The Adventist Health Mission Trip Experience: Palpable Joy and Giving Back

After almost a day in the air, Chris Champlin and his wife, Kim, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya at 3 a.m. alongside 18 other Adventist Health Associates. After navigating customs at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport, they were met by Andy Aho and his son Dustin from African Mission Services. Following a brief, much-needed break to stretch their legs, the group boarded a bus bound for Mara West Camp at the entrance to Maasai Mara National Reserve.

As the bus negotiated its way out of the airport onto the main highway, Chris and Kim were surprised to see pedestrians on the highway. As the rising sun’s rays began to illuminate their drive, the parade of pedestrians increased. Intrigued, they asked John Schroer, the trip leader, who explained that it is commonplace in Kenya for people to walk everywhere, often tremendous distances. Over the course of the 170-mile, 12-hour trek to Mara West Camp, the group encountered adults, teens and children, some pint-sized, walking or herding cows, sheep and goats along the highway.

As daylight broke, the group was met with a breathtaking blue sky, checkered with clouds so picturesque that it felt like you could reach out and grab one. When they arrived at their lodgings on a high bluff overlooking the reserve, they were awarded their first view of the vast, untouched plains that stretched across the horizon in perpetuity.

“I felt so small looking out into that vastness,” Kim said, noting the stark contrast between the crowded confines of the West Coast of California and their new, temporary home. “It felt like there was an openness, and a calmness to everything. It was so peaceful and beautiful.”

The Maasai Mara National Reserve served as the backdrop for an Adventist Health mission trip in October. Chris, President of Adventist Health and Rideout, and Kim were part of an 18-person team hailing from Adventist hospitals in California, Oregon and Hawaii that volunteered their time to support African Mission Services’ efforts with the Maasai tribe. As an extension of African Mission Services – an international non-governmental organization that assists rural, underdeveloped communities within Africa – the team provided dental services, clinic construction work, reproductive education and even delivered an ultrasound machine.

In return, Chris, Kim, and company immersed themselves in the Maasai culture and made some lifelong memories – and friends – along the way.

An Easy Decision

The question was never “if” Chris and Kim were going to take a mission trip, but when. Kim had previously been part of a mission trip in the South Pacific during college, and shared how meaningful the experience was with Chris. So, when a meeting at Adventist Health headquarters in Roseville put a spotlight on the organization’s global mission program, it was already an easy decision for the pair.

“The people I know that have done mission trips always come back looking and feeling like they had been fulfilled,” Chris said. “It was something I wanted to experience.”

The cherry on the mission trip sundae, then, was the opportunity to visit Africa, a destination that had long been on their bucket list. A pair of plane tickets to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and many, many hours of travel later, the two arrived, excited, and ready to do their part.

An Absence of Complication

Once they settled in, Chris could not help but notice the contagious attitude of everyone they encountered.

“The joy. The joy was palpable,” Chris said. “Nobody was angry, or hangry. There was no road rage. Everyone was just like, ‘hey, cool, it’s a nice sunny day, and we’re alive.’

“There was a real simplicity to everything, and a real lack of stress and anxiety.”

In practice, there really isn’t room for those kinds of emotions. The Maasai people live an extraordinarily simplistic lifestyle. They wake and sleep by the rise and fall of the sun. They sustain themselves on a diet built on beans and rice, and lots of it. They are a herding tribe, and their livestock is their currency.

It is an existence that could be considered one of poverty in the United States. And yet, when the team arrived in camp, they were met with nothing but smiling faces.

“They loved on you like anything,” Kim said. “They were so warm and welcoming, and they got to know each and every one of us.”

Time Well Spent

During the team’s stay with African Mission Services, they broke into groups each day to provide different services. Kim and a group of nurses, for example, visited several schools to teach reproductive hygiene to middle school girls, almost 800 in all. Chris spent his time helping with the construction of Africa Mission Services’ new women’s clinic. A group of dentists provided oral care, and another group set-up and customized an ultrasound machine. This group also taught the African Mission Services’ team how to use the equipment.

In each of these instances, the team grew close to the Maasai people they interacted with. Kim described watching as an older girl taught her younger counterpart about reusable sanitary napkins. Chris recalled a conversation he had with a few Maasai boys who could not comprehend why he had only two kids. On their second day in camp, their new friends threw Kim a birthday party.

“The people, they just fill your cup,” Chris said. “You wonder how someone with so little can have so much to give. But they are happy. They sing, they dance, they love, and they give.”

Kim added that the team they shared the experience with was a huge part of what made the mission trip special. People from all walks of life, and all over the Adventist Health network, came together for a common purpose.

“You create such lifelong bonds with these people, and with this team,” Kim said. “I feel blessed and fortunate that we were able to go. I can’t find the words to truly describe what I got out of it.”

Now, a few months removed from their trip, Chris and Kim see the experience not just as a milestone in their lives, but as the next chapter in their journey. The trip cost time, money, and effort. But the tradeoff was being able to give back to those in need. The pair and their team gladly made that deal. And they would happily do it again.

“This was a real, dramatic version of ‘go make somebody’s life better,’” Chris said. “All I had to do was nail boards to a ceiling. And because of that, someone is going to have a better facility to deliver babies in. What an easy thing to do, right?

“If we can leave this world having made it better for even one more person, our time here was worth it. To me, this was the start of that.”