Ryan Duncan is going on a medical mission trip to Kenya this summer with a group of Baylor students, professors, and doctors in order to do medical research, set up a clinic to treat patients, and build a church and guest home.

In a rural area of western Kenya on the Nyakach Plateau lives Habil Ogola, a medical technologist, pastor, and caretaker of sixty abandoned orphans and elders. The community that he has created is called “Bethlehem Home.” In January of 2006, a devastating event occurred in an already desperate area of Africa. A severe drought left eleven million people on the edge of starvation including Pastor Ogola, his family, and the people he cares for; the poorest of the poor. Three orphans died of starvation before news reached the United States of this tragic event, however, once Americans heard the news, they responded quickly. Help for these people has started to come in the form of creating a sustainable water source, food and agriculture, education and job training, healthcare, and providing more businesses opportunities.

In the summer of 2009, a group of Baylor students, professors, and other individuals visited Bethlehem Home and worked on projects during a two-week period. They built a large water tank in order to conserve water for the community as well as conducted water research and mapping that allowed them to dig a well in this high, rocky plateau. Elders and orphans who were sleeping on the floor in pools of muddy water are now sleeping in beds built by Baylor University students, and leaky thatched roofs have been replaced with metal ones that will make it possible to capture rainwater. The group also set up a temporary clinic and saw about eight hundred patients over the course of the two weeks. Meanwhile, the cornerstones for a medical clinic, a school, and a guesthouse have been laid.

This May, another group of Baylor students and professors, including Ryan Duncun, a former Kingwood High student, will return to Bethlehem Home in Kenya. They will, again, set up a temporary clinic in the local church and see over another eight hundred patients. Some of the other projects that they are hoping to accomplish will be installing gutters, setting up small water tanks for water collection, planting fruit trees at the homes of the orphans and elders, and continuing the construction of the school, medical clinic, and guesthouse. Along with these projects, they plan to visit the local schools that the orphans attend and help them to learn English as a second language.

Friends in Ouray, Colorado, led by St. John’s Episcopal Church, have taken on the crucial task of providing a predictable monthly amount, which the Bethlehem Home community can count on for food and farming.  That support then allows other resources to go toward the building, medical, and educational projects.  Pastor Ogola has been scrupulously accountable for every dollar received. The collaboration between people in the United States and Africa has worked exceptionally well — no bureaucracy, no red tape — just regular individuals helping others in need with astonishing results.

To support this cause and become a part of this remarkable effort to help these people, Baylor University has set up an easy way to accept donations. Email Ryan Duncan at R_Duncan@baylor.edu and a donor card will be mailed to you with specific instructions on how to can donate. By doing this, it will insure that the donations will go straight to the medical mission trip and not the other mission trip to Kenya. If there are any questions regarding the trip, you can also send an email to Ryan Duncan.  Any support is extremely appreciated. It is not just giving money; it is changing the lives of others and giving them hope.