June 2010 update

Greetings to all, 9/29/10

This first half of the year has flown by at warp speed and Penny and I want to update everyone up on what has and is going on in Kenya. I was in the USA for about 3 months assisting my parents and completing nursing hours to keep my nursing license in active status. My time their was productive and yet I was very aware of how much I missed Kenya and my friends here.

Penny did a great job expanding ministries at the Narok Prison and Pendo Donkey Rescue and Education. Prior to leaving Kenya, Penny, Sarah ( a good friend ) and I were granted entry permits into the prison system here in Kenya. This permit allows us and any visitors access to minister to the prisoners as well as the prison staff. I thought to obtain a pass was just standard protocol, but later I learned that two of my friends that work for Campus Crusade for Christ have waited for a few years for a positive reply. God’s favor in the matter was an enormous factor and Penny and I realize this blessing.

The prison system here is different than the USA in that a remand or someone waiting for their case to go to trial will stay in jail and time will not be counted as time served. So if your case takes 2-3 years to go to trial, an then your verdict at trial is innocent then just count your blessings that you are free. However if you are convicted, the 2-3 years will not be counted against your sentence as time served.

Another glaring difference is visitation, and every prisoner is allowed to have 1 visitor every 3 months. So if the family is poor, which in most situations seems to be the case, the family is supposed to supply any hygiene products like toothpaste, toilet paper, soap, shampoo and any other items in quarterly delivery. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you are living off of $50-100 a month it is a major struggle for the family of the inmate to come up with the money for these supplies. Often times the family my even abandon the inmate and ostracize he or she because of being incarcerated. Needless to say this is a population that seems to be neglected by humanity and yet Penny and I feel like this was on the heart of God for us to enter into this arena to show HIS marvelous love.

When the Kenya Medical Outreach team came over in late May, the team had the opportunity to minister God’s love and grace to the staff and hold a medical clinic for one day for staff and prisoners as well. The people were so appreciative of the out pouring of love and medical care and it made the experience great for all the team members too. It was also wonderful to be a part of handing out milk, soap and toilet paper to the prisoners and watch their eyes light up as they received their gifts . One man had a severe case of typhoid that had it not been for intervention, I wonder if he would have survived. Many needs were met medically and also spiritually as well because we had an area devoted to praying for those who wanted prayer too.

After an inmate completes his sentence, typically he has no where to go because his family has refused to support him while in jail and will not welcome him back into the family. This creates a dilemma in that the inmate has no support system nor does the prison system when the prisoner is released, so the inmate will commit another crime just to have a place to return to. Penny and I would eventually like to start a transition home that will be a safe place for the prisoner to go to after being released and have equipment and resources to teach the prisoner a life skill so he can provide for himself instead of committing a crime due to poverty. Hopefully we will someday see this project come to fruition.

Over a year ago Penny and I rescued a severely abuse donkey that was wondering around town and we named him Paul because of the abuse he endured. Little did we realize but at the time this would be another door that would be open to make an impact on God’s creatures and help educate people on caring for animals. Donkeys are a major utility animal here in Kenya and it is very common to see donkeys caring grain, hauling water or firewood to help out on the work load. Unfortunately many of these donkeys are harnessed incorrectly and develop wounds or the owner is abusive to the animal and inflicts wounds to try and make the donkey work faster or longer. Given the number of abused donkeys Penny decided to push for reform in this area and encouraged the District Vet office of the government of Kenya to get involved and no longer turn their heads to the situation. The District Vets office is very over worked here in the Narok District and seemed to be motivated by the fact that some one was willing to extend help to them in this area.

