Our Adventure in Kenya

We made it to Kenya!! But we had a misunderstanding that caused us to miss our last flight to Zimbabwe. Since that happened we waited in the airport 5 hours until the Kenya airline transported us to a 5 star hotel where we got a hot meal and shower that we really needed. It is 2:00am now we will leave the hotel at 5am and head back to the airport and fly to harare where will then head to doma where the orphanage is.

Hayley Weston

Who Are We?

You will be hearing from various people throughout our time in Zimbabwe. Here is a bit of who we are:

Benjamin Anderson is our trip leader. He has been on several missions already to work with Eden Children's Village and has been the lead point person for what we are doing. Ben has recently moved from Ashland as the CEO of Ashland Health Center to Lakin, KS for a comparable position. 

Dr. John Birky and his wife, Lisa are the second coordinators of our mission. Dr. Birky has been on several medical missions and he and Lisa lived in Zimbabwe for a time. Their three children Jude, Lily, and Eva are joining us as well. The Birky's will be heading to a clinic for half of the trip. 

A different dynamic of this mission for the usual mission trip from Ashland is that there are college students joining. Rev. Ashlee Alley from Southwestern College is going and will help in some administrative ways on the trip. Three Southwestern students, Justine Anthony, Robbi Lee, and Hayley Weston are going as well. Each girl is going to be a senior next semester. Hayley is excited to be on her second international mission trip and will be tutoring as well is helping us tell our story through words and pictures. Justine is responding to an exciting call by God on this mission and will be helping with the Birky kiddos and with some tutoring. Robbi has been counting down and anticipating what God is going to do through the mission. She will be leading a sports clinic at Eden. Jaimie Dungan is a pre-med student at Newman University and is going to be a senior. She is excited to have this international medicine experience and will will assist Dr. Birky with dental training at the Eden Clinic and a variety of surgeries at Karanda Mission Hospital. Maddy Martin is an early childhood major at Washburn University and will be tutoring children. She is excited about seeing her field of study in this context. 

Savannah Jenkins, from North Carolina, is our lone high school student. She had travelled abroad before, but never for a mission quite like this. She will be serving in lots of areas and is so excited about this opportunity. 

Joy Haggard comes to us from Ashland. She is a school records clerk and is on the board of the local thrift store ministry. She loves holistic living and is excited to experience the self-sustaining lifestyle of Eden. 

Jerry and Nancy Voorhies are joining the trip as well. They have sponsored a set of twins from Eden for the last several years and are experiencing a life-long dream by serving in this way. Jerry is a cattle rancher and they live half of the year in Washington state and the other half in Kansas. 

JT Vickers is a trained X-ray tech and owns a roofing company in Georgetown, TX. He has built a prototype of bench that we will be replicating for the orphan cottages and will oversee that project.

Melissa Bender is a NICU nurse in Florida. She will be joining the Birky's on the medical portion of the trip and will be training the clinic staff and area midwives on neonatal resussitation. 

Kate Dibberen is a track coach at Garden City Community College. She designed some great art for the trip for tshirts and will be working with the sports clinic among other things. 

Tim Walter is the final member of the team. He met Benjamin through a providential experience and has joined the team. He is a professional photographer and is also being able to share in a dream as he has been open to an opportunity for God to use him in a humanitarian photography assignment. He will be sharing a few pictures along the way, but mostly we will get to see his pictures upon return home. 

We come from 6 states, 5 different decades, 15 churches and will be taking 4 flights (each way). We will cover thousands of miles and we've been supported by tens of thousands of dollars in support and countless prayers. And we serve a God who knows each detail and loves each of us and those with whom we will partner in ministry. We look forward to sharing the journey with you! 

At the Airport

Our team is loaded up and is ready to go to Zimbabwe. Three members of our group are meeting is in Chicago (and one in Paris) and the rest are flying out of Wichita. We are ready. We are seeing God's provision in so many ways right now. Please pray for safety in travel and also, smooth transitions in airports and at customs. We've got a lot of people and a lot of stuff. Thanks so much for all of the support.