September 2000

Dear Friend,

A large part of this year has been spent in the United States. We have built hospitals on two continents and a home in Africa, but building a home in Montreat, North Carolina, seemed to get an inordinate amount of our attention. During this period we were delighted to see the seasons

come and go. There is no fall, spring, winter and summer in equatorial Africa. In addition, we were out roaming the mountains regularly, visiting and speaking in churches, welcoming two more grandchildren into the world and helping two of our children with relocating moves.

Now we have returned to our field of service, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa’s church hospital called Kikuyu and the new Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Center. Mia is consulting and training in dermatology, with the goal of establishing a clinic staffed by a competent clinical

officer for ongoing care of patients with skin disease. Stan’s effort is to assist wherever needed in the work among crippled children and adults. At present, this consists of filling in for Dr. Murila, the director of rehabilitation and orthopaedic surgeon. Dr. Murila has been without regular vacation for a couple of years, going at high speed, so we are glad to shoulder the clinical and surgical load for the next couple of months. This will also allow Dr. Murila to attend a couple of instructional courses in the Minneapolis area.

At present, our plan is to return to the United States in November, returning once again to Kenya at the end of March. Though our circumstances and the demands of life are so very different in Africa and North America, we feel good and in the right place in either context.

Kenya is in the throes of a drought that has gone on for over a year, with 13 million people severely affected. Power rationing disrupts all of industry, to say nothing of hospital operation. Twenty-two thousand government workers and many thousands of teachers are being laid off their jobs by the government. Many others are losing work in a society that already was hard pressed. All of this stress has only reinforced our impression of the resilience of our African brothers and sisters. Their faith in God is wonderful, and it is a privilege to stand beside them in times like this. Please join us in prayers for these needs.

I have included a narrative to help you picture the challenge and opportunity God is giving the Kikuyu Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Center.

Six dusty Pokot

I had been back in harness at the Orthopaedic Rehab Center for a week. The Monday clinic was going at speed, with usually two and often four demands in tow at any given time. Looking up, through the door walks our old friend, the Scottish missionary Georgie Orme. With a smile and quick greeting, her first question was, "Can anyone around here speak Pokot?" This brought a laugh from all staff within earshot, such as asking if we had a speaker of classical Greek "Neither can I," she said, "but I have four children and two mothers with me. Swahali and Masaai don’t work and we are having a tough time."

Georgie, a freckled nurse with an even mix of gray and red hair, is an old timer to Kenya under the Africa Inland Mission. This lady represents a host of people that we as Presbyterians in mission are networking with. They represent a variety of organizations including the Anglican, Catholic, Salvation Army, Christoffer Blinden Mission, International Red Cross, and Coptic Church. The Lord God has many hands to do his work. Remember that these include yours.

The six Pokot were picked up by Miss Ormes earlier the same day at the roadside for the four-hour journey to the center. The Pokot are a smaller tribe of herders who raise cattle in the semi-desert country roughly halfway between Mount Kenya and Lake Turkana. Water is a rare commodity and all six were covered in dust—body, clothing and jewelry—but very much at peace with themselves. The children all proved to be stricken with cerebral palsy. Eliciting help from the physical therapists, we determined that five-year-old Posio could with great difficulty walk a short distance on his knees. Seven year old Adokel, with less contractures than his fellows, had involvement of all four limbs but could walk with a slow halting, crouched gait by holding onto his mother’s skirts. Fourteen-year-old John vaulted along with crutches, dragging along his drawn up legs. (John we found, spoke rudimentary Swahili, a key to all communication thereafter.) Apura, 10, had the most striking locomotion of all. He propelled himself along on hands and feet, facing the ceiling, with knees contracted in a 90 degree bend and arms holding his body off the floor. You and I can do this but not for much of a distance.

They were admitted to our Rehabilitation Center for treatment, Georgie putting down 1000 shillings (about $13) toward each child’s care. The first order of business was a long soak in the bathtub and scrub down. I scarcely recognized them as I walked onto the children’s ward the next day. The three who required surgery are all doing well. Adokel was able to go directly into bracing and begin training on a rolling walking frame. It will be a relatively long, tough road for all of them, not only bearing weight on straightened limbs but remodeling the motor cortex of the brain to send the right signals for locomotion. As one of our staff today said, the parents of these children will consider it a miracle.

How privileged we are to be a part of the process that brings this measure of physical restoration, dignity and a feeling of worth to children. These youngsters are otherwise little more than an embarrassment in a society where physical performance is near everything. We hope to be instruments of God’s Spirit in introducing them to that other form of walking, Walking with God.

The main thrust of the center in this its third year of operation is outreach, discovering and helping the most impoverished, isolated members of the handicapped community in Kenya. They are typically found far from the cities but our program has now begun to reach out in the slum areas of Nairobi. Here hundreds of thousands live in a shanty environment where scraps of materials form shacks that are only a few feet apart, laced by open latrine ditches, and served by a scattering of outdoor spigots for water supply. We have joined hands with other medical clinics, the Kikuyu Hospital Eye Unit, and other agencies in the battle for restoration in Jesus’s name.

The Olympics are not all in Australia these days.

God bless you richly,

Stan and Mia Topple