A week in pictures, with a praise and a prayer

Sunday night, a week in review:  Visitors, and more visitors, who knew February would be so popular in Kijabe?  Midterm weekend with two of Jack's classmates staying over.  Some really encouraging saved lives, the miraculous survival of baby Blessing after her dad's prayer.  Texts and calls with Scott, news from Liberia.  Working on a research abstract due next week, juggling patients, following labs, going to meetings, puzzling over cases.  Making dinners. Jack at Model UN all week, meaning early mornings and late evenings, driving back and forth, and one overnight in Nairobi, plus one more college interview. The social-event-of-the-year Junior-Senior Banquet (think of an elaborate dinner theatre with set and drama and food all put on by kids and their hardworking parents and sponsors).  Perhaps the highlight, 5 out of 6 Myhres on a family Google-chat one night.  Too tired to be profound, and on call expecting a baby in respiratory distress to arrive in our ICU soon, so just going to throw some pictures here in no particular order:

 On midterm, I drove the boys to Naivasha for a swim Saturday afternoon.

 And then to Nairobi on Sunday, to visit the Mixon's church (below) and eat Ethiopian food (above).

 Jack has taken over Scott's taco-making job.

Scott realized that the TIME magazine cover is Dr. Jerry Brown, the Liberian surgeon he's working with.

 Went to Rosslyn on Wednesday for a sound defeat, but our boys played with spirit and had a come-back, just not quite soon enough.

 Baby Blessing as she was off the ventilator.  Now she's back down in the nursery and holding her own, though still quite sick.

 One day this week I actually got to go on a morning run, with this panorama, and my somewhat clueless but joyful companion.

 Christine and Maria visiting Kijabe.  Christine's dad Bill was visiting us in Uganda 16 years ago when he got appendicitis, and through a surgical mishap in Kampala nearly lost his life. Scott had to physically remove him from the hospital there and fly him to Kijabe.  It's a long and dramatic story, but the short version is that God used that week to build all our faith.  Maria is a former World Harvest missionary who still manages children's homes in Kenya, so they had come for a supervisory visit.

 Nyambula Esther was our houseworker 17 years ago when we had evacuated from Uganda for war, and came to Kijabe where Jack was born.  A year ago she had her own baby, Michael, and I saw him in clinic this week and brought them home to lunch.

 The Mbega Boys.  This is the dorm that has adopted Jack, with welcoming and wonderful dorm parents Steve and Sharon Entwistle.  These boys are all dressed up for Banquet, and spent a fun hour on the football field in various poses reliving all their memories and groups, before going to pick up their dates and walk them to the venue.

 Jack and his date, Carlene, who is a lovely articulate athletic young woman from Kenya who has lived all over the world due to her dad's work.

 My Sunday School class posed with me !

The station boys of Mbega

 Jack picking Carlene up at her dorm.

Jack and John Amos, great friends and sometimes confused as twins.

Emily and Evans: we met Emily when she decided to throw a Birthday party that sponsored a goat for malnourished kids in Uganda.  She is a doctor in Indianapolis and her program is connected with one in Kenya, which is how she met her husband Evans.  They were back to visit Evans' family and passed through Kijabe.

PRAISE:

In the last week I've had 6 overnight guests and probably 20 for meals . . . I love the way visitors are a blessing in Africa, and I feel that deeply.  Right now I have a former RVA grad who is now a senior resident staying with me, and she's helpful, smart, and good company.  Friends whom we have known for probably 17 or 18 years, who work in a closed area, are staying as well for the rest of the week, and their company is always great.  I guess God thought I might get too lonely without Scott so has sent me some rescuers.  The Wallace family from South Sudan also arrived on station, though they are staying at a local guesthouse and will only be joining for a meal. 

PRAYER:

Please pray for our US kids as they plow on in the winter doldrums of hard work and snow.  Pray for our friend Heidi, formerly our Bundibugyo nurse, then South Sudan, and now on a furlough in the USA to care for her mom.  Her mom is dying of ALS, which is how my dad died, so I feel for her deeply.  They are near the end.  And lastly pray for our former foster-son Basime Godfrey, the young man who is nearly blind, who had the amazing rescue of surgery in the states because a visiting generous ophthalmologist took it upon himself to make it happen . . . Basime and his wife Eve had their first baby this weekend.  Eve's labor was long and difficult, and the medical system is still dysfunctional.  They were referred very late for a Cesarean section, and by the time it happened the baby was in bad shape.  Basime called in tears and we prayed for his son, who lived about 24 hours, but died yesterday.  I'm thankful I've been able to call and pray with both of them several times, and kind team mates have gone to visit and help.  Today he texted that "we are standing strong" . . . so please pray for their comfort, and their healing, and their faith.  So many hard situations crying out for the redemption of the New Heavens and New Earth.