The Westons Lately

While we’ve all spent 2020 living in unpredictable and unprecedented times, no one can stop the days from marching on and normal life (though at times feeling decidedly less normal) continues to unfold. 
Kids still need parenting and education, bellies still need to to be filled, sick people still need medicine, and broken bones still need fixing. 

It’s been a while since we posted about our time here in Kenya. I (Ali) take responsibility - I had this idea months ago to give a peek into our daily life here, and as COVID unfolded across the globe and finally here in Kenya, I found myself not knowing how to describe “daily life”. Though it continued, it felt different with each passing week - and finally the idea of writing a blog about it slipped away. 

But indeed many things have happened since our last post in April - and are continuing to happen - that are worth sharing with you! 

• First, we're excited to announce that our family will soon be growing to a family of five! We’re over half-way into pregnancy with baby Weston #3, who should be arriving around Christmastime. We can't wait to meet our newest member. 
• We’ve recently relocated to a new house within the Tenwek compound which will be a huge blessing for our growing family. 
• John is continuing his busy work at the hospital, particularly with orthopaedic trauma care.
• Tenwek is now seeing and treating COVID patients; Ali recently participated in a face-shield assembly project for the hospital staff. 
• Churches have resumed meeting, although families with children under 6 are still advised to stay home. Meanwhile, international travel to and from Kenya has opened up and most restaurants, shops and markets are back in business within social-distancing guidelines. Small group meetings and bible studies have resumed. 
• While Kenyan schools remain closed, the missionary homeschool co-op is resuming classes this week. Ali will be teaching a group of pre-K students three times a week, of which Gabe will be part.(We've decided to keep him in pre-K due to his summer birthday). 
•  Gabe turned five last month, and is learning to read! 
•  Grace is potty training like a champ, and is growing faster than the weeds in our shamba (Swahili for garden, or land).

Our preschool class at the end of last school year.

Hiking with some of the Tenwek ortho staff

Nothing says Happy Birthday like chocolate waffles!

Baby #3 is growing fast.

Playing on our new back patio

Family selfie!

Side by Side Tenwek (women's bible study)

Shamba helpers

Making face shields for the hospital - we completed almost 500 in one week!

The CHACU team approved of our design

(COVID Holding Area and Care Unit)

Getting so big, but still the baby for another few months.

Thank you for following our journey and praying for our community here at Tenwek. May God bless you and keep you! 

A Few Musings on Uncertainty and other Updates

K

Descent from the Cross, Rembrandt, 1634

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

I like certainty. Who doesn’t? Certainty is kind of like a safety net, or a warm blanket. When you're in an intellectual or emotional free-fall, you can always land on those things about which you're certain, and they will keep you safe. 

So what do you do when life takes away your certainty?  When your best efforts fail, and your patient loses their limb or their life? When in the course of a few months, a local viral outbreak has escalated to a global pandemic - and thousands upon thousands across the world are dying? When you hear spiritual leaders claim, in the midst of such suffering, that this virus is God’s judgement upon sinners?

I know what I do. I start asking questions. Is God really in control? If so, is He really loving?
Does God even exist?

To be honest, in the midst of significant individual, communal, and global suffering, my reason and intellectual certainty fail me. I can’t rationally explain to you how a loving, powerful God exists when there is so much pain and suffering in the world. People have been asking that question at least since the book of Job was written. People are asking it now. Try as I might to reason my way through it, I have yet to find a satisfactory answer.

Thankfully, we have more than just our reason to rely upon. We have scripture, a rich Christian tradition, and our own experience to help us navigate these times. Yep, I said it- experience. Even in the Bible's penultimate story of suffering, the book of Job doesn’t offer an explanation as to why Job's suffering occurs. What happens in the end is that Job has an experience of God, and his need for an explanation disappears.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Not “think and see” and not “read and see.” "Taste and see."

In prayer, in meditation, and especially in the eyes of my patients who are suffering, I continue to encounter a God who is both good and powerful - and who transcends my reason and my doubts. As we face COVID-19 together, I encourage you to find God in such experiences, and take refuge in the kind of knowing that you find there.

