HIV, lost boys, childrens prison and babies

I always assumed Kenya was the exception when it came to African nations. That it was democratic, stable, and relatively free of corruption. Contrary to this assumption I found it to chronically suffer from political instability, permeated with a culture of corruption, and a history of political suppression including imprisonment and political murders dating back to its independence from Britain following the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950’s. Consequently government funds as well as foreign aid money has been siphoned off, programs that benefit the rural poor are limited, and problems with deforestation and the introduction of non native foods along with the rampant growth of HIV infection have left Kenyan’s health worse now than 30 years ago. The good news is that many NGO’s, both faith and non faith based, as well as in country organizations have strived to impact the average Kenyan through improving public health, maternal/infant health, nutrition, and restoring the natural environment and water quality. While tribalism and cronyism have impacted democracy and the rule of law, there are many voices throughout the country calling for, and working for change.

Nehemiah serves the local community not only through intentional living, responsible and sustainable agriculture practices which are economically sound, but through service to their neighbors. We had the opportunity to visit several area schools which are single room, block buildings with tin roofs, but no power or water. We were always greeted by the children as we walked up the path, holding our hands, shouting “how are you”, and taking us into the class. Kids are kids the world around. Squirming, poking each other, laughing. It was hilarious reading stories that had a western context and having the teacher translate into Kiswahili, or Luo. The kids have to learn not only the trade language of east Africa-Kiswahili, but English, as well as their tribal dialect. Nehemiah has visited these schools often, supporting the communities and their teachers with encouragement, supplies, teaching lessons, monetary support and helping villages develop a vision for their children’s education.

Karunga School, baby class



Central to a new Kenya is how it has, and will deal with it's social and public health issues. The problems are huge, and the answers complex. Rather than just giving aid dollars, it seems imperative that partnerships with Kenyans, NGO's, and the government for the long term will lead to real change. We had the privilege of learning about some of the activities that are making a difference. Kincoship is an HIV/AIDs testing counseling service which is village based, that provides initial free testing and education about HIV and related diseases. They provide both referral for medications and home follow up and support groups for HIV positive clients. This outreach program mirrors functions that public health facilities in the states provide, but with far fewer resources. I really enjoyed visiting with the counselors about their work and seeing Ashley Bice, who is a community health educator working at Nehemiah, build relationships to support not only their work, but also helping other villages with health related issues. These included forums for open discussion of HIV/AIDS and prevention of transmission; sanitation, and water improvement programs.

Miwani health center team with Ashley Bice, community health educator



Our visit at Miwani town’s Kincoship included a visit to the community health clinic. George, the health nurse, and his lab technician provide basic health care, prenatal care, immunizations, and OB/delivery services to the greater Miwani area. He sees 40+ patients/day, with a basic table for exams; a microscope for malaria smears, TB sputum smears, and stool studies for parasites. He has no running water, electricity, and only a propane refrigerator for his vaccines. He has a heart for those he serves and a vision for how he can improve services to his community. I made a promise I will never complain about frustrations with practicing medicine in the US, without stopping to think of George. I really felt good about representing Nehemiah while listening to his story, and to provide encouragement that Nehemiah would support his work including plans to build a clinic facility on the farm compound which would augment the work that he is doing. This facility has been in the planning stages for over a year and should be built out and functional within the next year, providing space for a nurse and rotating providers to serve the Miwani villages.



One of the more powerful experiences for both Hanna and me was visiting Agape Ministries drop in center for street boys in Kisumu. This ministry provides a place of refuge, meals, and an attempt to rescue, redeem, rehabilitate, and reintegrate boys who by choice or circumstance live on the street. These are wild, tough, boys—ragged and torn both in clothing and spirit. One out of one hundred actually makes it to the rehabilitation phase where they are housed, go to school, and reintegrated with their families. We were cautioned that they might be physically aggressive towards the girls on our team and to watch our belongings as they could easily disappear. They have a high use of glue and often are intoxicated on it, but they are not allowed to bring it into the center or to bring in weapons. On arriving, as expected we were mobbed a bit, but didn’t feel threatened and within a few minutes felt at ease. The staff was wonderful; balancing control while still being a friend and providing fun for the boys. There were soccer games going on, a table with boy’s intent on creating drawings, and an impromptu steel drum ensemble pounding on old oil cans. Some were nodding, lying in old tires, sleeping off the effects of glue. Hanna and I got involved in a no rules, no holds barred volley ball game. I will always remember Matthew, a boy of probably 12, on the fringes. In spite of his appearance you could tell he had a soft heart, and probably was at the bottom of the pecking order on the street. It was a joy to bring him into the game, show him how to play, encourage him to hit the ball and see the smile on his face. As the morning went on I had the vision of an onion, of all things. Onions have tough bitter and bruised skins, and as you peel each layer back, it becomes fresher, sweeter, and makes you cry all the more. So did these boys—below the dirt, toughness, and addiction; at their core, these were children who needed love and attention. All of them were a Matthew.