One may ask why does a missionary devote time to a project of this kind and I will be glad to answer this question. When a person takes the time to help others especially with the donkey, it establishes relationship which opens the door for other areas of life to be discussed. Since the inception of Pendo Donkey Rescue and Education, 12 donkeys have been rescued and the people of Narok have changed in many areas. The donkey owners have become more conscientious about how much they work their donkey, make sure they allow the donkey time to graze sufficiently, harness the donkey correctly to maintain better control of the workload and prevent injury and an a greater awareness of injuries to donkeys by children and adults.
The collaboration of missionaries with the District Vet and the local Chief has made a difference with the people and the beneficiary has been the donkey. So once a donkey has been rescued, the owner will have to report to the local vets office and comply with an education program and show that he or she is willing to treat the animal with respect, but in the event that the owner in noncompliant, the donkey is then cared for and once it heals it will be given to a widow or widower to be a beast of burden for them in caring out daily chores. Many people have stopped us and thanked us for caring for the donkeys and have supported and encouraged the project. Daily we are experiencing knocks at the gate from people asking for help for their donkey and the response from the community continues to be very positive. The local Chief tried to stop the abuse 3 years ago and was not able to impact the community and see a change in the behavior of people toward the donkeys, but Penny and I have and it has been rewarding. So with the local chief seeing the change in his community he offers any counsel and military assistance when needed.

The School of Prophets has been in session for over 8 months and the class is at the halfway mark of covering Dr Bill Hamon’s curriculum of prophets and personal prophecy and it is exciting to not only to equip the body of Christ, but watch them develop their God given gifts for Kingdom purposes. Penny and I will continue to invest in this arena as we both believe that hearing God’s voice is important to everyone’s calling.

Many of you may or may not be aware that Kenya will be voting on new constitution on August 4th, and this will be a major turning point for the nation if it is passed. Recently Obama stated he supported the Kenyan constitution, but yet he thought that Kenyan’s should decided the outcome. Then a few days later Kenya received our VP with instructions that it was pivotal that this constitution pass and that the relationship between the USA and Kenya relied upon it’s passing. In addition to these coercive statements from politicians from the USA, it was put in the papers that all who support the constitution by day and oppose it by night will be dealt with by intelligence forces. This is heating up to be a battle between Christianity and Islam and already violence has raised its head. At prayer meeting mid month of June in an open park a bomb exploded killing 7 people and wounding over 100 all of this over people gathering to pray over the constitution. In many ways I can see the unrest being greater than that of the post election violence Kenya experienced in 2007-2008 when more than 5,000 people lost their lives. God help us all if the USA and Kenya align in this matter. Prophetically Kenya has been called the lighthouse of Africa, so will it turn to Islam or will the people fight to keep the true God in their constitution. Please pray over this matter and Penny and I as we do what we are called to do and that is it on this matter.

Kenya Medical Outreach completed their annual trek to Kenya and as a result 130 people accepted Christ as their savior, hundreds of people in remote areas were able to received medical and dental care by a team of VOLUNTEERS. Unfortunately the many stories of what occurred would take a book to write, but I will say when we had need of something we had it and if we didn’t have an item, we created it in some fashion to get the job done.

One story that I will share involves a 6 year old that came to the clinic on the last day. He was being held by his mother in line and as we frequently do we try to triage the people who present with obvious illnesses to expedite medical care on their behalf. So the Mother and child were triaged and seen in the clinic by Dr Bird an ER physician. The boy had symptoms of both cerebral malaria and or meningitis which are high fever, vomiting, and seizures. We eventually loaded the boy,his parents and the MD and nurse up in a vehicle and rushed to Narok hospital which was 1 1/2 hours from our location. As the vehicle pulled away the picture of him seizing and knowing his condition I was really concerned if his treatment was in a timely manner. You may not realize it , but once an individual gets cerebral malaria you have a 24 hr opportunity to not only diagnose, but treat them in hopes that they do not become comatose and die. This is a disease not to be taken lightly. The team that stayed behind circled around in a group sensing the urgency in the matter to call upon the name of the Lord. As we prayed, you could sense the Lord’s intervening on this boy’s behalf and the outcome is awesome. He arrived at the hospital alert and was treated and released a few days later for meningitis.

Penny and I still have two people that are in need of medical sponsorship one is a 3 year hydrocephalic that needs a shunt put in and a 7 year old with contracted fingers from a horrible burn. At this time we only have an estimate for the hydrocephalic to receive a shunt and it is more like a guesstimate. According to a missions hospital it will cost between $600-700 to have shunt put in place for the child and again I am not sure of any figure for the other child. If you would want to donate toward these two children, please send your contribution to :
KMO-Penny Martin and Dollie Sauls
200 Johnson Rd.
Suwanee, GA. 30024

Penny and I would like to ask that you all continue to pray for the Prophetic School, Prison Ministry, Donkey Rescue, Evangelistic projects and Women's groups that we are involved in Nairobi. In order to continue ministering in these areas we need your help. Historically we use just about all designated person funds to do these projects and that has been fine, but the resources have not been adequate to sustain our household budget and the projects. If you do want to contribute to the cause,send the funds to the above address.

