Dave & Dr. Suzie Snyder - Newsletter - September 2002
Answered Prayers…
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9 (NIV)
Throughout our years of ministry in Kenya, we have asked that you pray for our family to have a fruitful ministry as we balance our roles here. This year has brought with it many challenges and opportunities to expand the scope and impact of our work. Thank you for your faithful prayer support of our family! Our Lord has answered your prayers in the following ways…
Medical ministry
Since January, there have been as many medical emergencies as we usually see in a three-year term! Following are just a few examples:
We assisted our CMF-Turkana teammates serving in northern Kenya when Rob Jaynes was bitten by a poisonous snake requiring an emergency flight to Nairobi.
Another missionary friend in Turkana, Greg Yost, called us on his satellite phone in the middle of the night when his wife, Mindy, became seriously ill. (The symptoms sounded very familiar considering that our Rebekah had just returned home from the hospital after having an appendectomy on March 1st.) After a night with several long distance medical consultations, we made arrangements to have Mindy flown into Nairobi for emergency surgery the following morning.
Our CMF-Maasai teammate, Gary Woods, phoned us one day in mid-April to inform us that he had just been in a motorcycle accident and was on his way to Nairobi Hospital. We offered our support to Gary & Judy when surgery was required to repair damage to his shattered elbow. (The Woods had ministered to us the month before as we waited while Rebekah was undergoing surgery.)
We intervened in another situation when the Kenyan carpenter who was assisting us in our office relocation had a serious situation in his family. His younger brother, a veterinarian, was suddenly experiencing severe mental problems with no immediate discernable cause as malaria, meningitis, and other diseases were ruled out. What David Gachina required was a CT scan which revealed brain atrophy due to organo-phosphate poisoning from handling veterinary and agricultural chemicals. Thanks to the prayers and financial assistance of many folks receiving our e-mail updates, David has been responding well to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.
The Seidel family serving on the CMF-Tanzania team was planning a trip to visit family serving in Turkana and stopped along the way to have their son, Wyatt (age 3), examined since he was experiencing unexplainable tachycardia (rapid heart rate). After several days of testing, Suzie (in consultation with a Nairobi pediatrician and another doctor on CMF's board) recommended that they return to the USA for further medical evaluation.
Medical Mentoring
This year, we have hosted two medical students (Kevin Hsieh & Kara Slagter), and three medical residents (Jori Monday, Branden Hunter & Mark Stankewicz) from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Suzie scheduled her clinic trips to coincide with their visits introducing them to medical needs and opportunities in Maasailand.
Due to Dave's new role in our Nairobi Office, we had not volunteered to host summer interns this year through CMF's "Reach" program. 
However, we were asked to reconsider this decision when CMF had five more applicants for medical internships than they had openings among CMF medical missionaries. We agreed to host five summer interns provided they would be willing to work independently as a team at our Ewaso Ngiro Clinic for half the summer. They did great, and the plan seems to have worked well giving them a very real picture of what it is like to serve as missionary health workers.
We expect to host two more Vanderbilt residents, Patrick and Ursula Whalen, this year bringing our total number of interns to twelve in 2002.
Community Medical Education
Suzie and our Maasai clinic administrator, John Sankok, planned and hosted CMF-Maasai's first HIV/AIDS Seminar at our training center in Ewaso Ngiro. Visiting speakers included guests from AMREF (Africa Medical Research Foundation), Daystar University, and a CHE (Christian Health Evangelism) instructor from Ethiopia. The seminar was well-attended and resulted in many requests for future AIDS seminars out in rural Maasai communities.
Suzie responded to an invitation from our CMF-Tanzania team to attend a CHE course they were sponsoring in Arusha. She was glad to learn more about this program and its potential impact in African communities. Having traveled to Tanzania, Suzie became the first member of our family to travel in Africa outside of Kenya!
Office Support Team
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, Dave was asked to serve our CMF-Kenya team as field business administrator while CMF works to recruit a new person for this vital role. Dave officially took over for Lee Pruitt on April 15th while the office was still transitioning to a new location.
We thank God for providing a nice house in a convenient location to serve as both our CMF Nairobi Office and a two-room guesthouse for missionaries and CMF visitors. One of the challenges of setting up a functional office here is having backup systems to cope with intermittent power outages, water shortages, phone service interruptions, and e-mail server malfunctions.
Dave has found his new role both challenging and fulfilling. CMF families and individuals (numbering 18) serving in Kenya depend on the support they receive from our office including work permits, various license renewals, financial transactions, monthly field fund reports, guest house bookings, and, at times, crisis management.
Rotary Ambulance!
We are pleased to announce the culmination of a three-year process of obtaining a Rotary Grant for the purchase of a clinic ambulance and some clinic motorcycles. A brand new four-wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser Ambulance began its service to our Maasai clinic system in May. Our sincere thanks go to Tim Holder, MD and the Muskogee Morning Rotary Club of Muskogee, OK who spearheaded the fund-raising for this grant. We are grateful for the participation of other district Rotary groups, several of our supporting churches, and Rotary International for providing the full grant. And thank you to those of you who prayed with us over the past three years that this process would be successful.
Short-term Missions Trip
Southeast Christian Church invited Suzie to participate in a two-week medical trip to Kabul, Afghanistan in July. Suzie joined a great team assembled by Southeast including several folks who had been there earlier in the year. This trip made quite an impact on Suzie… more details to come in a special newsletter to follow in the next couple weeks. CMF has approved of our making a family trip to Kabul this September/October to further assist Southeast in assessing the needs and opportunities to offer humanitarian assistance in the area of health care.
The Encouragement of Friends
In June, we were blessed to have a dear friend, Jan Taylor, and her cousin, Teri Youngblood, come to visit us from Nashville, Tennessee. Jan, and her husband, Rick, are long-time friends who attend Franklin Christian Church, one of our major supporters.
To those of you who made it through this lengthy newsletter, we offer our thanks for your prayer support…. and our apologies for going so long in communicating with you by newsletter. (If you would like to hear from us more often, please send us your e-mail address.)
