night so that the children can study. The bunk beds have clean mattresses with durable vinyl covers which prevent the soiling that otherwise ruins the foam pads. They still have the metal trunks Marty and I bought for them to store personal belongings.
Joseph is constructing a zero grazing facility for the milk cows as the space at this home is fairly limited. A new permanent dining hall will soon be constructed as well as remodeling the adjacent kitchen. A new, high-efficiency wood burning stove was just purchased by the Galat family’s supporters which should help not only in meal preparation for the many children but also in conserving fuel costs. Each of the homes spends about $75 a month on firewood.
Most recently, Joseph secured a posho mill used to grind maize [corn] for local residents at a small cost. The bright green building serves as an advertisement for SafariCom, a Kenya-wide cell phone network. This company’s foundation provided the diesel-powered mill and the building. Fees for grinding corn or a percentage of the flour will be used in the support of the home.
ActionAid has offered to donate a very nice vehicle to the home, although it is necessary to pay about $1300 to the Kenya Revenue Authority in order to receive it. We are working with the Bemms to see about providing these funds. Joseph would also like to put up some solar panels to recharge the batteries used for lights at night. Most of the children need new shoes at $10 a pair as well as school uniforms. The upcoming harvest should bring some donations of food from local churches, but it has been necessary to buy food for the home during the recent drought which ended in early 2010.
One more story from Umoja deserves telling. In June, 2009, a young Pokot teenage boy from northwest Kenya came to Tenwek for open heart surgery. The Pokot people speak a Kalingen language related to the Kipsigis from the Tenwek area. He recovered from surgery in the home of a local widow. She returned with him over 100 miles to his remote home area not far from the somewhat lawless Uganda border.
Drought was a major problem in most of Kenya last year including the Pokot area. When it became apparent to the boy that he would likely not survive as an orphan at home, he decided to return to Tenwek. Although he is over 6 feet tall at age 13, an older friend thought that he wouldn’t make it alone and decided to come with him. He at least spoke some English and Swahili; his personal goal was to attend school, become a pastor, and return to his people to share the gospel. The boys walked the entire way back to Tenwek.
None of the local schools were willing to welcome this six-foot boy into first grade. When Joseph heard of the problem, he used his position on the local school board to arrange to enroll him in first grade and the older boy in fifth. The boys are living at Umoja and are leaders for the other children as well as a big help to Joseph with some of the physical labor around the home.
Support for the local children’s homes can be sent to Hope Ministries, INC., 9902 East 200 South, Zionsville, IN 46077. Checks should be made out to Hope Ministries. A receipt suitable for a tax deduction will be issued.
On Saturday, June 5, I spent eight hours with the children of Kitoben Vision Children’s Home. Alice Langat, is an employee in the business office of Tenwek Hospital. In her position she became aware of children who were abandoned at the hospital by relatives unwilling or unable to care for these orphans. She took several of them home to her house where they became as her own children.
As the number of children Alice cared for increased beyond the capacity of her small house, some visiting doctors assisted her in purchasing property near the small airstrip near Bomet about 8 or 9 kilometers away from Tenwek. I believe she had over 20 children when we first met. I can count at least 57 children at the present time – 20 in secondary schools and 37 in primary schools. We visited the children at the home each year and sometimes they visited at our home. One child, Vicki, had corrective heart surgery in Nairobi about 5 years ago and we saw her often during her recovery.
Because we have known these children longer than in the other three homes, I know many of their names and have always felt close to them. For various reasons including non-AGC affiliation, before we left in 2006 we had separated the responsibilities of supporting this home financially from the other three homes and gave the responsibility to the founding family who set up their own 501(c) (3) corporation to support Kitoben Vision. That did nothing to change my attachment and concern for these special kids.
Alice arranged for a driver to take us to the home Saturday morning. We stopped in Bomet for supplies for the home. The airstrip is now more securely closed off than in former years. The tarmac surface has been removed so that chuckholes no longer dot the strip. They even have two new prefab metal buildings ready for some future use. We had to climb over a style to cross the landing strip and enter the front gate of the home. I hope that access to the home will be continue to be as unrestricted in the future.