Again thanks for your prayers and love,
Penny Martin
Dollie Sauls

Food outreach

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42147&id=1194108295&l=7d5d6b6d0b

Copy and paste this web link above on to your search box and you can see all the pictures and read about the resent food outreach we did. We have trouble down loading pictures on this blog but I think this will work. Sorry we haven't been in touch:(

Dog with rabies

   This dog has rabies and has just bit down on a piece of meat with poison to put it down. When a dog is in the last stages of rabies, it's jaws lock down when it bites on to something. This dog had bit 4 other dogs right before this and those dogs also had to be put down.

Rabies vacccine

Boys lined up with their dogs to be vaccinated against rabies.

The picture of Dollie with a little Maasai girl and her lamb. Dollie wanted to hole the lamb and have her and the girl's picture taken. The little girl was so afraid that Dollie was taking her lamb away from her so after much talk she let Dollie hold it. Notice the tail it looks like it has been dipped in white paint.

The 2 nd picture is of the truck and us given out food.

The banner says in Swahili and Maasai hold on to God the Father.

Cathy and James and Paul the donkey,

                                                                                        Cathy rode Paul from town!

Dollie, James and Tabula getting ready to

load the truck with all the food from money

given from the people in the states.

THANK YOU

KMO update 4-28-09

Greetings to all,

Kenya Medical Outreach has really had a full year of surprises and excitement as we walk this journey we are on in Kenya. Back in February we established a wonderful relationship with Operation Smile that has enable several children with cleft lips and pallets to get evaluated and surgically corrected. All of this occurred through agencies being willing to network. According to Operation Smile, it is difficult to get the information out to the people in the rural areas, so KMO volunteered to post the information posters in Narok South and North to encourage people in healthcare areas such as dental offices, doctors offices and hospitals to refer these children to a city called Nakuru where a medical outreach was to be held to repair the cleft lips free for the children. This sounds so easy for parents to get the children to the evaluation site, but many face challenges of no money for transport or many are afraid of the unknown involved in the surgical process, so sometimes the child has no way to receive treatment. 

One story that relates to the above is parent seeing the problem of a cleft lip as a  priority for the surgery even though we actually had a 13 year boy with a cleft lip cleared to go for an evaluation and the parents refused to let the child go even though the child wanted to go have the procedure done. So thankfully a neighbor volunteered to not only cover the cost of transport to the evaluation site, but accompany the child as well. As it turns out, the boy was evaluated and the cleft lip was repaired and Operation Smile said now let him return to his village and be a testimony of what can be done to help people with this condition. Also the boy said he could not wait to get back to his village and tell everyone including two others with cleft lips how easy it was to get the area treated. So hopefully the two others that did not receive  treatment this time will so in August.

One family had 3 children with cleft lips and all three were evaluated and surgically repaired within a weeks time and went home. As they boarded the public transportation one said he could wait to get home to show people how good he looked. Please realize that here in Kenya many children with this condition are killed at birth, abandoned or the parents have no financial resources to have the corrective procedure done so the child usually dies some time after birth depending on the severity of the condition or they are ridiculed and ostracized by the other children and community as well.  So these children have been given hope in the change of appearance and a big boost in self esteem.

