News Archives - Friends of Tenwek

THCSHS Student Spotlights

A native of Bomet County, Dominick earned his nursing diploma from the Tenwek Hospital College School of Health Sciences (THCSHS) in 2015. His school fees were sponsored by FOT donors. He took a job at Tenwek directly after graduation and is now in his sixth year of working in the maternity department. Dominick met his wife Millicent, also a THCSHS graduate, and the two now have a three-year-old son, Ivan.

With his training and occupation, Dominick has been able to buy his mother a plot of land and pay for his siblings’ school fees. Seven years after graduating, Dominick can look back on his life and celebrate where God has brought him.

“I really don’t think I could be where I am today if I had not received the support that I needed,” Dominick said. “So my life has changed through your support.”

While Dominick’s story is certainly inspirational, so is the fact that it’s not the only one like it.

FOT donors have also supported students like Winnie. As the second-oldest of seven siblings raised by a single mother, Winnie is now a third-year nursing student realizing her dreams.

“I want to thank you all for your contribution, for the money you’ve given to me so that I can continue with my studies,” she said. “I really thank you so much.”

Kipkirui is in his third year of studying to be a clinical officer. With six months left in his studies, he is thankful for those who have helped him along the way.

“I’ve been grateful for the assistance you gave me to fulfill that dream, because it was almost lost,” Kipkirui said. “I’m seeing a bright future to further my studies because I’ve been given this chance.”

Enock is the oldest of five children raised by tea pickers in Bomet County. A second-year clinical officer student, Enock is planning to work on the orthopedic ward.

“I’m just happy to hear that supporters are going to pay my school fees,” Enock said.

Fancy, a Bomet County native, is in her third year at the College’s nursing program. She’s had to make sacrifices to reach her goals. As the oldest of eight children, Fancy lives at home with her father, a school security guard, and mother, a homemaker, to save money. Tenwek donors have eased some of her burden.

“I’m very grateful for all the helping hands to me,” Fancy said. “You stepped in and helped me realize my goal. I can see that my dream will come true.”

Dominick, Winnie, Kipkirui, Enock and Fancy have worked tirelessly to gain skills that will enable them to become excellent health care providers that can care for patients in Christ’s name. And throughout their journeys, FOT donors have been part of the story.

“Through the support, so many lives have been touched, and may God bless you,” Dominick said. “There’s nothing I can give to say thank you, but we can do the same by helping others.”

To give toward needs at the Tenwek Hospital College School of Health Sciences, click here: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E126579&id=80

Volunteer Spotlight: Dr. Erik Van Os

Dr. Erik Van Os didn’t know anything about Tenwek Hospital when he first arrived.

“I was looking for an opportunity to serve,” Dr. Van Os said. “I applied to World Medical Mission, and I told them to just send me wherever they needed me, and they sent me to this place called Tenwek Hospital, which was completely unknown to me.”

That first visit, a three-month trip in 1988 as a new Christian having just finished his internal medicine residency in San Antonio, left quite a mark on the young doctor. Working as a general medical officer, Dr. Van Os did basically everything but surgery, including caring for patients in the emergency room and maternity ward.

The graduate of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School has been back to Tenwek three times since then.

He returned for a three-week visit in 2015 with his wife, Nancy, and three children, Andrew, Peter and Elizabeth. In 2018, he went back for another three-week stint, this time with just Peter. Last year, he spent six weeks at Tenwek with Nancy, returning to their home of Colorado Springs in November.

And while many people, experiences and events at Tenwek over the years have left an impression on Dr. Van Os, one person in particular has stood out: Dr. Ernie Steury.

“I have to say my greatest memory is probably my first trip, because I had the great honor and privilege of working with Dr. Ernie Steury directly,” Dr. Van Os said. “He was the most godly, Christlike person I’ve ever met; unbelievably self-sacrificing. He’s really served as an inspiration and role model to me for the rest of my life.”

Dr. Van Os remembers a particularly impactful case during his first trip to the hospital in ’88, a situation that showed the character of Dr. Steury.

One night, a man came to the hospital with a severe head wound. Appearing disheveled and lethargic, Dr. Van Os and the other emergency room personnel assumed he was drunk. However, rather than sobering up as time went on, the patient became more sluggish.

“He was herniating in his brainstem,” Dr. Van Os said. “I thought we had to let him go – there was no intensive care unit at that time in Tenwek.”

