Date
Subject:
Dearest Friends and Family,
Greetings to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We are so grateful for the many emails we received this past week
telling us that you are praying for our situation here and for my
family. Thank you so very much. Your words have been a great
encouragement to us as we have faced another interesting week.
This past Wednesday, 24 May 2000 all the tutors and the Heads of
Departments loaded into the hospital van around 8:00am and headed for
Meru and the Kaaga Synod Offices to be witnesses for Sr. Mubichi. We
arrived around 9:40am. The meeting was to start at 10:00am. Sr.
Mubichi and her representatives and two persons from the Nursing
Council of Kenya were already there. By 10:30am the Presiding Bishop
and Conference representatives to the "Pastoral Committee" had
arrived. Around that time the Presiding Bishop received a call from
the accusing party stating that neither he nor his representatives
would attend the meeting as they were not ready.
The Presiding Bishop, Sr. Mubichi and all the representatives meet
until around 1:30pm when the Nursing Council of Kenya representatives
were called in to speak. They had driven from Nairobi that morning
and would have to return that afternoon. They would not be able to
come on another date. They talked until 3:15pm. Then the Heads of
Departments and tutors asked that we be allowed to speak to the
representatives as a group. Thus about 4:15pm we spoke to the
Presiding Bishop and representatives. Mostly, we shared that if a
decision wasn't made before 29 May 2000, when the students were to
return to school, we could not open the school. When we left for
Maua, around 5:30pm, we had no idea what would be decided. We got
home after 7:00pm.
The following decisions were made.
- The School of Nursing would not be open until 5 June 2000 (one week
after we had planned).
- The Pastoral Committee will convene again next Wednesday 31 May
2000. If the accusers do not come to this meeting, the charges will
be dropped and Sr. Mubichi exonerated.
Thus, we ask for your continued prayers for 31 May 2000, this coming
Wednesday. We are still praying that Sr. Mubichi will be exonerated
and return as Principal Tutor. We also ask for prayers concerning the
opening of the School of Nursing on 5 June 2000. We pray that the
students will have learned a great deal through this very difficult
time and will return with great seriousness concerning their studies.
We continue to hold our lights high and hopefully soon the light will
replace the darkness.
This past week, Kenya has made a very serious decision about the
ramifications of the poor rainfall on our electricity consumption.
Electricity in Kenya is totally hydroelectric. Without the hydo, we
have very little electric!!!!! Thus starting Monday, 29 May 2000,
from 6:30am - 6:30pm six days a week (Monday - Saturday) we will have
no electricity for the next 6 months. Certain industrial areas will
have the option to have their electricity outages from 6:30pm - 6:30am
but those would be in large cities.
So what does that mean to Maua Methodist Hospital. Well, it means
that the hospital will need to use our generator six days a week for
six months at a cost of approximately $100 a day. (That doesn't sound
like much but do remember that our nurses are paid about $175 a
MONTH.) It will be impossible to pass that expense on to our
patients.
The houses on the compound are not connected to the generator, so what
does that mean to us. Well, one thing I can be certain of is I will
no longer be able to send personal emails like I have in the past.
Computer work is a big part of Bill's job and much of it is done on
our computer. Thus, Bill will need to use the computer at night, the
time I usually use it. I also write most my "F&F" emails on Saturday
during the day. This will drastically reduce the amount of computer
work both of us can do. I am hopeful you will be understanding. Don't
stop writing us, but please understand that we will have little time
to write you.
Of course, there will be other factors. We are hopeful that having
the refrigerator on 12 hours a day will be sufficient, but if not we
will learn to eat day to day. I imagine we will learn day by day how
to manage many things we have no idea will be changed!
The ramifications for the entire country are enormous. In today's
newspaper it stated this is "the biggest disaster and outrage in
Kenya's history." There are so many small, new companies (especially
computer companies) that will have great financial difficulty buying a
generator and running it daily. Restaurants and small businesses that
need electricity during the day will go out of business. In every
newspaper one reads about another industry that will be affected. What
happens to the banks, the ATM machines, gas stations and travelers
that need gas during the day, the TV studio that runs TV all day, and
the list goes on and on and on. How many people will lose their jobs,
their business, their livelihood?
Today we read that the economy in Kenya in 1999 showed further decline
in real growth with investments down due to high cost of borrowing,
poor infrastructure, lack of confidence, and corruption. Kenyan
incomes slipped from Sh305 ($4.36) in 1998 to Sh301($4.30) in 1999 a
person per month. (If you know what the monthly income per person is
in the US, you will find this piece of information startling!) But
the Kenyan government has hope and is expecting a turn around even
with 12 hour electricity outages for 6 months. What is their hope?
Finally, IMF and the World Bank have decided to "lend" money to Kenya
again during the third quarter of 2000. What have loans done in the
past for Kenya? Well, I sure am thankful I have my hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here more than anywhere I have ever lived, I
understand where my hope must be and where the only hope for all
peoples and all nations is and can be --- in God and His precious son,
Jesus Christ.
Bill and I are working hard to make decisions about our home
assignment time in the US during 2000. We have three different times
we may come home. We are waiting to see what the master schedule for
the school looks like to see when our coming would least effect the
School of Nursing. As soon as we make a final decision, we will be
writing our 35 supporting churches to give you dates.
Please continue to pray for our situation here at Maua and in Kenya.
Thank you for what your prayers, love, encouragement and support have
done in the past and will do in the future.
Hope in Jesus,
Jerri and Bill
You can answer this letter at
savuto@MAF.org
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