Then the next great adventure was involvement in donkey rescue. Here in Kenya, the donkey or punda as it is called in Swahili, is a major work animal, but unfortunately ignorance, abuse and lack of fundamentals on adjusting the work load of the animal cause many  avoidable injuries. So in mid March we rescued a donkey that had over 17 noted injury sites and brought him to our house to recover. The local District Vet Jerry Ole Kina played a major role in treating him and helping counsel us on how best to assist in Paul’s (the donkey) recovery. We named him Paul from the apostle Paul in the Bible because of the many beatings he experienced. Penny and Paul have become good friends especially since Penny provides plenty of carrots, kale, corn and lets him graze any green grass we can find. As a matter of fact, the donkey follows her around like a dog and brays  often to get her attention. Valentine the Scottish Terrier senses the loss of attention from her master, so at times we have some competition. Hopefully we will find a good owner and new home for Paul soon since his injuries have just about healed and we are hoping to use the funds from selling him to put in an account for future rescues of animals in the Narok area. We have identified four additional animals that need immediate intervention from the harm caused by the harsh hand of man, so again hopefully we can still be involved in this arena .

As many of you may know that water is a enormous topic of discussion and need in the continent of Africa. Frequently the water is polluted or contaminated so there is  major need for intervention not just for accessible water, but for clean water. In January we experience a  75% drop in rain water and this trend continued through the next few months and caused a severe drought in the area. Many cows, goats, sheep and dogs have died because of the lack of water and grass to sustain them. Then the conditions got so bad we appealed to friends in the USA for help to mobilize a food relief effort to cover 4 extremely needly areas in the district. The answer came quickly with many generous donations that allowed us to feed approximately 7,000 people. It was very interesting how God used our past experiences to assist us in moving forward in this big task. At my home church ,New Covenant Fellowship, Penny and I occasionally worked in the  pantry to feed the poor and one of our jobs was to line bags up and stuff the bags with the goods and the Africans marveled at what a system we used to expedite the bagging process. Each bag had beans, corn, a grits like flour,oil and salt which should last a family of 7 for 3 weeks.

All the villages we visited the people were so appreciative and some of the children kept asking is this really our food and after answering them several times they finally helped their mother carry the food to the house. One of my favorite stories occur at the 3rd village at the first house we visited. Jerry the Vet helped us with this project too and his knowledge of the back roads assisted us greatly in navigating the area. Anyway we pulled up to this house and Jerry went and knocked on the door and usually the first question that would be asked is how many people live in this house and the woman replied why? Jerry said because we need to know how much food to give you and she just looked at him and proceeded to tell her story. The night before she told her daughter to go to her room and pray because we have been without food for a few days and only God can hep us now. So the daughter did go pray and had a dream that someone came and knocked on the door and said hi I am here to give you food and that is exactly what happened the next day-God heard their prayers and gave them food. A big thanks to all that gave toward the food relief project it was a great help.

 In addition to the food relief, our KMO Missions Coordinator Pam Smith mobilized intercessors to pray for rain and pray Psalms 65 over the area and within the first week we had 5 measurable inches of rain in Narok. Some areas such as Morijo are still in great need rain and food and as funding continues to come in, we will give aid to that area. Also we made an appeal to the UN to assist in the areas and we have heard via email from them that aid will come for at least 6 more months.

Another problem in the area was an outbreak of rabies with not just dogs and cats but donkeys too. After talking with the District Vets we discovered that due to a lack of funding the Vets had not been vaccinated against rabies themselves, so through generous giving all Vets were vaccinated and sites were selected to move in and deal with the rabid dogs and do a mass vaccination of animals in several villages. Many people in the area have died from rabid dog bites, so many stray animals have been put down because of this outbreak. So again because of donations, we were or actually you were able to help deal with a real serious problem in the areas. We have many stories of dog bites, but this one seems to be ever present in my memory. A boy got bit by a rabid dog and the family took him to a doctor and then he didn’t get any better. So the father took him to a certain church with the thoughts that the boy had a demon and it needed to be exorcised from him, but prior to taking him to the church he bit every family member. The boy then ran from the area really crazy acting never to be seen again exhibiting  extreme symptoms of rabies.

Currently KMO-Narok and KMO-USA are preparing for what looks to be an adventurous undertaking by visiting 3 different sites to do medical and dental camps and a program at one site called Walk with Jesus. At one location called Sakutiek, the people are so excited that we are coming to provide help in so many areas and are gearing up to Walk with Jesus. So please continue to partner in whatever dimension you can by praying or supporting us  in these endeavors and thanks so much for all your love and concern for us and the people of Kenya. 

Blessings,

KMO-Missionaries

Dollie Sauls and Penny Martin