When is the best time to pray?
It was 3:00 am and our second night at Kenya Relief. Tim’s bladder had quickly converted to Kenyan time, and it was apparent we were both awake. “I feel burdened to pray, but I’m not exactly sure what to pray about. I guess for protection over the clinic.” Tim got up from his bunk, pulled back the mosquito netting to my bed, and sat down. “Then let’s pray.”
Surprisingly, prayer did not alleviate the burden. Instead, the burden intensified. So, I sent a text to several friends in the US who had offered to pray for our trip.
“Hi, fellow giant slayers. We are loving our time in Kenya! It’s 3:45 am Kenya time, and God got Tim and me up to spend some time in prayer with Him. I sense a great burden to pray and worship over the clinic. Will you intercede with us? My Spirit is stirred, and I sense a need to cry out to God, although I am unsure of the specifics of the burden. Please pray there will be a pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will make intercession for needs or battles I may be unaware of.”
Tim and I decided we should do a prayer walk around the clinic. We were up and dressed by 7 am. By the time we found a driver and made our way to the clinic, several Kenyans were present even though we would not be seeing patients for several hours.
If you are tempted to interpret this through a hyper-spiritual lens, let me temper the spiritual with human realities. Number one, I wanted to sleep. I felt burdened to pray, but I am not a big fan of 3:00 am prayer sessions. I planned to pray but then quickly fall back asleep—number 2. When the burden intensified with prayer, I thought we needed to cover the clinic in prayer as soon as it was light and we could find a driver. When we finally hailed a driver and arrived at the clinic, Kenyans were present. I felt silly walking around the clinic through tall wet grass in a dress and running shoes with Kenyans peering at the strange Mzungus (white people in Swahili). Number 3. What else could we pray? We felt like we had already used all our words. We decided to worship because we didn’t know how else to pray or what more to say. We choose to praise because He inhabits the praise of His people. (Psalm 22:3)
All we knew was we needed Him. Thankfully, our friends in the states were also interceding.
The pre-op clinic began several hours after our prayer walk. As expected, it was productive but stressful. The team navigated challenges with grace, optimism, and joy. Patients were screened, scheduled for surgery, and the operating rooms prepared for an early start Monday morning. The team debriefed after dinner and retired early in anticipation of our first surgical day.
Snap, snap, snap. In disbelief, I listened to the rhythmic sound of a jump rope hitting the concrete outside my window. It was 5 am Monday morning, and one surgeon was outside our bedroom window working out. The time had come.
Ironically, the youngest member of our team arrived late to breakfast with one eye closed. The oldest member of our team, a 73-year-old anesthetist affectionately nicknamed “Tweetie” because of his love for bird watching, was one of the first members present for the 0545 breakfast devotional.
The Kenyan nurses and surgical technicians met us at the clinic at 0615. The first patient was in the operating by 0730. Every anesthesia machine was stocked with two vital sign monitors as we quickly discovered at least one parameter was inoperable on each device. The sonographers navigated technical difficulties from a water spill which would typically be handled by biomedical engineering, but we found a leaf blower could do just as well. Anesthesia utilized every pain medication except the one most commonly used in the US due to its unavailability. The surgeons depended on a quiet Kenyan OR staff with heavy British accents to supply instruments and surgical assistance. Our non-medical US volunteers became directors of operations, ensuring the logistical support necessary for running an outpatient surgery center.
Most patients arrived in the operating room thin, bald, quiet, and terrified, but grateful. We would catch a glimpse of a shy smile and a sigh of relief when we would lean down and ask if we could pray with them.
The last surgical patient arrived in the recovery room around 8 pm. The remaining team members headed back to the Brittney Home of Grace for dinner. We debriefed shortly after dinner. Two anesthetists and one surgeon were assigned to the overnight call. Fourteen team members shared four showers before finally collapsing in bunk beds for the night. We had successfully completed our first surgical day.
It was sometime around midnight when we got the call. …to be continued.
