Over the course of our 15 years serving at Tenwek Hospital there
have been some individuals who are recognized to be “giants” among those who
have served here. These individuals are testaments to what God can accomplish
through dedicated, obedient servants.
Some of these servants we have worked alongside, and some we have only
read and heard about. It’s impossible to talk about Tenwek Hospital without
mentioning the contributions of some of these special individuals.
Ernie Steury MD – Dr. Steury was born in Indiana in 1935. He
attended medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine and graduated
in 1953. He was initially trained in general practice and after marrying his
wife Sue, they joined the Africa Inland Mission in 1959. They went to work in a
rural medical outpost near Bomet Kenya, and with an RN who was already
stationed there, Dr. Steury began providing medical services in an area where
very little care had been previously available.
He quickly discovered that he needed additional training in surgery as
well as OB/GYN, pediatrics, and tropical medicine. During the course of his
service, he returned to the US for some additional surgical and family medicine
training, then returned to Kenya. The medical outpost where he was serving was
called Tenwek, and he and his few staff provided an extensive array of medical services
to the local tribes (primarily Kipsigis and Maasai, and to a lesser extent
Kissi and Luo). He was a dedicated Christian missionary and in addition to
providing medical care, he was known to evangelize and provide spiritual care
as well. It was his intention, that none
should pass through Tenwek without also hearing about Jesus. His initial
service required extraordinary effort and dedication – he lacked electricity
and thus would have to operate at night by candlelight or kerosene lamps. He
and his staff faced additional dangers as they were sometimes caught up in the
middle of tribal disputes and warfare. In 1996 a book was written by Gregg
Lewis about Dr. Steury and the remarkable struggles, stories, miraculous recoveries,
and divine interventions which he witnessed. The book was called “Miracle at
Tenwek” and provides some fascinating stories and descriptions of life in rural
Africa during that time. He and his wife remained faithful to this calling
until he developed a malignancy of the brain which necessitated his return to
the U.S. He died in 2002. At the time of his passing, the hospital had grown to
260 beds and had developed a reputation as one of the most outstanding mission
hospitals in Kenya. Additionally, the Ernie Steury school of nursing was opened
in 1999 and had begun to train and equip Kenyans to provide much needed
services to their fellow Kenyans. In 2003 the Steury memorial primary school
was opened in nearby Bomet to commemorate his faithful service to the area. Upon
our first visit to Tenwek Hospital in 2010, evidence of this one man’s faithful
service could be seen everywhere we looked.
Dr. David Stevens- Dr. Stevens earned his medical degree at
the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He trained in family medicine
and in 1981 began his medical missionary career at Tenwek Hospital. He served
there with Dr Steury until 1991 and during that time oversaw growth and
expansion of medical and surgical training programs, hospital and
infrastructure expansion, and development of community health programs. One of
his infrastructure assignments was to oversee the development of a
hydroelectric plant utilizing the local Mara River and its waterfall as a
reliable source of energy. This project was completed in 1986 and subsequently
expanded to double its capacity in 2017. During one of our stays, we had the
opportunity to meet and hear stories from the original engineer who worked on
the project with Dr. Stevens. It was originally planned that Dr. Stevens would
take over for Dr. Steury at some point, but God had other plans for him (Dr.
Stevens). In 1991 he accepted an offer to become director of World Medical
Missions which is the mission arm of Samaritan’s Purse. This is the sending
organization that we work with when volunteering at Tenwek Hospital. In 1994
Dr. Stevens became the CEO of CMDA and served until 2004. He was replaced in
2004 by Dr. Mike Chupp, another long-term missionary from Tenwek Hospital that
we have had the privilege to know and work with. Dr. Stevens is the author of two
books: “Jesus M.D.” and “Beyond Medicine.”
He is currently speaking on issues of faith and conscience, as well as
advocating for ethical positions on abortion, euthanasia, and transgender
topics. He continues to have a passion for international medical missions.
Dr. Mike Chupp – served at Tenwek Hospital from 1996 to 2016.