Just to be safe, Dr. Van Os called Dr. Steury to update him on the situation. Dr. Steury was not on call for emergencies. To his surprise, Dr. Steury jumped to action as he had done so many times in his career.

“Shave his head and bring him down to the operating room,” Dr. Van Os remembers Dr. Steury saying. “I’ll meet you there.”

Although Dr. Steury wasn’t on duty at the time, he operated on the sick man anyway, flushing the large clot that had formed on his brain in order to save his life.

“I have a picture standing next to the guy two days later,” Dr. Van Os said. “A dramatic case and just highlights the versatility and skill of Dr. Steury.”

Throughout his experiences at Tenwek, Dr. Van Os has seen a common thread tying his patients together: one of humility, resolve and grace.

“Some are pretty destitute,” Dr. Van Os said. “Many patients don’t read or write – they’ll sign consent forms with a thumb print. Some don’t speak Swahili. Some don’t have shoes. They may not have more than one or two sets of clothing. It’s really humbling and really a privilege to be able to care for them.”

A few particular patients from his most recent trip represented this distinct persona.

One was a jaundiced woman with pancreatic cancer and an obstructed bile duct, who Dr. Van Os stented in order to drain her liver and resolve the jaundice.

There was also a patient who needed a bile duct stone removed and a woman with bad pancreatitis who needed stenting.

Finally, there was a seven-year-old boy who had inadvertently swallowed sulfuric acid and was suffering from severe damage to his esophagus.

“If you don’t get to that quickly, your esophagus can stricture shut and become nonfunctional,” Dr. Van Os said.

While he doesn’t see patients less than 17 years old in the United States, Dr. Van Os operated on the boy anyway and was able to dilate his esophagus to prevent it from permanently closing. This procedure was done in collaboration with his Kenyan colleagues. Their experience is invaluable in these situations and the teamwork is wonderful.

Dr. Van Os notes that many of these success stories have been made possible by Tenwek’s state-of-the-art support network.

“Tenwek is certainly an advanced hospital by mission hospital standards,” he said. “They’re really pushing the envelope in a lot of areas.”

One notable technology that Tenwek offers to its patients is ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography), a diagnostic technique used by trained gastroenterologists (like Dr. Van Os, who stayed an extra year during his fellowship at the Mayo Clinic to be trained in this technique).

“That’s a very advanced procedure,” Dr. Van Os said. “There are many hospitals in America that don’t do ERCP. It’s nice to be able to offer that to patients at a rural hospital.”

And while Dr. Van Os has been touched by the patients he’s treated at Tenwek, he’s also been inspired by the long-term missionaries he’s served alongside.

“They’re a neat group of people – very inspiring in what they’ve given up, what they’ve sacrificed, to serve in a mission field for Christ — sharing the Gospel and caring for sick people with limited resources,” he said. “First and foremost comes sharing the Gospel, and I think the missionaries understand that. And they’ve given up material success in the U.S. to serve the greater call of the Gospel.”

“They’ve left behind the opportunity to be quite wealthy and successful. They’ve forsaken that for a higher calling — to be obedient to Christ and to minister his name to the needs of people in Africa.”

Dr. Van Os is also impressed by the flexibility of Tenwek missionaries, the same type of flexibility he was forced to demonstrate when operating on the seven-year-old during his last visit.

“I’m inspired medically by the career missionary doctors, because they’re often faced with having to do things that they weren’t specifically trained to do,” Dr. Van Os said. “It takes courage and ingenuity to try to do something for a patient that you don’t have a lot of experience with – but the patients don’t have any other options.”

Dr. Van Os is also inspired by a different type of flexibility that Tenwek missionaries show — a flexibility that allows them to straddle between distinct, far-away countries and cultures.

“They’re Americans, but they don’t live in America,” he said. “They’re Americans living in Kenya. They’re not Kenyans. They’re sort of a third thing. It’s hard to know who you are sometimes.”

After retiring from practice in Colorado Springs this year, Dr. Van Os is looking forward to spending more of his time at Tenwek and places like it with Nancy, who, as an experienced seamstress, has enjoyed involvement with Threads of Hope. As he prepares for a new phase of his life, one centered on mission work, Dr. Van Os eagerly awaits the opportunities to practice medicine with the perspective he learned at Tenwek back in 1988.

