Last day of Helping Babies Breathe training completed!!!

Today we finished the Helping Babies Breathe training for the traditional birth attendants. These are fun, energetic women who worked hard and are excited about the skills they learned. A few spoke English and acted as translators. Most spoke Swahili. A couple spoke only Kalenjin which is a tribal language. At one point we spoke in English, a woman translated into Swahili, and another woman translated into Kalenjin. Our students started every class with singing and praying. These women really know how to make their voices reach all the way to heaven. I think the entire village heard our songs and prayers.

During the closing ceremony today we gave out certificates and bag/mask resuscitators to 26 traditional birth attendants. Last week we gave certificates and equipment to 14 hospital and clinic nurses. Total trained 40. Total bag/masks we brought give out 40. God really is amazing!

Tomorrow we will leave the village for Nairobi and then head to the Masi Mara to enjoy a safari and have some time to debrief as a team.

Thanks for praying for us and for purchasing the supplies at Christmas time.

Bwana asafiwa,

Kendra, Miriam, Gretchen, Brian and Kelli

We arrived 24 hours late and 3 bags short, no internet (until today), but in good spirits. Our first training with 12 nurses went well last week. This week we are training 25 traditional birth attendants. They are energetic, fun women who don't speak English. It is a lot of fun but slow in translation.

Between the training we got to spend some time in the Hope Matters clinic caring for patients and learning about running our own labs and malaria treatment. We also got to meet the "parents" and play with the children at the children's home. Miriam is obviously younger than the rest of us because she has gone every day to play with the kids after we get done with the nurses' training. The rest of us have taken naps. Last night she was asked to do the evening devotion for the children. She was given about 3 minutes to prepare.

Kelli got to provide an ultra sound for one of Michelle's clients.  We went on home visits with Michelle to the slums. We met 2 incredibly joyous women who live in dirt shacks with significant medical problems. It reminded us that many of the things we consider problems are merely petty.

Brian has been put to work around the medical clinic tiling floors and painting walls.

Please continue to pray for the team and the trip. Kendra participated in the first training then got a terrible cold and is just now starting to improve, but she has been a trooper and is helping with the second training. Pray she continues to improve and no one else catches it. Also, pray that the training finishes well and our connections to get to the safari and back home go smoothly.

Michelle and William Kiprop have been wonderful hosts and we thank God for their ministry, their lives, their help, and their friendship.

Thank you for praying for and following our team in Kenya,
Brian, Kelli, Gretchen, Kendra, Miriam

Follow the Kingsburg Community Church nurses on their trip to Kenya

We will be on our way June 15, 2015 to work with Hope Matters International and to teach Helping Babies Breathe in Kipkaren, Kenya.

If we haven't gotten you excited about HBB yet, here is a video showing the tremendous impact HBB is having. (This happens to be nearby in Eldoret, Kenya.)
Helping Babies Breathe


Follow us--Gretchen, Kendra, Miriam, Kelli and Brian (ok, Brian is not a nurse but the title would be too long if I said 4 nurses and a police officer)--on this exciting adventure, see some of what we will see, connect to what God is doing in Kenya, and pray for us as we proceed on this journey of faith. Hopefully we will also get to love on some of the world's cutest babies. Awww, see what I mean.

Here is a powerpoint that will be part of the opening session for the training we will do.

We will be posting frequently throughout our time in Kenya. Stay tuned.