Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Kylee Dobbs and CLINIC WORK

Kylee Dobbs is a pre-med student in her junior year at Cal Baptist University.
She is a team member of our Summer Leadership Institute in Kitale, Kenya and working in community health care and mobile clinics through Sister Freda's Cottage Hospital. Christian university students in our summer servant institute, are wrestling with the challenge Jesus Christ gave us 2000 years ago:
  • 'Love God with all your heart' and
  • 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'
While friends of hers are working at Nordstrom and Old Navy and Taco Bell this summer...she's working at answering the question...'Who exactly IS my neighbor and how do I love them as Jesus said?'
One of the ways Kylee is working out her answer to that challenge is by using her God-given talents and gifts to serve in community and rural clinics. Some day, she dreams of being a doctor and using those healing gifts and compassion skills to work with folks whose health and income preclude them from traditional hospital-based care. She likes 'taking it on the road."
Kylee and her CBU roommate, Ashley Campos, are able to see hundreds of moms and kids a day and are learning skills of triage, assessment, initial care and comfort. I am so proud of their work at the clinics and their interaction with the folks they see and the colleagues they work alongside. 
Kylee first came to Kitale on an AWAKENING trip through our church PEACE plan in 2006. The purpose of these initial teams is to expose our church members to the devastating consequences of poverty, disease, inequitable education, lack of servant-leadership, and broken relations between God and men. Kylee's experiences on that trip led her to begin simple steps toward ADVOCACY in the area of health care for the least served in society. 
They work under the care and instruction of Sister Freda Robinson and her staff of nurses, doctors, and pharmacists. A simple and inexpensive medicine like mebednazol can keep kids worm-free for months...
A word from Kylee...
"This little girl that I am holding is named Anna.  She is 7-9 months old, despite her tiny size. She was suffering from tuberculosis and severe malnutrition when Sister Freda brought her to the hospital.  I am so delighted at the great progress that Anna has made in gaining weight, being more alert, and getting rid of her TB.  She is such a happy baby and I love spending time with her.  She has the biggest smile, even though it's is all gums! I can't wait to see the progress that she makes in the next couple of months. Please pray for Anna."