Happy Birthday to Kijabe Hospital
This week Kijabe Hospital celebrated its 110th anniversary. Arianna was invited to give a speech at the celebration, speaking on behalf of the Kijabe missionary community and as director of director, I think you’ll enjoy reading it:
Good morning everyone. Praise God and happy birthday!
I have been in Kijabe for over 10 years – my first full year in Kijabe was the centennial celebration and we dove deep into the history together – of xray equipment lost on another continent as it tried to make it to Kijabe and a surgeon humbly laying the floors of the operating theaters with special fire-proof tiles before he operated. . .stories of the first nursing students who became our tutors, of a lab tech trained here who became a chaplain, of the first KRNAs (Kenya Registered Nurse Anesthetists and first COSECSA (College of Surgeons of East and Central Africa) and PAACS (PanAfrican Academy of Christian Surgeons) residents (who now lead many of our departments) the list of firsts goes on and on.
I have been fortunate be part of the team for some more firsts – the first 500 gm baby to go home, the first child receiving chemotherapy, the first multidisciplinary developmental clinic in the country, the first ECCCO students and peccco students, the first hospital to discharge from the bedside. . .
I was asked to speak today for myself, but also for the missionaries, for all of us that have come from quite far away. When I came in 2013 for 3 weeks and met Ima and Sarah and Bob and Lilian, all I could think was that I could only hope to be a part of this team in this place, to be able to care for the sick and the vulnerable, pray for the ones that God brought into our path every day to work alongside them and learn from them every step of the way . . .to have the ability to openly and completely care for the body and the soul and to strive every day to do better than the day before.
People come to visit Kijabe from around the world and find something here that they are amazed exists – a community of believers committed to impacting lives for Christ, privileged to bear the weight of the motto “health care to God’s glory”. . .and like me are grateful to call this place home and be a small part of the big story Kijabe is weaving in the wider tapestry of the Gospel.
I have moved in and out of many parts of the hospital in my decade here, and now I get to be part of the story of Education – every year Kijabe sends graduates out all over the country – and all over the world, to 17 countries and counting. Every day the program directors and tutors and staff sit and they puzzle. They strive and they innovate, they push and they design. As we have our eyes forward, we are continuing to do one more deeply needed thing – we are praying, student by student, class by class, name by name – that every patient and every student would leave Kijabe fundamentally changed – more aware of the good news, of the love that Christ poured out on the world, and able to be His hands and feet in a world that so desperately needs him . . .
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of our partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6 NIV
Happy birthday Kijabe – may we have many many more!
Meeting with the principal secretary for Health in Kenya and Kijabe Hospital board members.
During the ceremony with David Ng’anga. His mother Mercy started working at Kijabe in the early 1970’s and ran the pediatric chaplaincy program for many years, now David is head of Bethany Kids Kenya.
Video from the hospital team about the celebration – I make an appearance around the 3 minute mark.