“My experience back in the 80’s, I have been able to carry with me, and it really helped me to get my priorities right,” Dr. Van Os said. “I would just say when you get over to Tenwek, it’s very, very refreshing, because you’re reminded of and confronted with the reason you went into medicine in the first place – it’s focus on the pure joy of practicing medicine.”

Meet Richard Glenn – FOT’s New Ambassador

Richard Glenn has been appointed the FOT Ambassador at Tenwek Hospital. Richard and his family – wife Callie, and children Emma, Stephen, Charlotte, and William – arrived at Tenwek in January. As FOT’s on-site representative at Tenwek, he will make essential connections with U.S. physicians and welcome visitors into the FOT family.

This includes hosting visiting staff and families at the guest house and providing information and insights about ministry opportunities within the Tenwek community. Richard will work closely with Janie Leland, FOT’s Director of Development, to keep FOT’s benefactors and friends informed about the news and needs at Tenwek Hospital.

A resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, Richard and his family are eager to support Tenwek’s transformative medical and spiritual care, specifically through service with FOT. You will find him playing soccer (or football, as they call it in Kenya) with the local kids, encouraging and uplifting the staff at the hospital, and meeting and serving visiting staff and families at the Guest House. Richard will always have something in his back pocket to be able to brighten everyone’s day!

Tenwek’s New HMIS Scheduled to Go Live in March

Phase I of Tenwek Hospital’s conversion to an all-new HMIS platform is scheduled to go live in early March. After many months of intensive planning, testing, system integration, and training, the hospital will launch the system using four new servers, fiber optic cables, and 42 Terabytes of storage capacity. The ITDOSE Hospedia software and Microsoft Business Dynamics program, customized by Iansoft, include both patient care and operations components.
Phase I will integrate the majority of Tenwek’s clinical services into the Hospedia patient care system. Phase II will see the integration of the remaining clinical services and the implementation of the operational components, including the queue management system, smart phone apps, a work order system, and departmental income/expense reporting.

FOT donors have invested over $450,000 in the new HMIS, enabling Tenwek to set a new standard of care and accountability through technology – one that is being emulated by another prominent Nairobi hospital. Thank you for your support!

Sue Steury Building Appeal a Big Success!

A big THANK YOU to our many generous donors who recently gave over $200k to fund critical renovations to the Sue Steury Building! Tenwek is facing a strict timeline to move the COVID-19 Holding Area and Care Unit (CHACU) to the Steury Building and faithful FOT benefactors stepped up to provide the necessary funds. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

With the prompt infusion of funds for the project, the third floor of the Steury Building is nearly completed, and the CHACU and Tenwek’s administrative offices are scheduled to occupy the new space in March. There are currently three COVID-positive patients in the CHACU, which will make the move of that unit into the Sue Steury building easier to accomplish. Please continue to pray that COVID infections remain low and that the move of these services into the Sue Steury building happens smoothly and quickly.

The new CHACU will have 25 beds, plus a three-bed ICU, and will become a permanent unit for future infectious disease patients. Renovations to the building’s first and second floors – to accommodate the renal/dialysis and oncology units, a 17-bed wound ward, and other auxiliary services – will be completed later this spring. Construction of the new Accident & Emergency Centre can now begin in time to secure a $500,000 USAID grant.

Dr. Carolyn Stickney: A short-term physician with a long-term commitment

In the fall of 2003, Carolyn Stickney was a fourth-year medical student at Case Western Reserve University with lots of free space in her academic schedule.

When thinking about how to fill that elective time, Dr. Stickney remembered encouragement she received from a classmate at Williams College, her alma mater. Her friend, who had spent a summer in Nairobi, recommended that she visit Kijabe Hospital during her training. But when Dr. Stickney began to explore that possibility, she quickly encountered a critical obstacle: there was no obvious application process for interested students.

In her online search, though, Dr. Stickney discovered another option. “I had stumbled upon Tenwek, and they did have a website,” Dr. Stickney said. “In fact, on the front page, in the upper right-hand corner, it said, ‘Click here if you are a medical student interested in doing an away rotation.’ I thought, ‘Well, I can do that.’”

Eighteen years and twelve trips to Kenya later, Dr. Stickney is a pediatric critical care physician at Boston Children’s Hospital who has made it a priority to return to Tenwek for a month each year.

