Grandview ER doctor provides care in Kenya

Dr. Jeremy Rogers spends most days treating patients in the emergency room of Grandview Medical Center. For one week per year, however, the Trussville resident takes his medical expertise on safari.

Rogers just finished his sixth medical mission trip to Kenya in January. The trip is organized by Jesus Harvesters Ministry, based in Kenya, to bring a medical clinic and church to a new town or tribal group each year.

Jesus Harvesters was started in Alabama by Steve Kabachia, who traveled to the U.S. from Kenya to get theological training. Kabachia returned to Kenya to begin planting churches. Rogers serves on the board of directors for Jesus Harvesters and said that the Kenyan members of the organization take the lead in choosing the location of each mission trip and prepare the clinic facilities ahead of time.

“They know their country and they know the places we need to go,” Rogers said.

With a group of about 25 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and occasionally dentists or veterinarians, Rogers travels each year to Kenya at the end of January to provide medical services and share his Christian faith. At the end of the weeklong trip, the clinic becomes the site of a new church.

“We’re not mercenary evangelists where we’re coming in, sharing the gospel and then leaving. This is a true partnership with our Kenyan brothers and sisters,” Rogers said. “When we come in to serve the community or tribe that we’re going to, it really opens doors.”

The days are spent in the medical clinic, and evenings are focused on “crusades” to share Christianity. It’s a busy week, though Rogers said they make time for a safari at the end to allow a little bit of sightseeing.

While in the clinic, Rogers said he will provide everything from malaria and glucose testing to treatment of injuries or burns. Patients also receive free medications. Many, especially in more rural areas of the country, react gratefully that someone is there to take care of their needs.

“It runs the gamut of what we’re seeing and treating,” Rogers said. “It is very humbling to see their gratitude.”

This year, for the first time Rogers said the group was able to create two clinics in different locations. He and his fellow medical professionals saw around 2,000 patients over a week, and he said about 470 people made a profession of Christian faith by the time he was on a plane back to the U.S.

“It’s remarkable every year … I’m just blown away each time I go,” Rogers said. “When we come in to serve the community or tribe that we’re going to, it really opens doors.”

Several groups support the efforts of Rogers’ medical mission team, including Grandview Medical Center’s Pink Ladies, an auxiliary group that helps pay for the medications and trip costs for any Grandview staff, and Rogers’ church, First Baptist of Trussville. Dr. Carl Grimmett, an area resident and owner of Grayson Valley Animal Clinic, has also lent his veterinary skills a few times.

Every year, Rogers said some in the medical mission group can be fearful of making the trip, due to terrorism, Ebola, political instability or other worries. Each time, he said, those fears never become reality.

“These challenges seem to melt away a lot of times,” Rogers said.

Rogers insisted that the work he is doing is important not because of his medical expertise, but because of the spiritual impact.

“There’s nothing special about what we do in the sense that there’s nothing special in me being a doctor,” Rogers said. “What’s special about it is when we go and we give of ourselves and we go with a humble heart.”

Cultural differences often seem to be small by the end of the week. Rogers said the Kenyan people he has met have been similar to Trussville residents in terms of hospitality.

“The people are so welcoming and so inviting,” he said. “There is a true, genuine sense that we share in the body of Christ… that in itself breaks down all cultural and language barriers.”

After six trips to Kenya, Rogers feels as much at home there as in Trussville.

“Each year that I go, the more Kenya feels like home to me and the more comfortable I feel going,” he said.

“When I go to Kenya, I have a second home and I have a church family in Kenya of friends that I stay in touch with, or pastors that I share in ministry with.”

When the jet lag has worn off and Rogers returns to spending time with his wife, Becky, and two children and teaching Sunday school at First Baptist, he said a small part of him is still in the small church he helped build in Africa.

“It does make me homesick when I leave Kenya,” Rogers said.