Other Updates

- Our family is currently well. As of the time of this writing, there are about 50 confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Kenya. We are just beginning to see community spread. We pray that the rate of spread in Kenya remains slow, but as a hospital we are actively preparing for what may happen if/when we hit the steep portion of the curve.

- I continue to practice orthopedic surgery at the hospital. We have cancelled all elective cases, but we continue to treat trauma patients in urgent need of orthopedic care.

- Barnabas, the patient discussed in my previous post, recently walked into my clinic. He is doing well, his pelvis is healing, and he is thankful to God for the care he received.

- Another cause for uncertainty these days is the uncertain future of the orthopedic residency program here at Tenwek due to limited resources, especially in terms of long term staff. Please pray that God will provide.

- We as a family will continue to hold all of you in our prayers during this difficult time.




**Necessary disclaimer: the views expressed on this blog are my own, and do not represent those of Samaritan's Purse or of Tenwek Hospital**

It's ok Daktari...

"It's ok Daktari. Thank you. I will be ok."

We had maybe ten words in common, but somehow my patient, I'll call him Barnabas, had looked into my eyes and read me like a book.

For three mornings, I had approached Barnabas’ hospital bed with more than a small amount of anxiety. The last two days he had been too delirious to speak, or even wiggle his toes. And today, it seemed he was peering into my soul, seeing all the worry and discouragement there, and responding with hope.

Barnabas had been crushed by a forklift and had a complicated pelvic ring injury. His injury pattern and our limited resources required me to place hardware in his pelvis in ways I had never done before, which carried a risk of nerve injury. In addition, the last patient I performed open pelvis surgery on had developed a postoperative infection that had been difficult to control.

 

Barnabas' presenting CT scan

Barnabas' postoperative x-ray

So yes, each day as I approached Barnabas' bed, I anxiously looked at his wound and asked him to wiggle his toes.  Praise God, his toes were moving and his wound looked good. And now, as he was still gathering his senses, Barnabas was the one caring for me, telling me it was going to be ok.

And while I was certainly thinking, Thank God!, I was also wondering: How could he know it will be ok? Barnabas had no power to make his pelvis heal or prevent an infection. Indeed, he was in the same room as several patients whose wounds were not healing or who had lost their limbs due to infection. It was obvious that neither I, nor God, was miraculously preventing pain and suffering, even here at a mission hospital. So how could he say it would be ok?

Barnabas could have hope because he was surrounded by a community that cared for him, and he knew a God who was right there with him in the midst of his suffering. So regardless of the outcome, he would be ok.

Through Barnabas and several patients like him, I have been reminded that God is not distant and aloof, unaware or uncaring toward our pain and suffering. Rather, through Jesus, we know a God who entered into humanity and experienced the fullest extent of human suffering and evil. He was homeless, persecuted, tortured, and brutally murdered- and he responded with love, forgiveness, and hope.  This same Jesus continues to suffer with all humanity and gives us the strength to carry on with love and hope no matter the circumstances.

So as I enter this New Year, I am thankful and hopeful.  Yes, there is pain and suffering - and at times I am overwhelmed by the number of patients we treat, the severity of their injuries, and my own feelings of inadequacy to make any sort of difference.  But I’m thankful that Barnabas, probably unbeknownst to him, reminded me that it WILL BE OK. God is with us. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be serving here at Tenwek, and for the many friends and supporters like you that make this possible. I am hopeful that God will work in and through you and me and that Jesus' kingdom of selfless love will continue to grow. And I am ultimately hopeful for that day when, “the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God: they will be his peoples… he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more: mourning and crying and pain will be no more…(Rev 21:3,4).”

…..And on a lighter note,  here are a few other things the Weston crew is thankful for as we close out 2019:

Two happy kids!

Chai with friends :)

Our first safari!

Dinner with the OR nurses

Christmas cookie decorating :)



...And a recent visit from Ali’s parents!