Many things about Tenwek resonated with Dr. Stickney the first time she visited: the resourcefulness of its physicians, the physical needs of its patients, and the collegiality of the hospital staff, to name a few. But perhaps most importantly, Dr. Stickney realized that she could do what the Tenwek physicians were doing.

She realized she could do mission work.

A new view of medical missions

“One of the real keys for me during my first trip to Tenwek was realizing that medical missionaries were not a special class of people — that they were not more saintly or less sinful than other Christians,” Dr. Stickney said. “That changed how I thought about medical missions a lot. I thought, all right, we are all sinful, broken people. The people who are doing this just have a special call on their lives.”

Dr. Stickney carried that truth with her through the remainder of her medical training. She returned to Tenwek three times during her Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency at Case Western, including once during her fifth year as a chief resident. When she matched into a pediatric critical care fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to visit Tenwek during the ensuing three years because of the clinical demands of her role.

So, before she accepted a full-time position, she knew that one thing was nonnegotiable.

“I was only going to take a job if I could commit to being able to travel as part of it,” Dr. Stickney said. “When I accepted my job, one of the things I said to my boss was, ‘It’s really important to me to be able to commit a month out of the year to go to this hospital in Kenya.’ I expected him to say, ‘Well, we’re going to need to talk about that.’ Instead, he was really enthusiastic.”

As Dr. Stickney has returned to Tenwek during different points of her personal and professional lives, her motivations and perspectives have evolved.

“What’s been interesting for me is to have these defined, intermittent time points when I’m going back to Tenwek and feel like I’m operating in a different capacity than before or feel like I have something very different to offer,” she said. “It’s been interesting to watch my professional maturation referenced to my experiences at Tenwek.”

During her first few visits, Dr. Stickney was mostly learning.

“It was an amazing opportunity to get to see and engage in a very different side of medicine,” she said. “The people I got to work with were wonderful, caring individuals. I loved the people.”

Sharing medical knowledge and practicing faith

Now, the opportunity to return the favor is what draws Dr. Stickney back to Tenwek. Over the past few years, she’s cherished her role as a teacher and preceptor for Kenyan interns, residents, and medical officers.

“Those learners are now the main focus of why I’m there, because what I have to offer them is more useful than what I have to offer any individual patient,” Dr. Stickney said. “I love the patients, and I love interacting with them, but I also recognize that my learners are far better equipped to interact with the patients and to talk to them about Jesus than I am, if for no other reason than the fact that there is a language barrier for me most of the time.”

Beyond medical education, Dr. Stickney also appreciates the opportunity to guide learners through difficult situations.

“In pediatrics, one of the toughest things that trainees have to deal with is watching children die,” Dr. Stickney said. “At Tenwek, children die not infrequently, and to be able to navigate the challenges of that with the lens of faith, and to understand how a God who is loving would allow these sorts of things to happen is critical. Being able to have those conversations with them and hopefully deepen their faith feels very meaningful.”

When thinking about this tragic reality of pediatrics in resource-limited settings, Dr. Stickney reflected on an intern she worked with years ago — one who had never experienced a child’s death.

In their first weekend together, three of their patients passed away.

“I remember crying with her and thinking, ‘This is terrible, and this is a reason for grief, but we trust that God is good in spite of these things,” Dr. Stickney said. “’He asks us to grieve in these terrible situations, but we are still called to do what we can to treat and to heal, to love our patients and their families, and to walk with them through challenging times.’”

In the same way that Dr. Stickney has changed over the course of her twelve visits to Tenwek, she’s seen how the hospital has simultaneously evolved.

“The physical layout of the hospital is night and day,” she said. “If you had told me back in 2004 about the things that we’re able to do now, I would’ve thought, ‘No. Really?’”

To her, that growth is especially evident in the quality of the staffing and resourcing — for example, the presence of a respiratory therapist with a reliable supply of ventilators.

Medical education and Christ-centered care

“The caliber of nursing in the hospital has really increased,” Dr. Stickney said. “The ability to be able to care for complex patients has expanded tremendously. For example, there’s an ability to care for critically ill neonates that’s more consistent and developed than we were able to do before.”

Yet, in spite of all that’s changed, she’s noticed that core tenets remain the same — priorities like the development of Kenyan medical professionals.

“The hospital’s commitment to training Kenyans has really become a cornerstone of Tenwek’s mission, because they have the resources to do that,” Dr. Stickney said. “Tenwek has continued an outstanding standard in medical education in parallel with an ongoing commitment to Christ-centered care. Every time I come back, that seems the same.”

