The goal of Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is the establishment of maturing churches through the evangelization of unreached peoples and the effective preparation of church leadership. Medical ministry has long played a vital role in the fulfillment of this goal.

Kijabe Hospital, located in Kijabe, Kenya, began in 1915 as Theodora Hospital – a small hospital serving the needs of the local people. In the 1960s and 1970s, it underwent a move to its present location, a significant expansion, and a name change.

Over the last decade its capacity and reach have become that of a national and international referral hospital with two important ministry emphases that have become central to its identity: 1) training of African medical professionals and 2) spiritual outreach to many, including less reached people groups of East and Northeast Africa.

Training African Medical Professionals

Kijabe Hospital has grown to a 210 bed

facility and treats patients from throughout

Kenya as well as neighboring countries.

The hospital has also gained a reputation

as an excellent training facility.

In the 1980s nursing training began. Initially Kijabe School of Nursing (KSN) trained at the certificate level. Then in 2000, KSN began the bridging course, which allowed certificate-level nurses to upgrade to diploma level. As of 2004, the diploma program was successfully launched. There are now over 70 nursing students in training.

Beginning in the 1990s, medical training increased substantially. The medical internship program began, and has continued – now training five interns each year. We continue to train Kenyan medical students, as a site for clinical training of University of Nairobi students. We also accept Christian medical students from North America, Europe, and Australia who are seeking God’s will regarding serving as missionaries in the future.

A wonderful recent step forward is the training of Africans who have completed medical school and internship. In North America they are called medical residents – in the British-influenced Kenya system they are called "registrars."

The development of superior Christian medical leaders has accelerated the hospital’s evangelistic goal of outreach.Over the last decade, missionary physicians partnered with Kenyans to create a family medicine training program which is based at Moi University in Eldoret. In 2005 Kijabe was one of three hospitals each accepting one Kenyan medical resident for training. Our first medical resident was Peter Mwaka (see related article). These trainees will each receive a masters degree at the completion of the program.

Kijabe Hospital is also cooperating with CURE hospital, a pediatric rehabilitation hospital, also on Kijabe station, to apply to Moi University for an orthopedics training program. We are now a three-month rotation site for general surgery medical residents from University of Nairobi. Surgical trainees from other African countries come to us for clinical training as well.

Each year well over 200 patients give their lives to Christ at Kijabe Hospital. Over the last several years, Kijabe Hospital has supported the post-graduate training of Christian physicians who have performed well in internships here – sending them to programs in other places. To date we have supported Kenyan physicians in general surgery, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and internal medicine; and we will soon support a former medical intern in Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) surgical training.

The development of superior Christian medical leaders has accelerated the hospital’s evangelistic goal of outreach.

Reaching the Lost

The chaplaincy department is very active at Kijabe. Our Kenyan chaplains and volunteers from AIC Moffat Bible College have a very active ministry with patients and families that bears much fruit for the Kingdom.

Their regular activities include bedside evangelism for inpatients, daily devotions for outpatients, monthly outreach to rural dispensaries, and semi-weekly chapel services for hospital staff. Each year well over 200 patients give their lives to Christ at Kijabe Hospital.

Through the providence of God, a hard-to-reach people group from a neighboring country discovered that Kijabe Hospital is a place to receive quality medical care at a reasonable price. Two to three times per year the chaplaincy department organizes medical ministry trips to spiritually needy areas of Kenya; the most recent was to the Luo people on the shores of Lake Victoria. For over 36 hours, our medical providers saw approximately 2000 people, and after two evening services consisting of music, a movie, and preaching, 281 adults and over 100 children gave their lives to Christ.

But there is even more ministry to the unreached through Kijabe Hospital. Through the providence of God, a hard-to-reach people group from a neighboring country discovered that Kijabe Hospital is a place to receive quality medical care at a reasonable price. Many come from the Nairobi area and others directly from the capital of their own country. As a result, we have a part-time pastor from this people group who ministers with us as a chaplain, and also a full-time missionary who speaks their language. Some 15-20% of our inpatients are from this people group.

The hospital is also proactive in regard to ministering to less-reached people groups. We regularly go to a closed country every 2-3 months to help a medical school there. We also travel to refugee camps several times a year. And we are helping, in various ways, in the development of ministry in southern Sudan, ministering – directly and indirectly – to that very needy country. During 2007, we will train five Christian Sudanese medical interns – who will return to their rebuilding country in 2008 and impact it for Christ.

The Ministry of Discipleship

Discipleship is an important ministry at Kijabe as well. Spiritual ministry to staff and trainees is vital to our success. For example, the family medicine registrars not only learn medicine, but they are also completing the "Saline Solution" series – a program that teaches medical professionals how to communicate their faith with their patients.

Kijabe Hospital has come a long way in the last two decades. We are now approaching the concentration of missionary and Kenyan personnel required to be the regional leader in Christian medical and nursing training, and to be a vital ‘staging post’ for ministry to needy places in distant rural Kenya and to neighboring countries. Please pray for the missionaries and Kenyans who work shoulder-to-shoulder at Kijabe Hospital to declare God’s glory to the peoples of East and Northeast Africa.

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