Monday, June 15, 2009

Missionaries answer 'a clear call' to work in rural Kenya


From Episcopal Life-

For some, retirement means slowing down. For Dr. William "Gerry" and Nancy Hardison, both in their 70s, it means serving in a hospital and various clinics; running a seminary; fostering a nursing school; and overseeing an orphan-feeding program in a remote area of western Kenya. Known locally as "Professor Nan" and "Professor Gerry," the retired San Diego couple has worked as Episcopal volunteers for mission for seven years in Maseno, a town too small to be on the map.

"We have been privileged in our education and our working lives, and believe we ought to continue to use that education for service," Nancy Hardison wrote in an e-mail interview.

Both had been Fulbright scholars in Albania. She served as a professor of business administration at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, retiring in 1998. Her husband retired a year later from his work as a doctor at Veteran's Hospital in La Jolla, California, and as professor of medicine at the University of California in San Diego.

"We heard about Maseno when we were in Nairobi," Nancy Hardison recalled. Both Episcopalians, they also are affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene (an evangelical Christian denomination rooted in Methodism) and arrived in Kenya in 1999 as Nazarenes in volunteer service. She became deputy vice chancellor of academics of Africa Nazarene University. Her husband practiced and taught medicine at University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital.

"One of our Kenyan acquaintances asked us to come to Essaba, a village near Maseno, to do clinics three or four times a year," Nancy Hardison said. On several visits, they met Bishop Simon Oketch of the Diocese of Maseno North in the Anglican Church of Kenya.

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81799_110052_ENG_HTM.htm

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