Street boys-drop in center, Kisumu



In Kenya, being young, on the street and not quick enough to evade the police will land you in prison. Children’s prison is for “offenders” younger than 15. Some have committed crimes ranging from stealing to murder. Most, having been abandoned by their families, become wards of this form of social welfare. There is no segregation by age or crime, only by gender. While the facility was clean and improvements have been made (according to Evelyn who has visited many times), the kids are locked in at night in wards with no supervision. They do receive schooling and meals but I wonder about their personal safety. Our group did have the opportunity to visit with them, take and share digital pictures, sing some songs and give a message which was interpreted by our friends from Agape ministries. In my heart I know that Christ cares deeply, loves completely, and has a plan for each of these lost kids. We are not the instrument of change but the vessel that change will occur through prayer, petition, and ongoing relationship. Pray for these kids.

"Inmates", childrens remand center







Many aid programs in Kenya are faith based, and often started by the vision of a few who are called to serve. New Life Home is an organization that serves abandoned babies. Placement at New Life occurs between birth and one year of age. They provide an adoption service and the oldest child at the home is currently 5 years. These kids are often abandoned on their door step or sent after being abandoned at a hospital or left on the street. The babies may have developmental disabilities or cerebral palsy. We were warmly welcomed, given a tour of the facility and given a chance to just play with the kids. The staffing ratio was incredible and each of the staff seemed to have a joy and pride in caring for these kids. I’ve never seen such a suspicious look from 2 year olds as those we played with in the sand box. It must have been overwhelming to see a group of giant “muzungu” (white people) descend on them. After a while they loosened up a bit and we had fun dumping sand into buckets and riding the merry go round. The best pleasures are simple. Moses has Cerebral Palsy and can barely crawl, but we had a lot of fun when I put him in a bean bag chair facing upwards and spun the chair round and round. Laughs and giggles from him; I must have gotten something in my eyes as they were a little watery.

Playtime, New Life Home

Nehimiah, living in faith

Nehemiah Miwani farm started in 2000 and has grown to include the family homes, church, a 21+head dairy herd, goat herd, machine and wood shop, equipment shed and the individual families goats, cows, and family gardens. The farm activities are focused on organic practices both in the dairy and gardens. The dairy, which generates income to sustain the farm, provides milk to its customers and is known for high quality milk and hygienic practices. The goat milk, which is more easily digested by infants, is used at Disciples of Mercy which provides care and feeding for HIV + infants or infants born of HIV/AIDS infected mothers. David Isuvi, the Kenyan herdsman, is exceptionally well trained with backgrounds in crop and dairy science as well as training in veterinary medicine. His herd is very healthy and high producing. The farm is able to meet its feed requirements through rotating crops of Napier grass and maize which are grown organically with manure, and tillage for weed control. Silage is made from corn and Napier, used as additional feed when fresh cut feed is limited. I will never look at a carton of milk in the same way after helping chop corn for silage, shovel feed, and see the hard work and management practices that are necessary for a successful dairy operation.

Where's my mama?



Caffeine, the newest Nehemiah arrival



Afternoon milking



chopping corn for sileage




The cows are milked twice a day using a vacuum milking machine. The evening milk is refrigerated and then combined with the morning’s milk and delivered fresh daily. The dairy crew was great to work with always greeting you with a smile, handshake, and a traditional greeting. It was a social event more than a necessity to walk to the dairy barn each evening to get the house milk for our use. Fresh from the cow, the milk was used whole or centrifuged, separating cream for butter, skim milk for yogurt, and made into a soft cream cheese. Our meals were from the garden and rarely included any meat. We also ate a more traditional African diet of maize flour made into a wet loaf called Ugali. Maize, beans and rice served with a green called sukuma wyki are also traditional foods.

