Thank you for your prayers for our family and for fruitful ministry in Kenya as we serve the Maasai and our fellow teammates. It is time I reported on the outcome of March events.
First, thank you for your many expressions of concern for Rebekah. She is now fully recovered from her appendectomy (March 1st). We appreciate the many cards sent her way. She received at least twenty Get Well cards, and they continue to trickle in. She was touched that so many people care for her and amused by the humor in many of the cards.
Suzie was reluctant to leave Rebekah so soon after her surgery but we assured her that I am an experienced "Mr. Mom" so she was out in Maasailand for two weeks with another group of Vanderbilt students. Suzie made rounds on five of our bush clinics with Jori (a fourth-year Med-Peds resident) and Kara and Kevin (both fourth-year med students) the week following Rebekah's surgery. Jori, Kara & Kevin were great guests helping with clinic work and also with household chores.
Kara & Kevin went on to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro following their weeks with Suzie. We hear that Jori went home and promptly got engaged! I guess absence really does 'make the heart grow fonder'!
The following week was dedicated to our first full AIDS Seminar at our CMF training center at Ewaso Ngiro. The number of participants ranged from fifty to nearly twice that number depending on the time of day. The guest speakers from AMREF & Daystar University, Yenenesh from Ethiopia, and the Narok Church Drama Group all did a fine job communicating the seriousness of AIDS. Suzie and John Sankok hosted the event and also contributed to this successful program. The speakers dubbed the event "successful" based on the number of participants, their level of attentiveness, the thoughtful questions and discussions, and the MANY invitations to bring the seminar farther out into Maasai areas where CMF has planted churches.
We are very grateful to our colleagues in other mission organizations who so graciously and eagerly added their expertise to the program.
The next week of March found our family reunited at home (something we all look forward to!) although a stomach flu was passed along among the ladies in our household starting with Kara and progressing to Lauren then Suzie then Rebekah. We started the week with a two-day team meeting held at the home of our CMF teammates, Gary & Judy Woods.
Mid-week, however, brought an unexpected development when we received a call at 1:00 AM from friends in the Turkana desert of northern Kenya calling on their satellite phone. Greg Yost called asking for assistance when his wife, Mindy, grew very sick. The symptoms sounded quite familiar as Suzie talked Greg through caring for Mindy throughout the night. In the morning, we arranged a fast AIM plane to pick them up in Lodwar. I met them at the airport shortly after noon and brought them to Nairobi Hospital where Suzie had the ER team alerted. After several hours of tests to confirm the diagnosis, Mindy was wheeled into surgery to have a very nasty appendix removed!
I camped out with Greg at the hospital for about six hours since they had no teammates in Nairobi to look after them. The surgeon related to Greg and me following the surgery that the appendix burst when he went to remove it. Mindy looked great the following day and was released to return to Turkana within a week. She has since, however, developed some complications and will be flying back down to Nairobi tomorrow. Please keep this family in your prayers.
During the last week of March, our teammates Dan Crum and Gary Woods invited Suzie to join them on a four-day trip in the Loita hills. They were going to meet with some church leaders there and knew that this area has our most remote CMF clinic. Suzie was glad for the chance to see patients one day then led a one-day seminar on AIDS at the request of the believers from that area who attended the week-long AIDS Seminar just a couple weeks earlier at our training center.
We enjoyed a quiet weekend together as a family over Easter. When we are in Nairobi, we most often worship at a church called The Vineyard. Two other CMF families based in Nairobi (the Woods & the Crums) attend this church, and Dan plays drums in the worship team. The kids had the following week off from school, so we spent several days at Lake Naivasha enjoying the beautiful scenery and wildlife there. We were also resting up for what lies ahead!
As you pray for us in the coming weeks:
- Our CMF home office let us know that they had 14 college students requesting medical missions internships for the coming summer. They were able to place nine in other fields so we agreed to take the remaining five! They will be with us from June 5 to July 30. They are Josiah Freemyer from Taylor University; Adam Samaritoni from Milligan College; Gwen Pilon, Nursing major at Trinity Western University in Washington State; Sharon Long, Biochemisty major at Willamette University in Oregon; and Tia Harvey, who is in the beginning of her Ph.D program for Biochemisty and Molecular Biology at Indiana University.
Please pray for these students as they prepare for their summer experience in Kenya.
- We signed a lease on a new office! Thank you for your prayers for an affordable, secure location for our office. We are very pleased to have found a four-bedroom home in the Westlands area which will serve as our CMF-Nairobi Office and include a guest room for CMF families in need of a place to stay while in town. We are grateful that the new office is just 15 minutes from our house. Please continue to pray for a smooth transition as we relocate and as I assume the role of field business administrator on April 15.
- We stepped out in faith and purchased a 1989 Nissan four-door sedan with about 120,000 kms as funds continue to trickle in toward this need. We are grateful to our teammates who advanced us the funds necessary to make this purchase. Our heartfelt thanks go to those of you who sent a special gift toward this purchase.
Coming Up in April...
- Dave assumes role as field business administrator for the CMF-Kenya Field Team on April 15.
- Dave & John Sankok attend a Medical Self-Reliance Seminar in Karen April 22-25.
- Suzie travels to Arusha, Tanzania, in order to attend a CHE (Christian Health Evangelism) course hosted by the CMF-TZ team.
Thank you for your faithful support of our family and ministry,
Dave for the Snyders
New Address:
Dave & Suzie Snyder
P.O. Box 59322
00200 City Centre
Nairobi, Kenya AFRICA
011-254-2-521440 Home phone
dsnyder@nbi.ispkenya.com