Also consistent over Dr. Stickney’s years of experience in Tenwek has been the holistic approach to medicine.

“It has felt very vocationally coherent to me to care for patients’ bodies and souls at the same time,” she said. “If I’m a doctor and my mission is to provide care, my goal isn’t simply to heal your physical body. I want you to experience wholeness and new life as a person and that involves knowing Jesus. To be able to do that at Tenwek in a really intentional way really resonates with me.”

Nearly two decades after she discovered that link in the upper-right corner of the website of Tenwek Hospital, Dr. Stickney remains committed as ever.

“I feel very called to making a long-term commitment to being a short-term person, to being a part of what Tenwek does, and to supporting the people who are there long-term, either by my presence or by offering my expertise from afar,” she said. “I don’t really think of myself as a missionary, even now. I just think of myself as doing what I think God has asked me to do at this time in my life.”

God’s Perfect Timing Means Lifesaving Procedure for Young Tenwek Patient

Amos and his father

Despite critical injuries sustained after falling from a truck, seventeen-year-old Amos had a chance at survival. His path to healing was a life-saving technique known as ECMO. But there were no reports of the procedure being available in Kenya.

Doctors at Tenwek’s Casualty Department had already inserted a chest tube into his left lung. More was needed to save his life though, after the major bronchial tubes in his right lung ruptured. Amos was rushed into the operating room, where a team led by Dr. Arega Fekadu Leta, a graduate of Tenwek’s Cardiothoracic Fellowship program, removed two-thirds of Amos’ badly injured right lung and repaired the leaks in his airways.

But the remaining upper lobes of both lungs were too damaged to sufficiently facilitate breathing. As the surgical team watched Amos’ oxygen level plummet, it became clear that Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) was his only chance at survival. Fairly common in tertiary care facilities in the United States, ECMO is essentially a temporary substitute for failing lungs.

By God’s providence, Dr. Hale Wills, a visiting pediatric surgeon with expertise in ECMO, was in the operating room that morning. So was long-term missionary Bob Groom, a perfusionist and ECMO specialist who had recently brought to Tenwek the components needed to build an ECMO circuit. After a rapid assessment of Amos’ situation and a pause for prayer, the surgical team began the venovenous ECMO procedure. Blood was withdrawn from Amos’ femoral vein and pumped through an artificial lung for oxygenation and carbon dioxide removal. The oxygen-rich blood was then returned downstream into his circulatory system near the heart.

Almost immediately, Amos’ blood oxygen levels returned to normal levels and the high blood lactate level caused by the period of low oxygen was corrected. The ventilator settings were adjusted to reduce the strain on his damaged lungs. After 91 long hours of support, Amos’ recovered lungs were gradually allowed to resume their life sustaining respiratory function. Within a few days, the breathing tube was removed from his trachea and his unassisted breathing was sufficient.

Reflecting on the experience, Bob noted, “If someone had asked me, I would have said maybe in three to five years we might have ECMO support available at Tenwek Hospital. But God had another plan and brought together everything that was needed in terms of supplies and expertise to save Amos’ life that day.”

We treat, Jesus heals – Tenwek’s mission endures. We give thanks and praise to the One who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or think!

Impact of Tenwek’s Chaplains Comes Full Circle

Emmanuel Kirui

The last thing six-year-old Emmanuel Kirui remembers was knocking on the front door of a stranger’s house, desperate for help. When he regained consciousness, Emmanuel was fighting for his life in the Tenwek Hospital ICU, the victim of a brutal knife attack. Doctors doubted that the young boy would survive. “They said there was nothing they could do,” recalls Emmanuel. “We would have to rely on God for healing.”

During his two-month stay in the hospital, physicians worked around-the-clock to treat Emmanuel’s body. At the same time, Tenwek chaplains provided peace and comfort by visiting his bedside and praying with him often. Emmanuel made a miraculous recovery and as he progressed through school, he felt God’s call to a life of service.

Deeply shaped by his time as a patient at Tenwek, Emmanuel decided he wanted to become a hospital chaplain to provide the same pastoral care he had once received. He enrolled in the Tenwek Hospital College School of Chaplaincy, receiving scholarships for school fees, and graduating in 2018. Emmanuel now serves as a chaplain at the Bomet Annex, Tenwek’s outpatient clinic.

