Kenya (MNN) ― This Friday, CURE International celebrates a decade of ministry in Kijabe, Kenya.
CURE's SVP for Spiritual Ministry, Dale Brantner, says since they began, they've performed 45,000 life-transforming surgeries on children with disabilities.
It has grown to become one of the largest mission stations in the world and is the home of the Africa Inland Church Kijabe Hospital, a 205-bed general hospital.
The AIC CURE International Children's Hospital campus is a standalone 30 bed hospital that specializes in the treatment and care of children with physical disabilities.
When a child has a surgery to correct clubfoot, cleft lip and cleft palate, their life changes dramatically. Brantner once met a little girl who couldn't walk before her surgery.
Now, "In her being able to go to school because she can now walk, the transformation, in the whole economy of the family itself has been elevated. The mother now can work, the girl can go to school, and the family moved to a safer neighborhood."
More than physical healing, there is spiritual healing. "Through our evangelistic efforts in the hospital, our mobile clinics and evangelistic campaigns, over 600,000 people have heard, clearly, the good news of Jesus Christ," says Brantner. "And over 91,000 have become followers of Jesus Christ."
At the Kenya facility alone, the staff has reached more than 370,000 with the Gospel, and the number of faith expressions is close to 44,988.
Their reputation as a place of healing has brought exciting growth. The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded the ministry a grant that will allow CURE Kenya to upgrade its operating theatres, build a conference and training center, and add on-campus resident housing.
As the ministry looks to the future, Brantner asks for prayer "that we discern what doors to walk through, and that those doors stay open for many years. We don't go in for a short amount of time; we make a 100-year commitment when we go into a country."
