Upcoming Medical Trip to Kenya in Early 2024

I am excited to announce a medical mission trip to Kenya in early 2024! The following summarizes the email sent out to prospective applicants and contains some newer information. If you are interested in coming, let me know! Even if you cannot join us, you may still pray for us and help us financially! You may deduct all gifts to Acts10 from your taxes.

I have a great contact in Uganda named “Zach,” and he has had vicarious contact with my pastor here in Indy for over the last ten years. My pastor, Rev. Jeff Miner, co-authored the book, “The Children Are Free,” published in 2002. It goes through all the “clobber passages” in the Bible used against homosexuals and demonstrates that they don’t actually say what Christians have generally been led to believe they do. He references the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts and looks at the passages in the context of time and place. Zach has had this short book translated into Lugandan and Swahili to train local pastors to break down the walls of oppression against homosexuality in the church as well as in the mosque. Pastor Jeff and Zach have gotten to know each other more personally since I went to Uganda last year on an exploratory trip for Acts10, and I’ve gotten to know Zach better as well.

He, in turn, has introduced me to “Zeke” and “Tom.” They come from Uganda but have gotten asylum in the US after spending significant time in the Kakuma refugee camp outside of Nairobi. Zeke now lives in Washington State, and Tom lives in Ohio. While at Kakuma, they started an organization in Nairobi to help LGBTQ refugees called MAREPA–Marginalized Refugee Empowerment Program Africa. This non-profit helps LGBTQ+ persons who have been kicked out of their homes or evicted from their apartments by providing temporary shelter and training to learn marketable skills to sustain themselves—hopefully without resorting to sex work for survival. Refugees do not receive work permits in Kenya. So those who wish to earn a living must sell their own goods and services or work casual jobs paid in cash. MAREPA also provides counselors/therapists to roughly 960 patients/year as they have endured and may continue to endure trauma.

You see, homosexuality is illegal in East Africa. Zach, straight with a wife and kids, has a gay member in his family of origin. So he has witnessed the horrible, life-threatening discrimination against those in the LGBTQ+ community first-hand. Often disowned by their family and kicked out of their church or mosque, they will also be unemployable if obviously gay or trans female. Furthermore, a trans person cannot obtain a new government ID needed for employment until after gender-reassignment surgery. Nobody can afford that. Actually, I do not think such medical care exists there.

Recently, my friend, a leader of a shelter for those in the LGBTQ+ community in Uganda, was kidnapped by the government’s brute squad, tortured, and severely beaten. He escaped with his life because a large bribe was paid on his behalf. A trans-female rival, who believes her shelter should be the only one in Uganda, tipped off the squad to sabotage him and his shelter.

So, now I will fill you in about myself. I have never led a mission trip before—full disclosure. But . . . I’ve been on a solid twelve of them: !!!!!!!!!!!

1. a week in Canada on Indian reservations during my sophomore year of college
2. two months in Niger, Africa, in my 4rth year of med school
3. back to Niger for a month with my then-husband and our 1-year-old daughter to work at the same mission hospital
4-7. Haiti (three times) with an organization called Oaks of Righteousness; and another time with the church I was attending at the time in Swift Current, SK, Canada
8. Guayaquil, Ecuador, for a week with Power to Change
9. Honduras for a week over Christmas at a hospital called Loma de Luz in Balfate
10. Cartagena, Columbia, for a week with Bridges of Hope
11. Uganda for a week with Watoto in 2018
12. Exploratory trip to Uganda for my own non-profit, Acts10, last year at about this time (2022).

Exploratory trip to Uganda for my own non-profit, Acts10, last year at about this time (2022). I know what I feel has worked well and what hasn’t. Now that I know that I’m on the autism spectrum, I have come to understand my own quirks and grow more as a person. I’ve given myself grace as well. I don’t want to actively proselytize. I want to take care of people because they’re beloved by God. I don’t want to force them to hear a sermon. I do intend to have Bibles and copies of “The Children Are Free” available. I want to serve them and demonstrate God’s love for them without any conditions. We will have team devotionals in the mornings before clinics and at the end of the day to keep our hearts and minds in the right place to serve and glorify God.

At this point, we plan to do two separate clinics. One in the Kakuma refugee camp near the LGBTQ+ block, open to all, and one in Nairobi at MAREPA headquarters. MAREPA will host both Acts10 and Zach’s organization, Crossing Lines Africa because for us to obtain permission to work in the refugee camp, a local Kenyan organization will have to host us. Zeke will be in contact with his comrades in Nairobi to make sure we have everything we need: the certificate of government approval and approval from the UNHCR, a police escort and security guard, transportation with a driver, tents, and equipment set up in a suitable location in Kakuma, etc. Likewise, with the clinic in Nairobi. We will have the protection of the police there and a driver. We may spend 2-3 days in one location and 2-3 days in the other.

We will have a safe/suitable hotel for all of our clinics. in Nairobi for our MAREPA clinics–something akin to a Holiday Inn or a Comfort Inn; we will stay very close to where we will work. We have yet to determine for our Kakuma refugee camp clinics whether we may safely remain close to the camp in Kakuma or will need to travel to and from a town called Lodwar–about 2-2.5 hours away. Zeke has asked his local coworkers on the ground to check out a couple of hotels in Kakuma that I felt looked passable online–no pool, fitness center, or wifi–but a safe, clean place to stay with a restaurant; this would save us the long drive to and from the camp each day.

If we need to stay in Lodwar, I suspect we would do our devotionals in the van/on the bus. The evenings would then be yours to spend by yourself or with other team members–whatever you need to wind down. As someone who needs regular exercise as part of my stress-management strategy, I have historically taken a computer with a small DVD player on trips to use exercise videos when necessary. These things come in handy when we do not have a fitness center and may not safely run or walk alone in the area. Dinner plans may depend on restaurants available close to the hotel. We might order food to-go on the way home as well.

We’re in the VERY early stages of planning. I hope to have as many providers as possible, a nurse for vitals and, ideally, a pharmacist. We need someone to work in the lab as well. We also hope to have connections in place for dental and optometry care. I want a dentist to join us if they have compact equipment. Zach has assured me we will have resources for things like x rays, and I hope to have an EKG machine. I fully intend to do joint injections (shoulders, knees, SI joints, greater trochanteric bursas). We have yet to determine whether or not we will bring meds from here or obtain them there.

My goal is to raise money to make this trip as affordable as possible to those who come. When I went to Uganda last year alone, without the benefit of cheaper group-rate airfare through an organization that helps missions agencies, I spent about $3k USD on my airfare and hotel. Generally, the more people want to come, the cheaper the airfare. It MIGHT be possible for us to get a similar discount on hotel rooms with a group rate. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY! Possible times to travel range from the end of 2023-early March of 2024.