More than a year and a half ago, Integrity Worldwide raised funds with a race to build a medical clinic thousands of miles away in a village in Kenya, Africa.

Now, Averee Hicks, who co-founded Integrity, will head to Meto where the clinic is now near completion with a team made up of her, her husband and seven others to practice in it for the first time.

“It’s a realization of a dream,” Hicks said Tuesday. “I think the biggest thing for us is we’ve really seen God at work with resources and how he can do beyond anything we could ever dream or hope for. This clinic is really beyond what we dreamed for and hoped for.”

After a couple of years of dreaming, planning and raising funds, Hicks said she is excited to see the clinic in person.

“We’re so excited. It’s been a couple of years in the preparation, and then we broke ground on the trip last year in August and started building. This will be April that we’ll step foot in the building, and they’ve been busy building, so it’s a fabulous facility.”

Hicks said the clinic isn’t entirely finished, but it is ready enough so that when she and eight others get there, they will be able to hold a medical clinic there.

“We’ll be practicing for the first time in the Integrity Health and Dental Clinic,” she said. “We are doing medical and dental clinics, along with outreach.”

Hicks said the clinic will help expand medical services.

“It’s going to enable us to provide a lot of medical care and services, patient education and wellness programs for the Massai in a region in rural Kenya,” she said. “It’s going to really expand healthcare delivery in that area, so we are just beside ourselves about it.”

The team members on this trip are James Osborn, Kelli and Nesbert Vaval, Kathryn Dismuke, Holly and Alec Martin, Janet Atchison and Alan and Averee Hicks.

“Each team is unique and different and has its own personality, but God really touches every person on the team and then that has an effect on all of the people that we minister to,” she said.

The team will visit three different villages providing medical and dental care, as well as ministering to them. Hicks said they are taking Bibles to hand out to people in the village.

“We’re taking children’s Bibles, pocket New Testaments, and then we’re taking bound Bibles and Old Testament and New Testament,” Hicks said. “What we’re also doing is we have purchased Maa Bibles, which is the language of the Massai, that will be waiting there for us, so we’re really going to use those to reach out to people who don’t know the good news of Jesus.”

Hicks said Integrity reached its May for Meto goal of $7,500, but people are still welcome to give back to their mission.

Anyone interested in learning more about Integrity Worldwide or donating can visit www.integrityworldwide.org.