Justy began her life’s work with AIM in 1961, which would continue for almost 40 years. She attended Winnipeg Bible Institute, feeling called by God to the mission field. She was asked to be trained as a laboratory technologist while working in a lab in the Municipal hospitals in Winnipeg. After years of waiting to hear where God would call her to serve, a doctor indicated the need for a Lab Technologist to train technicians in a new hospital at Kijabe Mission Station in Kenya. The 33-bed hospital opened in April 1961 and she arrived in August.
Justy was responsible for setting up the lab, doing lab work and X-rays for the doctors and helping the nurses. As the work and need for help increased, young men came from different tribes from across the country, eager to learn. She prayed that God would choose the ones who would be His followers. Justy’s students were an inspiration to her. They taught her the African way of life and culture. Many years later, she was pleased to hear of their involvement in ministry. Some have become her lifelong friends.
Justy was instrumental in getting the Kenyan Government’s approval for lab training. Kijabe Hospital Laboratory Training School was established and all 40 students who were trained from 1968 to1990 received official recognition. Another technologist arrived to help with the classroom teaching and there were enough lab personnel to continue the work.
Justy’s assignment was changed as a clear direction from the Lord in 1977. She had been asked to help out in the lab of the hospitals on two of the four Comoro islands, situated off the coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean. When she returned, she was needed to work temporarily in the business office at the hospital, which continued for a number of years. She was also asked to take a position in bookkeeping at the AIM International Kenya Branch Office in Nairobi, Kenya, for three years prior to her retirement in 1996.
The Mission required Justy to retire at the age of 70, but she knew she would be back to volunteer and embark on a ministry that had been on her heart for many years. She returned to Kenya for three terms between 1999 and 2004, traveling with a nurse to dispensaries, some in remote areas, to supervise work in the lab and do internal audits of their finances, as well as bookkeeping at Moffat Bible College and helping in the library.
It was a day in 2004 when she came home and could look back at the wonderful life the Lord had given her, to work in a country that had become another home to her.
In May 2015, she was able to return for the 100th Anniversary of Kijabe Hospital, a week to be remembered and a great experience to see many with whom she had worked and trained.
Posted April 2022