The 37 singing children greeted me in a receiving line. Four different colors of school uniforms were on display. The children are attending different private and public elementary schools.
Alice soon left with Bernard, her brother who assists the children; he was ill and needed attention at Tenwek. Besides Alice and her husband the children are assisted by Bernard’s wife, Evelyn, an unmarried sister, Joyce, who seems very strong, articulate, and apparently recovered from her mental illness, and the grandmother, Pauline Laboso. There was also a cook and another sister, Sharon, who used to live at the home, was visiting with her children. This family flavor has always characterized the Kitoben home; Alice seems to make no distinction in care between her own five children and the orphans. She has always sought out the best schools for them. The children all consider Alice their mother and don’t seem to favor their own biological siblings residing there.
I listened to the children’s songs and poems, most of which I had heard many times before from the older children now away at boarding school. I gave them a message from Psalm 1 about making wise choices in life which Evelyn translated into Kipsigis, the native tongue for all of these children. The older ones speak English but the younger ones are still learning. The children listened very attentively.
I toured the facility with Evelyn. The buildings are all more or less temporary or semi-permanent construction. The soil in the area requires very deep and thick foundations as we discovered in constructing the only really permanent building, a very expensive toilet and bathing facility. This is in great contrast to the other three homes which have either one or two new permanent dormitories costing over $10,000 apiece. Construction of similar buildings here would seem to be cost prohibitive because of the soil. Consequently, the children attend boarding schools even for elementary school. Alice spends a lot of money on fares for vehicles to visit the children at the schools – often for required meetings. Only the youngest children stay at the home when the boarding schools are in session.
After taking tea with mandzis [doughnuts], the children, Evelyn, and I walked the length of the airstrip. None of the soccer balls or jump ropes given in the past have survived, so we walked with the younger children taking turns holding my hands. The older children asked me questions about America. Without my daughters to help me understand the questions, it took several repetitions and stopping still to silence the scuffing feet in order for me to hear well enough. We had plenty of time, so it didn’t matter.
Later we had lunch and sang more songs. I watched Vicki running countless laps around the buildings; formerly due to her congenital heart disease she never could run and would squat to improve her circulation. Alice finally returned around 4 pm and we left the younger children with a prayer of blessing. I had asked about the older children by name, and Alice wanted me to visit them at their local high schools. I was happy to do that so we went first to St. Mary’s school in Bomet where four of the children studied.
I remembered the two seniors [Form 4 students] the best – Peninah and Mercy. Peninah was the oldest of four siblings and Mercy the oldest of six, all of whom have a bleeding disorder, which causes them to bleed a long time after an injury. I have known these two shy girls for a long time. Peninah and her two sisters were always as thin as rails. Mercy and her siblings were more rounded in their features and always easy for me to distinguish from the other children.
Therefore, I was very surprised when this tall, very well rounded attractive girl of 19 came up and gave me the traditional hug with her head first on one side of mine and then the other side. Peninah had really blossomed! Her beautiful smile was still recognizable but the shyness was a thing of the past.
In contrast, Mercy came up slowly, her eyes reddened from crying. She spoke quietly and more slowly. The younger two girls, sophomores, Emma and another Mercy were more reserved as I would have expected.
We stood aside from other people and talked. I gave them the same encouragement from Psalm 1 about purity and wise choices. Alice also gave them a strong “mother” talk to the same effect.
They each were asked to give a word to me as well. Peninah was very bright and articulate and showed the same leadership qualities I had always seen in her. She thanked me for visiting and for help with school fees. Mercy revealed that she was overcome with emotion when she first saw me waiting to see them. It meant so much to her that I had come to school to see them. Now I was the one fighting back the tears. As visitors in this culture, we don’t often appreciate the depth of emotion and appreciation felt by those we visit. [We hope that our behavior does nothing to detract from that appreciation.] All the girls spoke of how much they had prayed for us during Marty’s illness and for my comfort after she died. I prayed for the girls and we bade them goodbye.
