Going home or leaving home?

When we moved our family of almost 8 to Kenya, we left behind what we called home and everything that was familiar.  Minnesota was home.  

We arrived in East Africa and felt far from home.  Separated not only by distance, but also by culture, by language, by complete change of routine, by physical challenges, by new ways of doing daily tasks and schooling.  

And we talked about home.  “I wish we could go to Costco and get all the samples.” Or “I miss my friend at church.” or “We need snow.” And the most repeated “I just want a Chick-fil-A sandwich.” These things were part of the home that we had left behind.  

Nearly two years have passed now and Chick-fil-A and Costco are hardly mentioned.  In May, Will flew back to the US for a short medical conference.  Before flying back to Kenya, he went to Wal-Mart and called the kids and I to see what we might want him to bring back to us.  Joyfully, I announced, “Y’all, Dad is at WAL-MART!!!”  

Only 3 of the 6 kids knew what Wal-Mart was.  Charley said, “Is that a red place?”  Clearly, she’s having Costco flashbacks but just can’t put a name to it.  

It’s time now to pack up and go back to the states.  Our two-year term serving with Samaritan’s Purse is coming to a close. We board the plane in almost a week.

But are we going home or leaving home?

Pieces of our life here:

The road behind our house
(Emery, 1, Liam, 11)

the ladies that help us in our home and my friends
(Me, Joyce, Sheila)

first broken bone
(Will, Dr. Kiprono, Liam and Caleb)

growing up
(Charley, 5)

birthdays
(Harper, 7)

Chai with Ms. Joyce
(Doreen, Nora and Joyce)

Christmas

the everyday

church family

black eye and missing teeth
(Harper)

potty-training
(Nora)

great friends

baths

loved by Ms. Sheila

girls, girls, girls
(Nora, Harper, Charley)

co-workers and friends
(Will, Nellie, Umi, and Weldon)

Pizza night with friends
(Caroline, Joy, me)

Easter

vacation
Nora (2.5)

east coast of Kenya
(Hayden, Liam)

time with cousins
(Copelands and Nicholsons)

homeschooling

lunch at our gardener Felix's house

the beauty of this country
(Janeth, Nora, Purity, Emery)

Masai Mara retreat with co-workers

baptism
(Will and Hayden)

playing outside
(Nora, Emery, Harper)

our Kenya baby, Chepkemoi
(Emery, 1)

Saturday night with friends
(Will, me, Lydiah and Kimutai)

new hair
(Harper)

Kenya has become home.

So when we are asked “Are you excited to go home to the United States?  Won’t it be nice to be back home?”, it is not an easy answer.

I think we are forever split. Torn.  It is hard to leave our home in Kenya. But we also look forward to going back to our home in the U.S.  

We will be returning to Arkansas this month and staying in a rental house on the same street where Will grew up in Little Rock!  He may revert back to his childhood – sleeping in late, playing X-box, egging cars, and of course pining after his high school girlfriend (me). Probably not...

Will will be working, doing neurosurgery at the Arkansas Neuroscience Institute.  No time for egging cars.  

Our hope is to be in Little Rock for about a year as we prepare to return long-term to Kenya.   We are in the beginning stages of applying to get back to Tenwek Hospital in the summer of 2019 with an organization called World Gospel Mission.  

We will no longer have financial support from Samaritan’s Purse so we are actively looking to grow our monthly support team.  If you or your church would be interested in being a part of the work at Tenwek, please contact us at willnalisa@yahoo.com.

For now, if you are already part of our financial support team, please continue to give as you have been giving with Samaritan’s Purse.  We will continue to have ministry-related expenses while in the U.S. and we are required to be fully–funded before returning to Tenwek. We will notify you when things change.   

Thank you to our supporters for sticking with us and being a part of this work here over the past two years.  We remain grateful and happy that this is just the beginning!

For all of this, to God be the glory!

“For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.”

Hebrews 3:4

Fire at Tenwek

I know many of you have seen the news of the terrible fire here at Tenwek hospital last Friday night.  Thankfully, not one patient or staff member was injured! The hospital staff worked bravely to evacuate the patients and to contain the fire.  However, the hospital suffered extensive damages.  The building housing the kitchen, restaurant, laundry, sterilization, statistics, offices and wound ward was largely destroyed.  Rebuilding efforts are just beginning.  If you want to help with the hospital recovery please go here.

