Visiting the hospital

Back in January I heard that some people from my church here were hoping to start up a ministry in Kenyatta National Hospital. One of the ladies is a doctor and another is the chaplain there, so they had a way in, and they wanted to gather a team together who could go and spend time with the children there, particularly those who were in the hospital on a long-term basis. The idea was to do little 'Sunday school'-type sessions with singing, a Bible story and prayers, to spend time with individuals doing colouring, reading, or similar activities, and to pray with them if they wanted that too.

I agreed to go along to the first of these, being on a Saturday when I'm free, feeling somewhat apprehensive. The hospital is huge and grey and not very appealing at all:

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Inside it is an absolute maze of corridors and staircases, very grey and not terribly clean-looking. Corridors stretch off in all directions, and without our guides we'd certainly get lost!

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The ward we go to is not so bad, it's actually decorated in a fairly child-friendly way with fun cartoon characters on the curtains and so on. It is for children with cancer, and I think it has been improved by charitable groups who have gone to help out. All the children are there long-term, which is sad but also good in terms of getting to know them and build relationships. Some of them are visited by family but others rarely have visitors so they love us coming. I've been three times now, and this time the children recognised us quickly and came for handshakes and hugs as soon as we arrived!

As I said, I was quite nervous the first time, and even though I know what to expect now, I still don't find it at all easy. You are aware that the children are seriously ill and many will not recover, and sometimes there are several who are clearly in a lot of pain. When the families are there it is so hard to know what to say, and I feel the language barrier more than I ever do normally. Having said that, many of the children are so positive and smiley despite all they are going through, and it really boosts them to have people spend time with them. Singing is great, they usually have favourites that they request such as 'My Bible and I' or 'Father Abraham' (they love it when we try to do all the actions to that one!). After we've done a story there is time for prayers, and it is amazing when these children pray out loud for each other. Here we are during a prayer time:

An important part of the time we spend there is just being with the children, playing, chatting and so on:

The second time I visited, a girl who didn't speak and only had one leg seemed to home in on me rather, and I spent a lot of time with her. She liked my scarf and she swapped it for her leso which you can see her putting on me in this picture:

She was quite demanding and I found it hard to handle her at times, especially as it was unclear to me how much or little she understood - actually I think it was more than she let on! But she very definitely wanted to be held like a baby, cuddled, even rocked - it made me wonder what she had missed out on in her early childhood. Here you can see me playing with her, tipping her back which made her laugh:

Although I do find these visits quite physically and emotionally draining, I am glad to be able to do a small thing for these lovely children. I am also gaining from watching those who are more experienced or perhaps just more gifted in this ministry and learning from them. Please pray for the children in Kenyatta National Hospital, for their families and for all those who care for them.


Most photos taken by my friend Florence - thank you!