March 2008 - Posts

• Kendall Update #127

  Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #127 of Saturday, March 22, 2008, Grand Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire A dog… Man’s best friend… Unless…until… The dog has rabies. Saturday was the final day of six which we spent with nurses, a pharmacist and a doctor who work at a hospital and clinic 8-10 hours’ drive north in Ivory Coast.  We had spent the days in prayer, discussing past, present and future issues, personnel needs for the medical work, government regulations, new legal guidelines, and a HIV/AIDS initiative at the hospital and in the country….and enjoying the beach. Sitting on a beach in the south of Ivory Coast was a long ways in time, distance, and ambiance for the medical work in the north. Catching spray from the thundering waves breaking on the shore were lounging stray dogs.  We saw the dogs.  We walked past the dogs.  We ignored the dogs. This morning Glenn wrote up the story the doctor told about a dog… a dog that had bit a man on his hand…. a puncture wounds that healed on the man’s hand, a man brought this month to the hospital by his family….too late, a man who died the vicious awful death caused by the bit of a rabid dog. Silly isn’t it the things we take for granted….dogs without rabies, walking past a dog without wondering whether it has rabies, not worrying about a nip from a dog… Life and death are not silly matters.  Depending where one lives they become more intricately entwined. Our medical team daily lives with the joys and sorrows, hopes and despair of the intimate dance of life and death.   Silly isn’t it the things we take for granted…the man with rabies and his family had never, ever heard the name of Jesus before he was brought to the hospital by his family.   Dogs with rabies…people who have never heard of Jesus…..these are not silly matters.  Physical health and spiritual health are the compelling reasons our medical team is in Ivory Coast.  The intimate dance of life and death physically and spiritually is the reality in which they daily live….joyful and sorrowful, hopeful and despairing.   The man with rabies did hear the Name of Jesus.  His family heard.  They listened and understood that Jesus came to bring life, eternal life…hope, eternal hope… truth, eternal truth.  They heard, they understood, they acknowledged and believed that truth.  A man died.  A family grieved.  A man accepted the gift of life in Christ with a few hours left before meeting his maker.  A family wept with grief and found hope for a future in which Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”. What silly things are taking for granted today…….that are not so silly? Praise for: -    New, eternal life in Christ. -    Good meetings with the medical team and the life saving work they are doing. Pray for: -    East Africa Leaders Meetings Monday-Wednesday March 24-26. -    East Africa Spiritual Life Conference Wednesday-Sunday March 26-30, both on the beautiful north Kenya coast of the Indian Ocean. -    Glenn’s next eye doctor appointment Wednesday, April 2 in Littleton, CO.  Eyes are healing, retinas are working.  More time is needed for healing before vision returns to normal. Posted Mar 24 2008, 10:27 PM by chriswynn with no comments Filed under: East Africa

• Kendall Update #125

  Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #125 of Sunday, March 02, 2008, Littleton, Colorado Ours were the first tracks across the snow.  The last signs of anyone else had petered out long behind us.  The foot of new snow earlier in the week had buried the steps of the few others who might have made it out of the gulch and up along the high mountain valley the week before.   Each step was an effort sinking in a manageable six to eight inches even with our snow shoes.    Still, in the trees or by a rock Glenn at times sank in a difficult three feet and then struggled to get back on top of the snow.   Each year people die in Colorado falling headfirst into powder as shallow as 18 inches deep. It just keeps sifting in upon them.  When trapped in powder one pushes one’s hands away from one’s face and rocks the body back and forth making as big an air pocket as possible.   We took turns breaking the trail, moving steadily, trying to be on the opposite side of the valley from each avalanche chute.  Colorado has more avalanche deaths than any State in the union including Alaska and the huge quantities of snow have caused considerable loss of life this year already.   As we broke into the bowl with five distinct mountains surrounding, one jagged, another smooth and one sharp the refrain continued in our minds: “Great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.” Psalms 108: 4&5 We made a day camp: tramped down the snow, spread out a sheet of plastic, sat in our folding chairs and marveled at the vivid blue sky, evergreens, and field of snow. After lunch we both fell asleep in the sun.  Later there were still no other tracks.  We made a small fire and heated water.  Tea with cream and sugar is the best slowly sipped in the mountains.   We contemplated staying the night but we didn’t have the equipment or food and we had another conference call that evening. Our colleagues, supervisors of the other regions of the world for WorldVenture are meeting in Thailand, where we were supposed to be. Due to Glenn’s eye surgeries we were absent.  It is again healing well and may not need additional surgeries until summer, assuming the retina doesn’t tear again.   We continue to thank God: -    For the magnificence of the world He has made. -    That we were born Americans with all the abundance, beauty and opportunity of our country. -    For a number of good, long international calls with people we encourage in work. -    Glenn’s healing and clearance to spend 17 days in Africa. We pray for: -    A good leadership conference in Thailand (we are missing) this week. -    Continued good connecting by email and phone. -    Our next trip to Africa: o    Saturday March 14, Paris, visiting a family in language school o    Sunday to Saturday March 15 – 22 Ivory Coast, Medical Ministry Team Retreat o    Monday to Wednesday March 24 -26, East Africa Leaders Meeting o    Thursday to Sunday March 27 -30 East Africa Spiritual Life Conference -    Continued healing for Glenn and no more retina tears. Posted Mar 14 2008, 02:55 PM by chriswynn with no comments