A friend visiting Kijabe for the first time recently asked me, “What do you need?”   I know what he meant – do I need a day off, or a new devotional study?  I thought for a long while and realized that what I need most is not anything for me, it is for my guest to come to know and love Kijabe as I do.  To see the mighty work the Lord is doing, the hope and healing, and brutally hard but unbelievably rewarding work our staff undertakes every day – to love what I love would be the greatest gift imaginable.  

     AIC Kijabe has so many reasons to be grateful.  We have have resources and infrastructure that are not available at most locations in Africa.  Excellent water and power, fantastic staff, experienced leadership, wonderful partner organizations, stable government, a long dreamed-for road that is nearly completed.  All rich blessings.  

     On the other hand, we need so much more – a medical gases plant so we can expand HDU and ICU care, a housing complex so we can provide a beautiful home for trainees and visiting doctors to live together, a well-equipped kitchen, renovated private ward, new maternity HDU, radiography printing machine, portable ultrasound and x-ray machines. . .the list of current projects and needs.  And we do need this infrastructure and equipment if we are to reach a goal of providing world-class patient care and make the hospital sustainable as we care for the poor and vulnerable.  

     Yes, all these needs are vital, but I think they are secondary to our most essential need – people.

     As I realized with my friend, we need our visitors, friends, partners, and patients to come, see, and believe in the wonderful things the Lord is doing at AIC Kijabe Hospital.  We need an ever-growing group of champions who will pray with us, work with us, and hold us up.  It is the relationships forged over the last 101 years – from patients to presidents – that have made AIC Kijabe great.  And we know that as we move forward, if our friends stand with us and the Lord’s favor is upon us, nothing is impossible.  

     So thank you, for taking a moment to read, to pray, and to join us in changing the world!  

David Shirk, Friends of Kijabe