My name is Lydia Chapman and I am a Year 5 medical student at Cardiff University. I went to AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya for 4 weeks through the organization Africa Inland Mission (AIM).

On arrival in Nairobi, I attended the AIM Eastern Region office to meet the team and receive a helpful induction. They had their daily office tea break and prayer meeting where they prayed for me before I set off to Kijabe. As part of the induction they took me to an ATM, a food store and to get a local SIM card so I would be well prepared before heading out of the city to rural Kijabe.

Kijabe Hospital is located approximately 60km from Nairobi. It was founded by AIM missionaries in 1915 and over the last 100 years it has expanded to provide extensive medical and surgical services. As a hospital, their main goals are to provide healthcare to God’s Glory and to share the gospel with unreached people groups. Many patients attending the hospital have travelled long distances, and many come from unreached areas. The hospital staff are able to share their faith with them and demonstrate God’s love through patient care.

I spent 4 weeks working alongside the Obstetrics and Gynaecology team. I had the opportunity to see lots of interesting cases and see patients in the delivery room, maternity ward, gynae ward, outpatients and in theatre. It was initially very challenging adapting to a completely different healthcare system than the one that I have trained in. I became friends with a Kenyan medical student who was also placed in Obstetrics and she was able to help me learn how things run in Kijabe. We were at the same stage in our training so it was nice being able to chat and discuss how studying medicine varies between our countries. In the UK we have ward rounds but in Kijabe they also had pre-rounds taking place prior to ward round. My placement days started at 6:30am where I would be given my own patient to examine during pre-rounds and then present my findings to the consultant during the ward round. Sometimes it was difficult communicating with patients due to the language barrier, but other staff were able to help translate the Swahili to English for me. And I also managed to learn a couple of Swahili words!

We are very fortunate that in the UK we can access free healthcare via the NHS. It was challenging trying to understand a system where patient’s pay for their own healthcare. I was able to observe the medical staff choosing tests and investigations to order based on the price. I also observed consultations where the patient had a difficult decision to make, and cost was often a key factor in the decision-making process. I saw various challenging and complex cases such as breech deliveries, placental abruption, severe seizures in pregnancy, a pregnant woman involved in a road traffic accident and a post-partum haemorrhage which resulted in a maternal death.

I really enjoyed being able to work in a Christian Hospital and combine both medicine and mission. It was lovely being able to join the team as they prayed for the patients before every ward round, operation and audit meeting. The hospital chapel had a service every Wednesday morning which provided time for worship and to listen to one of the hospital chaplains speak. The chapel was always very full and it was so joyful to hear so many voices praising the Lord in both English and Swahili worship songs.

On Sundays I was able to attend the church services at the local church, AIC Kijabe Mission. Everyone was very welcoming and on my first Sunday there they invited all the newcomers for tea and jam sandwiches after the service. This was a lovely way to get to know other people who were new to Kijabe. I had initially been nervous about coming to Kijabe on my own but there was lots of other students, short-term missionaries and missionary families that made me feel very welcome. I met students from various parts of Africa, South America and the US. I was able to spend time with them in the evenings and also on the weekends we were able to explore some nearby beautiful Kenyan landscapes. The AIM missionary families met on Sunday evenings to share prayer points, pray for each other and the AIM missionary work taking place across the country. There were multiple missionary families that invited me round for dinner and fellowship. I really valued spending time with them, hearing about their experiences and learning about what it means to be involved in medical mission. I was even able to join the families to attend a basketball game at the missionary school, Rift Valley Academy.

I am very grateful to Medical Missionary News for supporting me and praying for me as I stepped out of my comfort zone to explore medical mission in Kenya. I really enjoyed this experience and the opportunities it provided for me to learn about healthcare outside of the NHS, grow in faith and also build lifelong friendships. Although the experience was challenging, I was able to see God’s faithfulness through it all and trust in him as he has a plan for me and is working through me.