March 11th, 2010

Katie DeFries is packing her bags and headed to Africa. In just a few weeks, she'll leave her Nashville friends and Kairos to head to her hometown in southern Indiana where she'll spend a few more months preparing and saying farewells to friends and family there before leaving on a plane bound for Narok, Kenya.

She grew up in a non-denominational church and was baptized at eight years old alongside her sister, but didn't really understand what a relationship with Jesus looked like until college. According to her, it was the Sunday morning thing to do and she didn't want to miss out on taking communion with everyone else.

In college, at the University of Southern Indiana, while working toward a bachelor degree in nursing, she got involved in campus ministries and rededicated her life with her sister by her side once again. That's when things started to happen.

Between her sophomore and junior years, in the summer of 2002, Katie went on her first mission trip to Haiti.

"It opened my eyes to that kind of world," she said. "I thought it was a good idea to go, but I didn't understand the biblical meaning behind it. But I loved every minute of it and it really got me interested in missions."

Later that summer, Katie went through an HIV/AIDS lecture in one of her nursing classes.

"It caught my attention. I'd always been interested in babies, but I had never been interested in infectious disease before," she said. "That same summer, I went to a Christian Student Leadership Conference and got zoned in on Africa. Everywhere I turned it was Africa on newsletters, commercials, TV..."

Katie graduated with a nursing degree in 2004 and enrolled in Perspectives in early 2005, a glass geared toward educating people in missions and finding their purpose on the field.

She said, "I finally learned the scriptural meaning behind going. I knew we are all supposed to go out and do missions—whether it's here or overseas. I knew I had to go to Africa."

After doing an online research, Katie discovered a group of more than 20 people going to Kenya in September 2005 that was also offering a medical component. Her vacation, which had previously been planned out nine months earlier, happen to fall on the exact dates of the trip. In character, God worked out the partnership down to the details.

"I met up with the group in London and felt at home the minute I stepped foot into Narok, Kenya," she said. "There were five nurses who went and we met up with a team called AfricaHope. The government gave us seven acres. When we went, our team built a dining hall. There was a big construction part of the trip, but we also went to a clinic in a nearby town."

Operated by trained Kenyan nurses, the clinic invited the team in to help local school children. Katie wasn't expecting the kind of sickness among the kids that she saw.

"We packed up an extra suitcase with supplies, but we didn't have nearly what we needed," Katie said. "We saw were malnourished kids who had worms, ear infections so bad that pus drained out of their ears, and respiratory infections. It was horrible, but their families can't afford to take them to the doctor because of their location, and they live in extreme poverty. They don't have access to meds."

Most of the children had one set of clothing—their school uniforms—which were filled with holes. Signs of tribal rituals marked their bodies and they lived in poor health.

Katie and her team passed out what medicine they had and left with an empty suitcase.

"No one is consistently going back to give them the care they need," Katie said. "Word spread quickly that we were there and village people started showing up, but we didn't have enough supplies since we treated the children first, so we had to turn them away. It really is survival of the fittest there."

One day on their journey, the team saw a young village boy at church whose broken arm was dangling at his side. Having lived with it for two weeks, his parents said, "We can either fix his arm or feed our family."

The team immediately took the boy to a hospital in a nearby city. Katie said, "It was his first time ever in a car. I felt horrible because we wanted to do a good thing, but he looked like a deer in the headlights. He said the trees were running at us. But his family would've had to walk all day just to get there."

Because he was with the American team, he was seen that night. According to Katie, if he hadn't been with them, then the outcome would've been different. He would've had to purchase the medicine and casting material outside the hospital, bring it back with him, and then wait for days before anyone would see him.

Thanks to their team, his arm was x-rayed and casted and he got to go home the next day.

During the 10-day journey to Kenya, Katie fell in love with the Maasai people, the culture, and the children. She said, "I knew I would go back, but I thought it would be short-term trips. There is so much need there."

When she returned to the United States, Katie entered grad school at Vanderbilt University and worked full-time as a neonatal intensive care nurse (NICU) at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

This chapter of her life that she's spent in Nashville has been her "desert" experience. She ached for Africa while attending classes and wanted to return. Thankfully, Kairos became her chance each week for worship and a social life to sustain her.

"In school, I talked about going into missions," she said. "People thought I was crazy because they said there wasn't neonatal in Africa. I would say, 'That's the problem—they have issues because they have no healthcare.'"

In August 2008, she graduated with her masters degree. Several months later, once she passed her license exam, Katie traveled to Florida to train for two months with New Mission Systems International (NMSI), who supports nearly 200 missionaries serving in 30 countries around the world.

"There was no denying that He had plans for me here and there," she said. "Everybody in medical missions are afraid of working with babies. It's such a specialty that people don't want to mess with. I started to see more of why God had given me a passion for babies all along. I knew He was going to do something with it. I knew I just needed to get started and go."

For the past year, Katie has been working as a neonatal nurse practitioner and raising support for the next leg of her journey with AfricaHope of NMSI in Narok, Kenya. When she moves to her hometown this month, she'll continue to raise the last of the funds she needs until sometime around the end of August or beginning of September before she leaves to serve her three-year term.

In the area where she'll be working, there are thousands of orphans—50,000 of whom have been affected by AIDS—either suffering from the disease or having lost one or two parents to it.

Her ministry among the Maasai people will be to start a community health development program working alongside AfricaHope's current ministries including food and water security, education development, relief, and health development—especially among orphans and vulnerable children.

Under a heavy Indian influence, the villagers consist of a variety of people. Most men are polygamist semi-nomadic herders whose main value system is herding, trading, and selling animals. Many children go through the eighth grade, but those who advance to high school and college are few and far between.

The family structures are tight and most everyone is relational and caring, which is an encouragement to Katie who isn't only going to fulfill a medical component but also to share the hope and love of Jesus Christ.

And good news—Katie won't be going alone. Another nurse, Angie, whom she met during the training program will go, live, and work alongside her.

"Angie and I have a vision for setting up a community health development system to teach the basics," she said. "We'll teach about sanitation, clean food and water, malnutrition. There is a high infant mortality rate because of this stuff, so we'll also be working with moms on basic baby care."

Katie says she'll miss the Kairos community but hopes to podcast the weekly worship and message and broadcast it to the other missionaries working on her team.

"It's been the only consistent thing for me. It's the only place where I can come and clear my head and pray and listen to the message," she said. "Kairos fed me spiritually. I grew so much from it and met so many friends. It's going to be one of the biggest things I'm going to miss here. ... [But] God is up to something [in Kenya]. This is His timing."

How you can pray for Katie:
• Pray she'll have opportunities to build relationships where she serves.
• Pray she'll learn how their ministry to the villagers will work.
• Pray she would hear God and see clearly what He has planned for her team.
• Pray for ease in learning the culture and language (Swahili and Maasai).
• Pray that God would provide the final financial support she needs.
• Pray she'll have good time with family and friends before she leaves.
• Pray for the last training sessions she'll be attending in April, June, and July.

To keep up with Katie's journey in Kenya, click here. Also, get details on upcoming Kairos IMPACT mission journeys and Brentwood Baptist mission journeys.

By Kaylan Christopher