To all of our support team, we deeply appreciate the important role you play in keeping us in Kenya so that we can be present for these moments of crisis and need.  We know you are lifting up Tenwek in your hearts and prayers and we are grateful.  God is with us even in the fire.  

Summer and winter, springtime and harvest

There are two seasons here in Kenya.  Rainy and not rainy.  Most days it feels like it's just about to be summer.  Today it is dry and 78 degrees outside.  My garden is overflowing with lettuce, spinach, rhubarb, carrots and sukuma wiki (similar to kale).

Nora and Charley in the garden

Before my friends think that they don't know me anymore... I did not plant this garden, nor do I tend this garden.  The only thing I've ever personally planted and successfully grown was sugar snap peas the first year we lived in Minnesota.  I only did that so I could talk garden talk with my new crunchy midwestern friends.  My Kenyan garden however, was here by my house when we moved in and it is tended by a gardener that works here three days a week.  Points for life in Kenya.

This week in church we sang the song Great is Thy Faithfulness.  The second verse talks about God's faithfulness through "summer and winter and springtime and harvest."  I smiled to myself as I sang about seasons in an almost seasonless place.

We have certainly gone through seasons here though:

The homeschooling season.
It is comparable to a severe Minnesota winter.  You are trapped inside day after day with all of your children and digging deep for creativity and a positive attitude.

Harper and Charley in history class

The culture shock season.
This season involved vivid dreams of Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits and cheeseburgers.  It began to resolve when Will said to me in a stern voice, "You have got to stop talking about chicken biscuits."

Hayden and her homemade pop tarts this Christmas.  Now I need to get her to make me a chicken biscuit.

The pregnancy season.
This one keeps coming back around.  If you know a urologist that is interested in volunteering at a mission hospital in Kenya please give him our contact information.  This is not a joke.

This baby is cute though...
Emery Laura, 7 months old

The "we've got this" season.
We have had blurbs of time when we think we are adjusted.  But right before we get too big for our britches this season comes to an end... usually taken over by the homeschooling season, or the pregnancy season, or the culture shock season.

We all went to the wedding of Felix our gardener.  One of my best memories... particularly Will in his gourd shirt.

Felix is the man in the middle

Joyce and Harper

These words of the song in church sunk in though. "Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed Thy hand has provided."

New mercies I see... I want to say that each day I wake up with this perspective.  But some days I am bogged down in day-to-day challenges... survival of potty-training, slow internet, disobedient children, unfamiliar cultural situations, loneliness, broken appliances, and water-stained clothes.  And on those days I long for relief, for a get-away, for an easy button, for mercy!

But there are also many days when my eyes are open to the mercies around me.  One afternoon the week before Christmas, Will took me up to the hospital to sit with him in his clinic.  Patient after patient came in looking for good news from their neurosurgeon, looking for mercy.

There was a young girl that came in with her 2 year old daughter, Joy.  One side of little Joy's face had paralysis.  Will looked at her scans and it was not good.  She had a tumor deep in her brain that was too difficult to remove.  Even if surgery was favorable, her momma did not have healthcare coverage or the money to pay for her baby's care.  I sat and watched Will explain in Kiswahili to this young momma her baby's medical situation.  He then called in his Kenyan colleague to re-explain to make sure that she was understanding.  I was in tears as this mother, who had a little girl the same age as Nora, listened to the very news that I'm sure she had feared she would receive that day.

Waking up each day to healthy, living children is mercy.

The hope of heaven for baby Joy is mercy.

The opportunity for Joy's momma to see a neurosurgeon in rural Kenya and hear about the hope of Jesus, even in what may seem like a hopeless situation, is mercy.

I went home and hugged my messy two-year old a bit tighter.

Nora Ellis, 2 years old

I begin language school this week.  Will, the achiever that he is, completed 3 months of language school shortly after we arrived in Kenya.  I began with him and promptly dropped out.  It was too much for me at the time.  But I've carried this label of language school drop-out long enough.