Dr. Chupp received his medical training at the University of Indiana School of
medicine, and his surgical residency at Methodist Hospital of Indiana. In 1996
he began his service as a medical missionary at Tenwek Hospital and completed
his time there in 2016. While at Tenwek, he served as a general surgeon, trauma
surgeon and later oversaw the early development of the orthopedic program. He
was instrumental in helping to train medical students, clinical officers,
interns, and residents. He was later the chief medical officer, and presided
over further expansion of the hospital, its services, and training programs. He
left the mission field in 2016 and later replaced Dr. David Stevens as CEO of
CMDA in 2019.
Barbara Pinkley R.N. – Barbara is a long-term medical
missionary who served at Tenwek Hospital for over 39 years. She grew up as a
missionary kid along the Mexican border. She was inspired in her missionary
career by Dr. Ernie Steury. She began her service at Tenwek in 1979 and retired
in 2018. During her years at Tenwek, she served as a nurse, a nurse midwife,
and in later years primarily as a nursing educator and mentor. She also played a big role in developing and
overseeing the Tenwek College of Health Sciences, which continues to produce a
new class of nursing students each year.
During her time at Tenwek, she was known to host a weekly Sunday brunch
for all visiting staff as well as the occasional noon luncheon in her home. Marilyn
and I have fond memories of times spent gathered around her small table,
sharing our personal stories with other visiting staff, and enjoying her Sunday
morning homemade Danish pastry. On each occasion, she would share a scripture
passage with the group, ask us to share what we were thankful for, and have us
sign her visitor book so she could stay connected with us and pray for us after
our departure. After retirement, Barbara returned to Marion Indiana to live
near her beloved World Gospel Mission headquarters and has continued to serve
others. She has been teaching virtually “English as a second language” to
students in various non-English speaking countries throughout Central America
and Asia. I’m sure that in addition to language skills, they are also receiving
the Gospel message! We had the chance to
visit Barbara in her retirement in Indiana and bring her some of her cherished
belongings from Kenya. As frequent visitors, we have often served as couriers
for the long-term missionaries – either bringing needed items to them in Kenya
or transporting home to the U.S. some of their belongings. In her retirement,
she maintains the same welcoming smile, the same warmth, concern, and joy that
we have come to associate with her over the years.
Dr. Russ White – born to medical missionary parents serving
in Congo, he later attended medical school at the University of Michigan,
received general surgical training at Brown University, then completed a
cardiothoracic fellowship in Bristol England. He came to Tenwek Hospital in
1997 and has been instrumental in caring for patients with esophageal cancer (which
occurs with a very high frequency in this part of Kenya) and rheumatic heart
disease (which also has a very high incidence in Kenya). He assisted in the development of the general
surgery residency program and also was responsible for the creation of a
cardiothoracic surgery training program – the first of its kind in Kenya. Through
his influence and connections, he has also brought many cardiac surgery teams
from the U.S. to serve at Tenwek for short periods of time. While we have been
here this month, we have had the opportunity to serve alongside a team of
pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, critical care nurses,
perfusionists, and pediatric anesthesiologists from Vanderbilt University. Many
such teams have come and gone over our years of serving at Tenwek. The crowning
achievement of Dr. White’s career will likely be the development of the Cardiothoracic
Center at Tenwek, which was just completed and dedicated in October 2024. The CTC,
as it is known, is scheduled to see its first cardiac surgical patient next
week. This is the largest hospital of its kind in Sub Saharan Africa and has
added approximately 176 hospital beds, 39 ICU beds, state-of-the-art cardiac
cath lab equipment, and six operating theaters. Marilyn and I had the
opportunity to tour the hospital last week and were “wowed” by the scope and
enormity of the project. We can report that it would be considered “state of
the art” in the U.S, and any western or European country – it is truly a
magnificent facility and hopefully will provide much needed cardiac surgery for
patients throughout the continent of Africa. This hospital has been a joint
partnership between Tenwek Hospital, Samaritan’s Purse, and numerous other
philanthropic donors and supporters (including the 2018 L’Chaim Prize for
Outstanding Christian Medical service– an annual prize of $500,000 awarded through
the African Mission Healthcare organization to Christian doctors serving
throughout Africa). The progress that we have witnessed in this area over the
last 15 years has been truly astounding. Dr. White continues to serve at Tenwek
and has presided over the training of many outstanding Kenyan physicians, who
will become the future of this program.