“We want to receive people who are passionate about other people and who have experienced the love of Christ themselves,” Rev. Paul Lokol, Principal of the School of Chaplaincy, notes. “Emmanuel was one of the first volunteers to say, ‘Yes, here I am. I want to go serve in Bomet.’”

And when Emmanuel tells injured or despairing patients that he knows how they feel, it comes from his heart. He is living proof that while Tenwek offers life-saving resources to treat patients, it is truly Jesus who heals.

School of Chaplaincy Update

The Tenwek College School of Chaplaincy is growing! Classes are underway; the School is preparing for its next admissions drive; and an architectural firm has been selected to develop plans and blueprints for the new campus. With funds provided by FOT, the School is recruiting at workshops in several regions of Kenya sponsored by the National Association of Christian Chaplains. This is designed to generate interest among new students, as well as with current chaplains who want to further their studies.

The School also has been approved as a Chaplaincy assessment center and qualified to administer the National Chaplaincy exams. Rev. Paul Lokol, Principal of the School, has been named an authorized trainer in the country for Chaplaincy curriculum assessment. These approvals recognize the School as a key stakeholder and effective trainer in Chaplaincy studies.

During a recent Holiness Emphasis week, Rev. David Kilel, the founder of Tenwek’s original Chaplaincy School, returned as the main speaker. “The moments were refreshing to seek the cleansing of our hearts and recommit to serve God as He has called us,” notes Rev. Lokol. “It was a blessing to hear the passion of the founding Principal and his heart for Chaplaincy studies and the great need in Kenya.”

Coming Soon: A New Year – A New Campaign!

One year ago, FOT produced “Tenwek Tomorrow,” a catalog describing the many ways FOT benefactors and friends could support God’s amazing work at Tenwek Hospital. That publication cast an exciting vision for Tenwek’s continued growth and impact – a medical and spiritual mission that is being fulfilled every day in the highlands of Kenya.

Essential infrastructure improvements are underway; new medical residents, nursing students, and School of Chaplaincy trainees are being educated; and Tenwek’s Community Health and Development initiatives are making a significant regional impact. And while much is being accomplished – much more needs to be done.

When FOT’s Board of Directors gathered in October for their annual meeting, they thoughtfully considered the strategic needs Tenwek leaders placed before them. With faith and in one accord, they agreed to launch the most ambitious fundraising campaign for FOT since its founding in 2012.

For the first time, FOT will sponsor a consolidated fundraising campaign to address specific infrastructure needs that are critically important to Tenwek Hospital. The Board believes that by supporting these needs, which have been identified by Tenwek leadership, it will significantly strengthen the hospital’s essential treating, teaching, and sending mission.

“FOT has been blessed with hundreds of generous and faithful donors and prayer partners through the years,” notes Dr. David Hoover, FOT president. “And the many visiting medical staff we have welcomed to Tenwek have made immeasurable contributions. The support demonstrated by these true ‘Friends of Tenwek’ give us all great confidence that we can meet our goal.”

Details about this new initiative will be announced early in 2022. Please pray with us as we finalize plans for this transformational campaign.

Sue Steury Remembered

Dr. Ernie Steury and Sue Steury

Sue Steury, who served at Tenwek for 38 years beside her husband, Dr. Ernie Steury, went home to be with her Lord on September 28, 2021, at the age of 89. The Steurys were missionaries through World Gospel Mission and helped grow a small medical dispensary into Tenwek Hospital. As Dr. Steury provided medical care, Sue cared for their four children and forged many bonds with the Kipsigis people, particularly mothers.

Sue served as hostess for the many visiting medical staff and students. In addition to being the station bookkeeper, she trained many Sunday school teachers. Working with Tenwek’s Community Health program, Sue also taught outreach workers how to integrate lessons about safe health practices with sharing the Gospel.

The Steurys retired from service in Kenya in 1997. That same year, Tenwek Hospital dedicated one of its multipurpose buildings in honor of Sue’s faithful service at Tenwek and to the Kipsigis people. That building was involved in a catastrophic fire in February 2018. It has been undergoing significant restoration and is being transformed into a new facility to accommodate a number current and future medical specialties and services.

“Sue Steury’s devotion to Tenwek Hospital’s mission and the lasting impact of her service are embedded at Tenwek,” notes Dr. David Hoover, president of Friends of Tenwek. “Assisting with the renovation of the Sue Steury building is one way we can honor her memory.”