The truth... I fear failure.  What if I am never able to speak the language here? I am motivated however, because I'm ready to speak with and understand the old woman that comes to my door every week.  I'm ready to speak with the workers in our home using their own language.  I'm ready for deeper relationships with my Kenyan neighbors.

But what if I can't clear enough space in my brain?  I've barely cleared enough space to fit 5th grade math back in.

Mercy.

On vacation near Lake Naivasha on New Years Eve.  A welcome break from 5th grade math. 

Thank you to all of you that pray for Kenya, for Tenwek Mission Hospital, and for our family.  We cherish your support and encouragement!  Please continue to pray, specifically that we will have stamina and that we will trust in God's provision.  We will pray the same for you.

It's Been A Year!?

Alright, no gory pictures this time. This past weekend we celebrated our second Thanksgiving here (we don't actually celebrate on Thursday since it's not a Kenyan holiday)...Turkey Trot 5K, big lunch with the other missionaries, afternoon of football, evening of pies and a movie.  I've been reflecting on the past year and find myself so grateful, echoing the words of King David in Psalm 86, "I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever." So instead of telling you about another panga attack, I want to share just a few of the highlights from the past year, in the hope that you can catch a glimpse of what God has been doing here at Tenwek. There are several neurosurgeons who have visited Tenwek previously and helped lay a crucial foundation for neurosurgical care here, but prior to our arrival last September, Tenwek had never had a full time neurosurgeon.  Word is getting out and this first year alone there were over 500 patients admitted to the neurosurgical service, with an additional 150 patients consulted on.  Of the nearly 350 operations performed, the majority were of an urgent or emergent nature wherein significant delay would have likely resulted in neurologic compromise or death. There is a neuro team forming and we now have two dedicated neurosurgical OR nurses.  Prior to them I would have to run around each morning preparing everything for my cases and was mentally exhausted before even starting a case.  Now they're learning the nuances of what we need and are often reminding me of things I'm forgetting.  I've also acquired a right-hand man at the hospital, a clinical officer (similar to a physician assistant in the States) that helps me see patients in the clinic, triages consults, and scrubs with me in the operating room.  And while not strictly neuro, there is a physical therapist and clinic nurse, who have been instrumental in helping us expand our services for children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida.  I cannot speak highly enough of these five individuals.  Their hard work and commitment to our patients has been such a blessing to me.

Our neuro team during a visit this summer to Uganda where we learned how to better care for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus My clinical officer and I with one of our patients I am in the process of renovating Tenwek’s oldest operating room to allow it to function as the neurosurgical OR.  It had largely become neglected and mostly only used for minor cases, but just last week we removed a large brain tumor, clipped a ruptured aneurysm, and did a craniotomy for someone with face pain.  Not bad for a room with only one intermittently working surgical light (we still have some things to replace).  There have been numerous companies, more than I can name here, that have been generous and donated so much of the equipment that is allowing me to do these kinds of cases that previously I wasn't able to do. I’ve also been able to network with a few other neurosurgeons in the country.  Just this week there are two from Nairobi coming to visit Tenwek to discuss the possibility of having their residents rotate here and spend time with me next year.  After their visit we will travel together to a neurosurgical society meeting on the coast where I have a scheduled lecture, followed by a trip to Mozambique where I will give another presentation and take an exam to officially join the ranks of accredited neurosurgeons in Kenya.  The OR prior to beginning renovation A picture of the OR this past week.  We've still got some things to fix but we're making progress. It’s taking time but we feel we are making meaningful relationships in our community.  Alisa is carrying on a women’s ministry that was so dear to her during our time in Rochester, a Bible study called Side by Side that is designed to encourage wives of the doctors here in their medical marriages.  I have been in charge of organizing our weekly Bible study with the surgical residents this past year.  Discipling those young men and women to use their training as surgeons to serve others and glorify God is one of the aspects of my work here that I most treasure. Our community threw Emery Chepkemoi a Kipsigis baby shower, one of the most touching times we've had this past year. We recently took a group of the residents to paint classrooms in one of the local children's homes Our Wednesday night study with the residents Lastly, there’s been so many of you who have supported us in various ways. We really see this as your coming alongside us and participating in the work here...be it through acquiring hospital supplies, sending care packages, random emails to say hi, praying for our family, financial support...even coming to visit!  Your love and encouragement mean more than you know. Dr. Brett Dietze, neurosurgeon from Texarkana, TX, and the official Friends of Tenwek Champion of Neurosurgery Dr. Rod Rozario (far left), neurosurgeon from Bangor, ME, and Mr. Tim Odell (far right), neurosurgical physician assistant from Spartanburg, SC Necon and Jeni Warrior, friends of ours since high school, and their 3 kids, Lydia, Levi, and Isaac Team Mayo - Drs. Andy Foy (pediatric neurosurgeon actually from the Medical College of Wisconsin but trained at Mayo) and Michelle Clarke, spine neurosurgeon from Mayo, along with Mr. Aaron Mueller, spine rep extraordinaire and his wife Kelly Dr. Avital Perry, good friend and former co-resident at Mayo My parents Billy and Sandy Copeland, and grandparents Warlick and JoAnn Thomas Alisa's parents Dean and Laura Wright Alisa's sister Jenni Bills As we begin this second year at Tenwek, we recognize even more the importance of supporters like you.  Please continue to keep our family in your prayers...and keep those random emails coming. As you consider your end-of-the-year giving and plan for next year, please consider the work here at Tenwek.  For details on how to give monthly or with with a one-time gift, visit www.samaritanspurse/wmmgiving and follow the prompts. Thanks again for partnering with us this first year in Kenya. Will Celebrating Alisa's 35th birthday