Dr. Agneta Odera- Dr Odera is one of these outstanding
Kenyan physicians. She obtained her general surgical training at Tenwek Hospital
and graduated from her residency in 2012. She has subsequently received
additional training in pediatric surgery, and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery
and is now one of two physicians leading the team at the new Cardiothoracic
Center at Tenwek. She plans some additional training over the next year in New
Zealand. Dr. Odera has been one of the most inspiring graduates of Tenwek’s
training program. Marilyn has observed her on many occasions in the middle of
the night while up delivering babies – she is often seen sitting vigil at a
critically ill patient’s bedside following cardiac surgery and may be up all
night making minute by minute adjustments to their care. She is compassionate,
caring, and dedicated and exhibits the love of Christ in caring for all her
patients.
Dr. Elijah Terer – Dr. Terer is another exemplary Kenyan
physician who stands out among his peers from Tenwek Hospital. Dr. Terer has
been through multiple training programs at Tenwek. He has been trained as a
nurse, a clinical officer (similar to a physician assistant), a medical officer
(general medical doctor), and lastly has been through a family medicine
residency program. Marilyn describes him as being the “ultimate Kenyan
physician” – kind, compassionate, knowledgeable about the nuances of the
culture, and beloved by his patients. He has risen from humble beginnings and recently
moved into the CEO position at another nearby hospital in Litein. Under his
leadership, Litein Hospital is expanding, has recently partnered with
Samaritan’s Purse, and has begun to develop training programs for general
surgery and family medicine residents. He is also passionate about mental
health problems, and wellness education.
His vision for Litein is to develop an outpatient and inpatient facility
for mental health disorders (which would be the only such facility in this
region of the country). In addition, he plans to expand community education and
wellness programs to help patients better understand how to remain well and
healthy. This is an ambitious plan, but one that I can see him bringing to
fruition in the future. Marilyn and I recently visited Dr. Terer and toured his
hospital this past week – his energy and enthusiasm are contagious, and we
found ourselves wondering how we might help him achieve his goals (even
transiently thinking about coming back to serve!). The current status of his
hospital reminds us very much of what Tenwek looked like when we first started
visiting in 2010. We look forward to seeing what “miracles” might be in store
for Litein Hospital.
Dr. Matilda Ong’ondi- Dr. Ong’ondi is an internal medicine
physician that I had the pleasure of working with on our first trip to Kenya. She
is a wonderful physician of deep personal faith who mentored me and helped me
“survive” that first venture into medical care in Africa. She was the director
of the inpatient medical service at the time but had dreams of specializing in
hematology and oncology. Her caring manner, and practice of praying with
patients and their families at the bedside endeared her to many of the staff
(and visiting staff), students, and patients. On my second trip to Tenwek I was
disappointed to find that she had transferred to Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi
(one of Kenya’s national hospitals) and was developing a program for hematology
and oncology patients. In exchange for financial assistance with additional
training, she pledged to return and head their hematology/oncology service. During
one of our subsequent visits to Tenwek, Dr. Ong’ondi “just happened” to stop by
when returning to the area to visit her mother. She came into the OB area to
visit one of the long-term missionaries and encountered Marilyn. While talking
together, it was discovered that Dr. Ong’ondi was planning a trip to Texas for
an observer-ship position at the Health Science Center in San Antonio and was
going home to tell her mother goodbye. On further questioning it became clear
that she was leaving for SA in 2 weeks, had no arrangements for a place to
stay, and no local contacts other than the program director at the Health
Science Center. We were also due to leave in about 2 weeks and discovered that
she would be arriving in SA one day before our own return. At this point
Marilyn informed Dr. Ong’ondi that she would be staying with us (for 10 weeks)
and that we would arrange for someone to pick her up and get her settled into
our home before our return the following day. Thus began one of our most precious
friendships with one of the local Kenyan physicians. Matilda quickly became
like family – she participated in our weekly CMDA bible studies, attended our
weekly family dinners on Sunday nights, and spent many weekends at our hill country
home in Fredericksburg. Since that time, we have made a special effort to touch base with her in Nairobi
during any return visits to Kenya and Tenwek Hospital. Our most recent visit
was 2 weeks ago, and we immediately felt like no time had passed since we had
last been together. This will likely be one of the most difficult aspects of
not returning to Kenya in the years ahead. We will miss our dear sister in Christ
but know that we will someday be together again – either in this life, or the
one to come.