Central to the farm is the community of faith. While things of value as measured by the world’s standard are limited, faith and trust in God’s provisions are the capstone that holds all the activities of the farm, all the relationships, and all of the outreach into the greater community together. From the moment we arrived Hanna and I were welcomed not as visitors, but as part of their family. Prayer is integral to all of the day’s activities. Prayer is not superficial or self seeking, but earnest and heartfelt. A deep and serious discussion with God for his will and his protection. It is a way of sharing burdens and uplifting each in the community.

For some the day begins at 4am for milking, but for the rest of us and the boys it begins at 6:45am for morning devotions with songs, prayer requests, words of thanksgiving and a short message. Wednesday evenings include worship and singing, and Sunday a church service. The church also serves as a place to host visiting church groups, have a community potluck which we thoroughly enjoyed one Saturday evening, and for showing a movie on the wall.

While faith is the hub of the community, outreach to the greater area is the natural expression of a desire to serve God through service. Outreach activities have, and continue to grow. Hanna and I had the great opportunity to participate in these ministries, which opened a deeper look into Kenyan life.

July 17

Nairobi to Kisumu

After travelling for 21 hours from Seattle, and spending 2 hours clearing Kenyan immigration, I joined Hanna in Kenya. A joyful reunion for sure, including a hug so hard, her nose started to bleed. Wolfgang and Heidi had kindly made the 7 hour trip from Miwani to meet her flight from Malawi, and mine from Amsterdam. As it was not safe to travel at night by road, we spent the night with Dr. Shon and Kim Remich in Nairobi. Shon is involved as a physician with the administration and accountability for HIV/AIDS funding by the US government in Africa and previously participated in malaria research in Kisumu, where he and Kim had become acquainted with Nehemiah Center. The Remich’s were wonderful hosts for my first night in Africa. Sleeping soundly, reality hit at 3 am when I woke to the chanting call to prayer from the mosque next door. I truly was in Africa!

Kenyan HOV lane


We drove the next day from Nairobi to Kisumu. It was a dance between passing vehicles, pedestrians, herdsman with their goats and cows, and dodging potholes sometimes the size of quarries. Wolfgang was an apt driver, but there were several testimonies to those less able. I saw a burned out hulk of a gasoline tanker, a newly wrecked truck with fresh mud, bent metal and broken windshield just retrieved from the ditch, and a stake bed coke truck that a passing semi had ripped the side from. Glass and broken plastic boxes everywhere. The countryside varied from the green, almost subalpine valleys of the Nairobi Highlands, to arid bottomlands of the Rift Valley. We passed Acacia trees and zebras; lakes from a distance that appear to have an algae bloom, but are actually covered with Pink flamingoes. We passed tea farms and forests. We also saw poverty, camps for displaced people from the election violence of 2008, and hawkers desperate to sell their produce along the roadside.

Kisumu is the third largest town in Kenya, on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is a commercial center for the sugarcane farming industry and home to one of the highest HIV infection rates in Kenya. The central roads are packed with people, diesel belching trucks, buses, and mattatos (minibuses). Kiosks and roadside stands are everywhere, surpassed only by garbage on the streets. The road from Kisumu to the farm was rebuilt 5 years ago. It is littered with potholes, a result of substandard design for the weight of the sugarcane trailers that take their loads to the mill, and degraded by the corruption that resulted in even less money available for the materials that were specified. This is the reality of Kenya today, but not necessarily its future.

Nehemiah International Center, Miwani farm is in a beautiful, lush valley, the floodplain of Lake Victoria. The valley is farmed by third generation Sikhs whose grandfathers came from India at the turn of the last century, to work for the British building the Trans-Kenya railroad. Sugar cane is the only crop raised commercially and a dairy farm is a previously untried venture here. To the north rises a 2,000 foot escarpment which we were to discover, is an incredibly beautiful and very different place from the valley. The valley people are Luos and those that live in the highlands, Nandi. Each has a different language and traditionally, they would raid one another’s herds, which still goes on to some degree today. There is no garbage out here. This is a subsistence culture where very few consumables are available, let alone purchased. The villages are mud huts without running water or electricity. What you eat is what you grow, or barter. Cattle and goats are hard currency. Currency for a dowry, to pay for secondary school, or medicine if you are lucky enough to see a doctor. People are visible because there are few vehicles to ride in. You walk or bicycle. Bicycles are the equivalent of delivery vans. They carry riders, firewood, charcoal for cooking, and water. They deliver milk, maize, and even coffins. Single speed, heavy; patched together. A bike is a luxury.