Where are the locking caps?!

Flossy came into casualty paralyzed.  She had been assaulted and the CT scan of her neck confirmed a severe dislocation of her spine that had resulted in a spinal cord injury.

Sixteen hours after we placed her in cervical traction, her spine had realigned.  We were then able to take her to the operating room to perform a spine fusion, which uses screws and rods to hold the spine together while it heals.  One of the big differences between practicing in Kenya as opposed to the US is the fact that I am keenly aware of my finite amount of resources here.  With every spine fusion I do I try to carefully discern what the minimum number of screws is that I can use and still provide the best care for my patient.  And I try to keep an accurate inventory of how many screws and other necessary implants I have left.  I'd decided I would use six screws for Flossy's case and then after surgery leave her in a neck brace while she recovered.   Well, I hadn't done such a good job of keeping an accurate inventory.  Here I was in surgery, feeling good about the six screws I'd just put in, and about ready to finish the case and get on with my Saturday.  After you've placed your screws and put in the rods that connect those screws, you have to put in what are called locking caps, one for each screw, to keep the rods in place.  I knew I was running low on those, but for some reason I'd thought I had at least enough of them to finish this case; it was only six screws after all.  So you know I felt like an idiot when I opened the lid to the locking caps and saw only three sitting there.  I rummuged through the rest of the set, thinking surely they'd been misplaced, but I couldn't find any.  I had already begun to strategize how I could most effectively use those three caps when suddenly I remembered that Alisa had told me the day before that a newly arrived visitor to Tenwek had dropped off a package at our house with some supplies.  I had told some people back in the US of my locking cap shortage and was expecting some spine equipment to be arriving soon so I quickly unscrubbed from the case and ran home to see if this package had what I needed.  It was like Christmas morning when I tore the box open and sitting there in a Ziploc bag were over a dozen locking caps!  Still out of breath, I made the run back up to the hospital, scrubbed in, and finished Flossy's case.

Flossy's X-rays after surgery showing realignment of her spine, with the rods and screws holding things in place.

