Strikes in Kenya raise prayer request from ministry

Kenya (MNN) — There are always risks and consequences associated with strikes, but perhaps none are so dire as when they involve hospitals. Angela Many of World Gospel Mission recently shared a prayer request for a situation taking place across Kenya.

She says, “There have been strikes that have been affecting the health care in Kenya. There was a doctors’ strike in the beginning of the year that lasted 100 days. And now there’s currently a nurses’ strike that is going on.”

These strikes follow another set of strikes which took place just last December. According to Reuters, they were due to a delayed fulfillment of pay increase after an agreement took place in 2013. Without nurses in many government hospitals, patients’ lives are at risk.

Tenwek Hospital is a joint effort of World Gospel Mission and Africa Gospel Church. Many says that while Tenwek Hospital’s staff has not gone on strike, the situation has impacted them along with the rest of the nation. Like other organizations still in full operation, the hospital has seen a stiff increase in people in need of medical help.

“Tenwek has been very busy. We’ve gotten a lot more patients because of other government facilities being closed because of the doctors’ and now the nurses’ strike,” Many says.

But with the influx of care needed, there has been a growth of opportunity to share the Gospel with more people. As we explained yesterday, the basic care at Tenwek involves a spiritual assessment.

Supporting Tenwek from afar

There are a couple of ways you can step into the situation to help support the care taking place at Tenwek. First, and most importantly, you can pray. Here’s what they need:

“Prayer for the staff at Tenwek Hospital as they handle a much higher volume of patients coming in for care. Prayer for the Kenyan country that they can come to peace over some of the issues that are causing the strike, and that this will hopefully bring about changes that can improve health care in that country.

“Prayer for our staff that we can use this opportunity to reach even more people with the love of Jesus as people come to our hospital that might not otherwise come. And then prayer that we can be a light for the Gospel as we disciple our medical trainees and that they will have the strength, and wisdom, and passion to take that heart of a servant leader attitude as they go out into practice.”

Another way you can be involved in this is to go to Tenwek Hospital. Many says if you’re a specialist, you might be interested.

“We have a lot of short term physicians who travel to Kenya each year that really help us with our training programs, with workloads at the hospital.”

To learn more about how you can invest in Tenwek Hospital, click here.