Lawrence ear, nose and throat surgeon Steve Segebrecht saw more than 60 patients in one day during his July 2005 medical mission to Kenya.

His 10-day mission was the first time a doctor had spent more than four hours in the impoverished Maai Mahiu village and the orphanage.

Segebrecht was tired that evening, and in the darkness, he could barely see to examine patients. At least 20 more people were still waiting outside, and Segebrecht thought they would have to wait another day.

Then his interpreter, a Kenyan seminary student, said those waiting only wanted someone to pray with them. The translator eventually prayed, and Segebrecht gave most of them small keepsake crosses.

“The people over there, they never get contact or personal touch by another adult or parental figure,” said Zane Wilemon, a 2000 Kansas University graduate and founder of the nonprofit group Comfort the Children International.

Segebrecht and Wilemon will return later this month to the Kenyan village with more than a dozen people from Lawrence and across the country to provide medical care and assistance with other projects, including constructing a library.

“Our vision is that through relationship-building, we receive the connectedness and the understanding of how we can best walk with these people to a better way of life,” said Wilemon, who is from Texas, but has spent the past few months as a chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Dr. Steve Segebrecht uses an operating microscope to treat Clifford Evans' chronic ear infection Thursday at the Lawrence Surgery Center, Sixth and Maine streets. Segebrecht and a group of missionary doctors and nurses from Lawrence will leave for Maai Mahiu, Kenya, on Aug. 22, where they will offer medical care for 10 days.

Wilemon leaves next week, and Segebrecht will leave on Aug. 22 with the medical team. Lawrence optometrists Dan Smith and Aaron Wilmes and surgeon Kiernan O’Callaghan, who is in the process of moving to Lawrence from Topeka, will make the trip.

Paula O’Callaghan will help run the pharmacy, and Janice Fager, O’Callaghan’s nurse who lives in Reading, also will assist the medical team. Richard Smith, Dan’s father, will help the construction team.

Segebrecht is eager to return.

“I think we will make a difference in the community. In terms of providing more health care, that will serve as a real need, and the people will directly benefit from that,” he said.

During the 10 days, the medical team will provide the most thorough medical care, including optometry and internal medicine examinations, to residents of the village, which sits on what is known as the “AIDS Highway” in northwestern Kenya.

Fager looks forward to interacting with residents, particularly with young children at the orphanage.

“I’m a good hugger,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of grandkids. I’m bringing lots of nail polish to paint the girls’ nails, and bubbles, crayons and coloring books.”

Zane Wilemon, a seminary student based in Austin, Texas, and Kansas University graduate, is founder of the nonprofit organization Comfort the Children International, which organized the Lawrence doctors' trip.

In the last year, Lawrence and Kansas residents have helped donate enough books for a library at the village’s high school and grade school.

The Lawrence Surgery Center has been a dropoff spot for donated books, and several Kansas school districts have made donations. More than two tons, or 100 boxes, of books, mostly textbooks, have been shipped to Kenya.

Others from Texas, Arizona and Colorado will make the trip and help improve the library, including constructing shelves in the designated space.

“Our vision is that our organization ends up placing these libraries in schools all over Kenya and hopefully all over Africa to provide a better opportunity for children,” Wilemon said.

The KU School of Architecture has donated 12 computers that will become part of the new library, and students and faculty have helped plan for a community center there some day.

Most of the Lawrence contingent met Saturday to practice some basic Swahili.

“I think it’s just a matter of making people feel comfortable. It creates a little bit of a connection or bond,” Wilemon said.

“It will also give them a lot of hope – the fact that we are coming back in greater numbers,” Segebrecht said.