Emergency Medicine Serving Opportunity Abroad
Emergency Medicine at Kijabe Hospital
AIC Kijabe Hospital is a Level 5 tertiary referral hospital in Kenya—roughly comparable to a large regional referral hospital or community teaching hospital in the United States, providing both specialty and subspecialty care while serving a broad referral population. Located about 60 minutes from Nairobi and about a 90-minute drive from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the hospital has an incredibly large catchment area including both rural and urban populations. Founded in 1915 as a small mission hospital and now grown into a 363-bed referral and teaching institution, Kijabe Hospital remains committed to its mission of glorifying God through compassionate healthcare, training and spiritual ministry. Within our recently renovated 12-bed emergency department, we provide around-the-clock emergency care supported by modern resources, including a Siemens 128-slice CT scanner, digital radiology, point-of-care ultrasound, electronic medical records and intensive care unit (ICU) capability. A unique strength of our department is our partnership with Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officers (ECCCOs), highly trained non-physician clinicians who work alongside our physicians to deliver emergency and critical care services. In partnership with AIC Kijabe Hospital College, the emergency department works to actively train 10 to 14 ECCCOs every 18 months and is deeply invested in developing the next generation of emergency care professionals for Kenya and East Africa. The department is currently staffed by two U.S. board-certified emergency medicine physicians who work closely with Kenyan colleagues, trainees and visiting learners. Kijabe Hospital hosts numerous training programs—including residencies, nursing education, clinical officer training and specialty postgraduate programs—that help support and strengthen emergency care across the institution. We welcome visiting emergency medicine physicians, residents, fellows and other healthcare professionals for experiences ranging from two weeks to several months, and we have an ongoing need for volunteers, with a particular need for additional support during summer 2027. For more information about how you can help, serve, practice or join, please email [email protected].
Meet the Emergency Medicine Physicians
Jon Matson, MD
Jon Matson, MD, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and missionary with Africa Inland Mission (AIM) who has served at AIC Kijabe Hospital since August 2015 with his wife Nadia and three children. He earned his medical degree from Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in 1990, completed a transitional year internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (1990 to 1991) and completed his emergency medicine residency at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio (1995 to 1998). Fellowship-trained in emergency ultrasound, Dr. Matson played a key role in the growth of emergency and critical care services at Kijabe. He currently serves as Director of the Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officer (ECCCO) program, helping train the next generation of emergency and critical care professionals for Kenya and East Africa. Through his clinical work, teaching, mentorship and leadership, he is committed to strengthening sustainable emergency care systems and advancing Christ-centered healthcare ministry.
Tim DeKoninck, MD
Tim DeKoninck, MD, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician serving with Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC) at AIC Kijabe Hospital since July 2023. He earned his medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in 2017, where he was inducted into both the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio from 2017 to 2020. Following residency, he served at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya from 2021 to 2023, helping develop emergency and critical care services while caring for acutely ill and injured patients. At Kijabe, Dr. DeKoninck focuses on emergency care delivery, community training, quality improvement, medical education and the training of Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officers (ECCCOs). Together with his wife Stacey and their four children, he serves in Kenya through Christian Health Service Corps, with a passion for equipping healthcare workers, strengthening emergency care systems and advancing compassionate, Christ-centered healthcare ministry throughout Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Emergency Medicine Teaching/Serving Opportunity
Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officer Program
The Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officer (ECCCO) Program was established at AIC Kijabe Hospital in 2015 by Drs. Peter Halstrap and Burton Lee to address the growing need for clinicians trained in emergency and critical care across Kenya and the region. The 18-month program provides advanced training for Clinical Officers through a combination of hands-on clinical experience, structured didactics, simulation and procedural training.
Training takes place at both AIC Kijabe Hospital and Tenwek Hospital, where trainees care for a diverse range of medical, trauma, pediatric, obstetric and surgical emergencies. Throughout the program, learners develop skills in patient resuscitation, airway management, critical care, trauma care and point-of-care ultrasound while working alongside experienced emergency medicine physicians, consultants and ECCCO graduates.
Since its inception in 2015, the ECCCO program has trained dozens of emergency and critical care clinicians who now serve in mission, private and government hospitals throughout Kenya and the region. Many graduates have gone on to become educators, clinical leaders and advocates for the advancement of emergency care within their institutions and professional organizations.
The program remains committed to developing highly skilled clinicians who can provide timely, high-quality emergency and critical care in resource-limited settings while strengthening the future of emergency medicine across East Africa.
For more information about participating or joining the ECCCO conference in Africa this winter, please email [email protected].
Global Health Outreach (GHO) is a short-term international missions ministry of CMDA. We are dedicated to providing healthcare while spreading the gospel by sending medical, dental and surgical teams around the world. Please click here for available trips.
Please join GHO for this upcoming trip to India in September! For more information, click here.
Medical Education International (MEI) is a short-term missions program that provides academic teaching and clinical training upon request from governments, healthcare professional training institutions, and hospitals while building relationships with local colleagues and modelling the compassion, care and love of Jesus. To review MEI opportunities, please click here.
There are moments in life when medicine becomes more than charts, protocols, and prescriptions. Moments when healing looks like eye contact, a gentle touch, and the dignity of being seen. Our recent medical mission to South Asia with GHO was one of those moments.
Our team - made up of physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and eyeglass personnel - came together with a single purpose: to serve. Over the course of our time in rural communities, we had the privilege of caring for hundreds of individuals who otherwise have little to no access to medical care.
But what we encountered went far beyond physical illness.
We met mothers who had never seen a healthcare professional. Elderly men who quietly endured pain because treatment felt out of reach. Children who had learned to live with discomfort because it was all they had ever known. And yet, in the midst of need, we were met with humility, gratitude, and joy that words struggle to capture.
We spent meaningful time with orphans, listening to their stories and sharing moments of laughter that transcended language. We encouraged seminary students, many preparing to serve faithfully in communities where resources are scarce and faith is costly. We walked alongside people in rural villages, where medical care is not a guarantee - but hope still flourishes.
For some on our team, this was their first international medical mission. They arrived with clinical skills and left with hearts forever changed. For others, the journey was deeply personal -returning to the land of their birth for the first time since coming to faith. To serve their own people, now as believers, was both sacred and full circle.
What united us all was the realization that healing is not just about medicine - it’s about presence. About showing up. About reminding the poor, the hurting, and the forgotten that they are not invisible.
This is what GHO does so beautifully. It creates space for professionals to use their skills for eternal impact. It brings compassionate care to places the world often overlooks. And it changes not only those who are served - but those who serve. I heard it said more than once… “We came to serve YOU…and yet we leave feeling like you served us!”
If you’ve ever felt the quiet nudge to do more with your training…If you’ve wondered what it would be like to use your gifts beyond borders…If your heart aches for the poor, the hurting, and the lost overseas…We invite you to consider taking a trip with GHO.
Come serve. Come see. Come be changed.
Because sometimes, the greatest healing happens in our own hearts.
-Dr. King
