The Gift You Didn’t Know You Had

Kathy with students at Rorock, a local elementary school she has faithfully supported for many years—a place that has become dear to her heart.

When Kathy first started thinking about serving overseas, she assumed she’d be doing what she’d spent her career doing—nursing.

Every year, she’d stop by the missions tables at her church, hoping someone was organizing a medical trip she could join. Every year, there wasn’t one.

Then, almost seven years ago, Heritage Church was invited to explore a partnership with Kapsowar Mission Hospital, and Kathy was part of the group that came to visit. She figured she’d spend her days working alongside the nurses.

Instead, she realized something she hadn’t expected.

“The hospital already had great nurses,” she told me. “What they needed wasn’t another oncology nurse. They needed people who could train staff, organize teams, gather resources, and help other people get connected.”

If you don’t follow us on Instagram yet, head over to @friendsofkapsowar and watch our latest reel featuring some of the special moments from Heritage’s time in Kapsowar. We’re so grateful for the ways they served our community!

Kathy and her team from their church in Ohio, wearing blankets they received as a traditional Kenyan gesture of welcome from the community.

It wasn’t the role she’d imagined for herself. But looking back, it was probably the role she’d been preparing for all along.

Over the years, Kathy has become the person who helps other people find where they fit.

She’s led Heritage’s partnership with Kapsowar from the very beginning in 2019, introducing countless people to the hospital and helping others discover how their own gifts can strengthen the work here.

That heart for connecting people to Kapsowar is also what led her to become one of the founding board members of Friends of Kapsowar.

Kathy and Marsha led school outreach sessions, equipping girls with practical menstrual health education, encouragement, and the confidence to ask questions about a topic that is often left unspoken.

The girls received reusable menstrual care kits and other gifts in locally made bags, and their smiles say it all.

This year, on their 5th trip to Kapsowar, Heritage brought its biggest team yet.

Team members built picnic tables, painted hospital buildings, and served in local schools. One documented the trip through photos and video, while a NICU nurse taught infant resuscitation and supported new mothers with breastfeeding. The team also distributed 240 reusable menstrual care kits to schoolgirls, along with teaching, encouragement, and prayer.

Those projects are things that simply don’t happen if a team doesn’t come. If Kathy hadn’t organized this trip, those benches wouldn’t be there for families waiting at the hospital. Those girls wouldn’t have received those kits. Our nurses wouldn’t have had those trainings. Those repairs would still be sitting on someone’s to-do list.

That’s what is both hard and beautiful about Kapsowar. The needs are immense, but so is the opportunity to make a real, tangible difference.

Kathy told me her greatest joy was seeing others fall in love with Kapsowar the way she had years ago.

By the end of the trip, every person had found work they cared about, relationships they treasured, and a deeper connection to what God is doing here.

We tend to think we need a certain profession, a certain talent, or a very specific calling before we can make a difference. But more often, He simply asks us to offer what we already have.

For Kathy, that started with nursing. It eventually became leading teams, connecting her church to Kapsowar, and helping others discover they have something valuable to offer too.

Whatever season of life you’re in, God has a way of using ordinary gifts in ways we never would have expected.

Sometimes all it takes is saying yes.

At Friends of Kapsowar, that’s what we hope to do—to help people use the gifts they’ve already been given to bring hope to a place of great need.

Whether you come, give, pray, or simply share this story with someone else, you’re part of what God is doing here in Kapsowar.

Thank you for being part of this story.