Dr. Cheryl Cowles and reverend Dean Cowles – Dr. Cowles is
an obstetrician/gynecologist, and her husband Dean is a pastor, Tenwek
ambassador, and fund-raiser extraordinaire. Cheryl and Dean initially served at
Tenwek from 1990-1992. In 1991 Dean was instrumental in developing the
Chaplaincy Training School. The school trained chaplains to serve in the
clinics, hospital, and prisons throughout Kenya. His goal was to place
chaplains “at the bedside and beyond.”
Tenwek still has an active chaplaincy program today, and they are very
helpful in assisting families through stress and grieving. They are on call 24/7 and have been called
many times in the middle of the night to accompany me during family counseling
after a death. After returning to the U.S. and entering private practice from
1996-2015, Cheryl and Dean felt the call to return to Kenya and Tenwek Hospital.
Tenwek was in the process of developing an OB/GYN residency program, and
Cheryl’s help was needed with this effort. Since their return in 2015, the
OB/GYN residency has been approved by PAACS (The Pan African Academy of
Christian Surgeons), and they are currently about to graduate their first group
of residents. Cheryl has been assisted in her efforts by two other US
physicians and long-term missionaries – Dr. Meghan Steen and Dr. Mozelle Stark (as
well as several short-term volunteers like Marilyn). The goal is to graduate
“40 by 40” (40 residents by 2040)…an ambitious goal, but one that appears to be
on track! Cheryl and Dean have become dear friends over the years – we have
shared many meals with them in their home in Kenya, and Dean has visited San
Antonio, stayed at our home, and spoken at our church and with our local CMDA
leaders. In addition, we have visited the Maasai Mara game reserve together and
viewed many of God’s magnificent creatures during “game drives.” Their hearts are devoted to Jesus and the
Kenyan people, and they have been a big part of our continued service at
Tenwek.
The Kenyan People associated with Tenwek Hospital – lastly,
but not least, are the Kenyan people themselves. They are such a lovely group
of people – quiet, soft spoken, gentle, welcoming, loving, and faith-filled are
some of the descriptors which come to mind. They are quick to smile, which
lights up their entire face, and they are always welcoming and grateful. It is
truly a joy to visit them, work beside them, and care for them when they are
ill. It will be difficult to leave here and not expect to return – they have so
endeared themselves to us over the years…they truly have become “brothers and
sisters” in the faith. There are so many that I cannot begin to list them all
here, but they have coordinated our visits, provided shelter and prepared meals,
cared for our laundry needs, driven us to and from various places that we have
needed to go, grown and procured our food, cared for us spiritually, and always
buoyed our spirits with their smiles and optimism. They will never be forgotten and will always
be near to our hearts and in our prayers. Mungu akubariki (God bless you in
Swahili)
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| Drs. Russ White and Agneta Odera |
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| Dr. Ernie Steury and wife Sue |
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| Dr. David Stevens |
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| Dr. Mike Chupp |
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| Barbara Pinkley R.N. |
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| Dr. Matilda Ong'ondi |
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| Dr. Elijah Terer |
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| Dr. Cheryl Cowles and Rev. Dean Cowles |
