Enoch weighed a little less than 4 pounds, and had severely underdeveloped lungs with pneumonia. He was requiring a form of artificial ventilation just to keep oxygen flowing to his body before we ever even considered surgery. I looked him over and decided that there was just about no way this child could survive, regardless of how much work and time I devoted to him. I talked to the head nurse in the nursery and we decided to simply allow the baby to die comfortably, without pain. Besides, I had plenty of work to do in the office which would be a far better use of my time — or at least so I thought. However, that night I could not sleep well at all as I contemplated the very short future of Gideon, and in the morning I talked to Gideon’s mother and made the decision to go ahead and attempt surgical repair. Our anesthetist was understandably skeptical as we looked at this tiny baby requiring ventilator support and contemplated major surgery involving opening the baby’s chest, reconstructing the esophagus, and closing the connection between the lower esophagus and the lungs. We spent the rest of the day preparing and then operating on Gideon, and spent a good part of the evening and night managing problems with maintaining the ventilator for this very small patient. We committed Gideon to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, but I honestly did not expect him to survive.

The latest communication from Russ and Beth White just arrived. It is here.

Greetings from Tenwek Hospital, Bomet, Kenya. Things here have been rather eventful over the past month, to say the least! As most of you will have heard, tension has been very high since the announcement of the Kenyan Presidential election results on December 30. The results have been highly disputed by the two main parties in the election. During the first week of disputes, there was a good deal of violence throughout the country. On several days, we could stand on our front porch and hear gunfire and tear gas cannons being fired in some of the towns within two miles of Tenwek. We were essentially unable to travel, as roads in the area had been closed by roadblocks and protesting crowds. This lasted for about 10 days, and then seemed to settle down. All of us have been hopeful that some political solution would be reached between government leaders to bring peace. Unfortunately, there have been several new waves of violence which have essentially become tribal clashes in nature. Since the political parties tend to split down tribal lines, the violence also tends to be tribally directed in nature. The situation currently is marked by unpredictability. There have been many days when all seemed to be well, and business was returning to usual. In fact, we traveled to Nairobi as a family just one week ago, and everything was very stable. This past week, however, saw the killings of two politicians, which again sparked significant unrest in our area. To date, there have been no signs of violence coming near Tenwek, although many of our Kenyan staff who are not of the most common local tribal background have decided to leave the area temporarily as we wait to see how the situation will develop. In the hospital, we are certainly seeing the effects of the violence. Our elective surgery cases have decreased significantly as people find transport to be difficult and unpredictable. On the other hand, our cases of emergency surgery have increased markedly! Our male surgical ward is overflowing with two patients in almost every bed, with more than half of them victims of violence related to this current situation. We seem to have at least one or two patients shot with arrows brought to the hospital every day, along with at least one gunshot victim. You may remember that arrow injuries are not uncommon, but this volume is certainly much more than usual. However, the Lord has been gracious. Throughout all of this time, we have only had one patient die who had made it alive to the hospital with an injury. Further, we have generally been able to get the hospital supplies we need to keep taking care of patients. Most importantly, we have been able to show Jesus’ love to hurting people in very difficult times.Please continue to pray for this entire situation, as the stress level is quite high for everyone. Some of our missionaries have had very difficult situations trying to pass through roadblocks and being threatened by large crowds. Many families of our national staff have experienced losses of many different types. We are praying daily that the Lord will bring peace, and that we may be His hands, feet, and mouth as we deal with these dangerous situations. Currently, we have put a temporary hold on new people and visitors coming to help us with work here in Kenya. This is making the work-load more difficult for many. As a group, our World Gospel Mission Kenya field leadership is keeping a close eye on the situation and meeting frequently to keep abreast of the situation. We do not feel a need for any of us to leave Kenya at this time. Please pray for wisdom in all of these difficult decisions. We also have a Crisis/Relief team working on helping the many displaced people within Kenya. Please pray for their safety as well.There are some bright spots in all of this also. We are now one week into our new surgical residency program here at Tenwek. We had decided to go ahead with beginning this training despite future uncertainties. This has been a dream and hope for many years for many of us here at Tenwek. Many of you have prayed with us for this. We have taken on two great, young Kenyan Christian doctors for formal training in surgery. These tumultuous times make certain aspects of the training difficult, but it is certainly giving them a lot of exposure to management of trauma cases!The family is doing well, although the stress of uncertainty is wearing a bit on everyone. The picture above was taken Sunday after our service. I was the preacher and I reminded all of us that we are strangers and aliens on this earth, and that our true citizenship is in heaven. We’ll try to keep you updated as the situation develops. We very much covet your prayers, and so appreciate your support of God’s work here at Tenwek.