Kenya's future, Chebirir school




July 14-15

Narnia-African style, July 13th-14th

Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan, transition from war torn England to the mysterious, parallel world of Narnia. After hiding in a wardrobe which magically becomes their conduit to a land hopeful for salvation and the restoration of truth and righteousness, they experience evil and the greatest good, both in Narnia and in themselves. So begins C.S. Lewis’ parable that tells the story of a fallen world hungry for redemption, and the defeat of evil through the death and resurrection of the lion Aslan. In journeying to Kenya this summer, it seemed as if I to had entered that wardrobe, not fully understanding the place my journey would take me, both in time and space; and within myself.

Modern Africa mirrors this parallel world Lewis wrote of. It is a place of brokenness. This is a place where people deal with poverty, tribalism, corruption, disease, and crushing need. Some have said that Africa is beyond repair and that the west would be better to simply turn its collective back to this misery. That further aid is useless, propagating more of the same tragic results. On the surface I understand this, but now, in my heart, I see a people full of hope, joy, and thankfulness. These are giving people that in a short time have taught me that authentic faith and friendship are expressed through living their lives for God and in Christ. They live simply, but abundantly. This is a story of hope and transition more than a story of defeat and hopelessness. This is the story of Nehemiah Center and Miwani farm.

Miwani Valley from Nehemiah



Nehemiah International Miwani Center and Miwani farm is a ministry of International Fellowship. Nehemiah is located in Miwani, Kisumu district, Kenya. The farm is a christian cooperative community centered around a working dairy that includes 4 Kenyan families who have opened their homes to 12 boys between the ages of 12 and 17. Some of the boys have been on the farm for over 5 years. While the boys are not adopted, they are receiving the same love and care as one would hope for in any family. Each of the families has committed to working the farm and participates in decision making around activities of their work, and contributing to each boy’s daily needs, formal education and technical training. The boys attend Kenyan school, and on the farm have responsibilities tending livestock and doing home and farm chores. Though the farm is communal as a working dairy, and in its Christian fellowship, each family has their own home and may keep their own livestock and grow a house garden which supplies the majority of their food. Additionally, there are several Kenyans who walk to the farm daily to assist in the dairy and with farm chores, but also participate in the fellowship on the farm. Wolfgang and Heidi Oecshlagel from Nurnberg, Germany are full time missionaries on the farm who also care for 3 of the boys. Part time missionaries include Evelyn and Josef Tschernek, also from Nurnberg. Jeff and Marit Krueger, their children Lexie and Katia from Bainbridge Island, Washington and Jeff’s parents, also serve in Africa part time, and work to raise support for the farm and its mission at home.

For me, Africa was a place to go someday. There was no timetable, no plan. That suddenly changed this last winter when my daughter Hanna chose to do a summer field study through Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Many options were available, but she chose Africa—Rwanda specifically. Hanna also looked for opportunities to extend her African stay as she felt going to Europe or other destinations more accessible could come later; but Africa was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Her decision opened many doors for her both in Africa and at home. After making the decision to go to Rwanda to study and teach, she became a “team of one”, with the help of Jeff Lander from Children of the Nations. Her 5 week stay in Rwanda was extended to another 5 weeks doing photojournalism for COTN in Malawi. At the same time Jeff and Marit Krueger announced through Cross Sound Church on Bainbridge, that they were returning to Nehemiah for a short term mission and wanted to take a team with them in July. Hanna was open to joining them and I felt blessed to have this time to experience Africa and to spend an extended time with Hanna, working and learning together. Though the decision to leave was easy, it would not have become reality without the help of my wife Bonnie, my staff, and Dr. Jennifer Ekin. Their willingness to cover my practice allowed me this incredible opportunity.