Habari #22

Hello, my dears!
As the year draws to a close, we want to reflect on the past year in this letter. We are grateful for exciting projects, valuable relationships, and how God is writing our story in all of this.

„I thought I was coming here to help others,” said one of the women in the THG (Trauma Healing Group), which had been taking place in the neighboring town in recent weeks. „I thought I was already at peace with God, but then when I started writing my own lament (following the example of Psalm 13), I realized that there were still some things that I found difficult to let go of or accept,“ she continued.
This group of 20 people came about through my acquaintance with Pastor R., who approached me (Lisa) and asked for help for the many "wounded souls" in her church. It was fun to try out some new elements with the team, such as role-playing and working on our own "life map" using Joseph (from Genesis) as an example.
As a result, a small book club was formed in which, guided by Dan Allander's book "to be told", we examine our own story.

When stories spread

H., an employee of an international organization for persecuted people, told me how drastically her family, and especially her marriage, had changed since the last pastoral care retreat. She must have shared her story, because ten more of her colleagues have already signed up for the next seminar; some are even coming from South Africa and Ethiopia for the retreat in Kenya!
In January, two full pastoral care retreats, each lasting four days, will take place. It is a great encouragement that several members of the team have volunteered to provide support for two consecutive weeks!
As in previous years, we want to make this offer accessible to people from all financial backgrounds. For around €100, one person can participate in the retreat. We have set up a separate account specifically for this purpose:

Recipient: Help that arrives
IBAN: AT66 12000 51607200373
Purpose: 321 – Soul Care Retreat Kenya

If you would like to support the retreat team with prayer during the coming weeks, we would be delighted to have you join the prayer team! There will be regular updates from the end of November to mid-February. You can subscribe to the email list here: soulcareretreatkenya@gmail.com

Left: Noemi photographs flamingos on Lake Baringo / Right: David tries to make new friends

Banda Health

The year began with new team members, including software developers, an implementation team, and a couple from Australia. We are now 16 people from various countries. Our team is divided into management (fundraisers and communications), tech (software developers, system administrators, data analysts), medicine (doctors and nurses), and implementation (those who work directly with the clinics).

Almost the entire Banda Health team in one place

We in the implementation team have noticed that with over 120 clinics in 6 countries, the personal connection eventually gets lost if you have too few people for training, consulting, and support. More people on the team means better support, as well as more room to grow.

Left: The new social security system is causing confusion / Right: Doctors' strikes again

Kenya introduced a completely new social security system this year. It's not yet fully implemented and is unfortunately causing a lot of chaos. Even people who have diligently paid in aren't receiving the care they're entitled to. Christian hospitals and clinics are treating patients who are turned away elsewhere (not only because the new system isn't working, but also because of all the strikes). Other clinics are being forced to close because they're left with months of costs that the insurance should have covered. This affects us greatly, but in all of this, our help is more important than ever, because only the most efficient clinics will survive.

Then there were the updates to our software. We've invested considerable effort and commitment in the area of laboratory documentation, which has led to larger clinics and hospitals with laboratory services now showing interest in our solutions. So far, we've managed all these major changes successfully.

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Above: one of the leading centers for neonatology in Arusha, Tanzania
Left: Street battles in Mozambique / Right: Visitors are given a tour of a clinic in Nairobi

I (David) have been traveling extensively to Greece, Mozambique, and Tanzania to tackle new projects, both large and small, such as clinics for refugees in Sudan, a new children's hospital in Arusha, and a potential new surgical center in northern Mozambique. The work there is truly exciting, and I feel that my consulting skills and Banda's solutions are both in high demand and being severely challenged. I suspect some of you have heard in the news about the near-civil war situation in Mozambique. This is a real catastrophe and means that a new mission hospital in the north of the country is needed more than ever. Due to this unrest, we are progressing more slowly than we would like.

Want to hear more stories from BANDA Health? Click through the latest! Posts.

Other things that are going on:

It was fun to run the annual 5km race with some motivated kids from the children's home.
Our girls celebrated their 14th and 16th birthdays in the summer and we are grateful to see how they are developing more and more into young women.
We are now officially the largest family clan in Kijabe. We are very happy to have David's second brother and his family living nearby!
Occasionally we just drive out into the bush for a little relaxation, like to this camping tree by the hot springs near Lake Bogoria where there are sometimes over a million flamingos at once (then it stinks quite a bit).

We are deeply grateful to know that so many of you stand behind us!
We will be in Austria this December and are really looking forward to seeing some of you!

Greetings from Kenya,
David & Lisa with Noemi and Layla