Dr. Al Rhoton was one of the most influential figures the world of neurosurgery has ever known; you'd be hard-pressed to find a neurosurgeon anywhere who doesn't know the significance of his efforts.  He used to say that if God had come to earth and had told him as a young man, "Al, today a boy is being born who is going to develop a brain tumor that will cause him to become deaf, then unable to walk, and ultimately this tumor will take his life.  However, if you go through 12 years of schooling, then 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 7 years of residency, sit through countless exams, sacrifice time with family and friends, at the end of all those grueling years you at last will become a neurosurgeon.  Yet all that time and studying will be not for the sake of saving the lives of thousands, but that of only this single boy.  Would the sacrifice be worth it?"  And Dr. Rhoton always said with conviction, "Of course it would." Jesus tells a somewhat similar set of stories.  The first recalls a shepherd who had 100 sheep.  One day he discovered that one was lost so he left the 99 and went after the one until he found it.  And when he found it and returned home, he called his friends and neighbors, saying "Celebrate with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!"  The second story tells of a woman who had ten silver coins but lost one.  She lit a lamp and swept the whole house and searched carefully until she found it.  And when she'd found it, she called her friends and neighbors, saying "Celebrate with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!" Neither of these stories likely resonates with you much.  I'm no shepherd, and shoot, if I'm sweeping my house and come across a coin, I'm likely to just add it to the pile and throw it in the trash.  Certainly I'm not shouting from the rooftop that I found it.  But I bet most of us can feel the emotion in the third story Jesus told. There was a father who had two sons.  After what must have been years of tension with his father, the younger son had had enough and requested his half of the inheritance.  He figured he was better off on his own.  So he took his money and left to indulge himself, but quickly squandered everything he had.  A severe famine came to the land and the son hired himself out to feed a man's pigs their slop and soon found himself longing to eat with the pigs.  Jesus said, "But when he came to his senses, the son said, 'How many of my father's workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will return to my father and say to him, 'I have wronged heaven and you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Make me like one of your hired workers."  So the son returned to his father, fully expecting a public reprimand at best, a door slammed in his face at worst.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.  He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  And the father called together all his servants and held a feast, saying 'This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is now found.' When I read this story and think about my relationship with my son Liam coming to the point where he walks out of my house in haste, disgusted with me, to go at life on his own, my stomach goes in knots.  What it would feel like to wonder if I'd ever see him again, if we'd ever speak.  And to think about him suffering alone in the world, realizing the effects of his decisions but doubting that he could come home, again makes me pang.  But how quickly I too would run out my front door at the first sight of his return.  No matter what he'd done, no matter what he'd said, I would want him to know that I loved him and forgave him.  Of course in this story the father represents God.  And the way that father felt about his son is the way God feels about me, who has been that indulgent son, and who too often still tries to sneak out the back door.  And it's how he feels about you.  And it's how he feels about the people coming here to Tenwek in need, many of whom find themselve at a place in life where they are with the pigs so to speak. Just like I dropped what I was doing, scrubbed out of my case, and went running home to search for a locking cap, so God pursues us.  And just like that father who went running to greet his repentant son, God eagerly awaits us to turn to Him.  Some people critique medical missions, fretting that it's not realevangelism, or suggesting that it's a waste of time and resources when there will always be countless people to be treated.  But like Dr. Rhoton, if all my studying, if all my training, if all my efforts here at Tenwek, no matter how many the years, were only for the sake of treating one person who might come to understand God's love for them and His desire to give them life to the fullest, my response would be the same..."Of course it was worth it."

Flossy on the day of her discharge.  It was nothing short of miraculous.  She was walking the halls without help, feeding herself, and waving;)

Work at the hospital continues to be fulfilling.  On March 14th, the nationwide doctors strike ended...after 100 days.  Fortunately, the hospital census and my work load has become more manageable as a result.   And after she made us wait a few extra days, we finally welcomed another little girl into the world last week...Emery Laura Chepkemoi Copeland, born May 24th.  We will call her Emery, but our Kenyan friends are already lovingly calling her by her Kipsigis name, Chepkemoi.  I'm so proud of my superwoman wife.  Alisa walked up the hill to the hospital in labor, birthed a kid at 11:03pm, then walked back down the hill and was in our bed by 12:45am.  She and Emery are both doing well.  If only I could say the same for Nora who has been dealt the harsh reality that she's no longer the baby of the family. Thanks to the many of you who support us in various ways, including those individuals and companies who so generously provide equipment and supplies for the hospital.  I hope Flossy's story is a tangible example of what a real difference it makes. Will