We still had a carful of elementary students in the red sweaters to take to an academy in Silibwet. As we passed through the bustling town we braked and honked to avoid dozens of motorcycles carrying one or two passengers as well as pedestrians, oncoming vehicles and occasional animals. We turned down a badly rutted back street passing the large soccer field behind the main street.
We stopped at a fairly new private elementary academy constructed in 2003. As we entered the iron gate, we were met by Wesley, a young man who used to help at the Kitoben orphanage. He is now a teacher. Our students ran and joined 300 of their friends on the school playground. As we passed the nicely constructed and equipped classrooms we descended nicely made concrete stairs as the school was built on a hillside. Drainage pipes allowed good water runoff to a permanent water tank. One needs to have seen many muddy schoolyards in Kenya to appreciate the uniqueness and quality of this facility.
As we reached the last level, Wesley called the students over for a greeting from the visitor – me. They all ran over and lined up quietly and respectfully to hear my greetings given in the name of Jesus. I am very used to making impromptu speeches and sermons with little time for forethought. It’s just a way of life in Kenya.
It was now nearly 6pm. Alice wanted me to greet two boys at Tenwek High School but we decided we would do that today at 2:30. After lunch, I met Alice and walked up the hill from the hospital to the school founded by the early Tenwek missionaries. Evans and Enoch [Alice’s biological son] were called to greet us. We sat on the hillside near the entrance just in case the rain came from the ever blackening sky where lightning played about. The young men, a senior and a junior, got the same encouragement from both Alice and myself and gave their thanks as well. Enoch is truly Alice’s son as he told me all of the needs of the children’s home; the concern for the other children has carried down to his generation.
Alice’s needs are indeed many. She spends a lot of money on car fares as she travels long distances regularly. Neighbors jack up the prices as they see she gets money from foreigners, yet it is never enough to meet all the needs. I could see many of the children would be needing shoes very soon and some of the uniforms were in need of repair or replacement. Alice is taking a course in pastoral training in Nairobi and would love to be able to be at the home full time, but her Tenwek job enables her to meet many of the needs at the home. Having known Alice for a long time, I can see that her care and concern for the children is the overriding rule of her life. Her Christian compassion doesn’t allow her to turn her back on children in need.
The Bemms have received approval from WGM to hire a young man as a pastor to the various orphans. An orphan himself, he is another Wesley who formerly did yard work for their family. They sponsored his education at Kabosan Pastor’s School. He had taken a position over an hour away in Kericho, but he is needed at home to help care for his brother, who is afflicted by a bipolar disorder. The flexibility of this position should enable him to help the brother as well as the orphans at the homes. We offered his services to Alice’s orphans if she felt it would be helpful.
Perhaps you can sense that I am very pleased with the evolution of our orphan ministry in the community. I still need to meet with David Kilel to discuss our community based orphans. He is very busy with the Chaplain’s Training program of which he is the director. I have continued giving lectures two hours each week to his students on the subjects of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and medical terminology. Usually when I see David, he is rushing here or there. Please keep him, the Bemms, our directors and children, and me in your prayers in the days and weeks ahead.
I currently have two patients in the ICU on ventilators. That’s a first for me, but partially because we never had more than one working ventilator in the past. Now we have several, although I have no desire to utilize all of them at the same time. One mother, Betty, had eclamptic seizures during a routine cesarean and needed to be resuscitated. I pray that she will have no residual damage as she recovers, although I have not yet seen movement in her upper extremities. The other patient had a serious infection after a routine minor surgery. We drained literally a gallon of pus out of her abdomen on Friday night and she had not yet recovered kidney function as of yesterday. Her name is Linner.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Sorry for such a long letter, but so much of importance happens here that I covet your prayers for God’s enablement and assistance.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts

PS: Amy and Nate begin their journey here tomorrow. Please pray for their safe travel.