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For Such a Time as This
I’ve spent time observing and evaluating different areas of Dessalines Hospital in Haiti. While there are some internal changes that need to be made, the hospital as a whole is making every effort to deliver patient services with minimal help and a lack of supplies while the staff tries to maintain a positive outlook about their work and the stability of their jobs. This morning, as I walked around the hospital, several things came to my attention. In the nurses’ station a woman in her 20s was crying uncontrollably. She had just found out that a young girl (11 or 12) who had come to stay with her had gotten pregnant by her (the older woman’s) brother. What really struck me about this situation were the compassion and concern I observed as our chaplain and one of the nurses tried to ease this woman’s pain. When I returned later, she was speaking with the nurses, a smile on her face. In the medical/surgical area, I saw another woman lovingly holding and caressing her elderly mother, who appeared to be dying. I had flashbacks to the time when my own mother was dying. My heart filled with empathy. Yet another inpatient, a man probably in his 30s, was having difficulty breathing. He had traveled more than an hour to our hospital because he remembered how he was received and treated here another time when he was sick. He wanted to be treated again in our hospital. There are days when we’ve exhausted all our human strength and resources and feel all is futile. But then something happens to remind us of God’s greatness and goodness, and of His promise never to leave us. When we think about situations like these, and the many people who have received physical and spiritual healing as a result of our perseverance and faith, we are encouraged and recommitted to the task the Lord has placed before us. Like Esther, we are here “for such a time as this,” doing all we can to facilitate health and wholeness to a desperate people. FM Compassion Ministries The Free Methodist Church is a global movement, ever expanding into new areas of opportunity and ministry. Many of our health ministries work in areas of great need, reaching out to nonbelievers in Jesus’ name, as well as to Christian brothers and sisters outside North America. In addition to the hospitals listed here there are a number of FM health clinics and dispensaries worldwide.
Africa Asia Latin America
Honored Sheila Etherington was included in the Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours List and was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) medal for “services to healthcare and development in Rwanda.” This civilian honor was awarded by the queen in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Nov. 29, 2006. Appointed in 1983, Etherington was the first Free Methodist missionary from the United Kingdom-Great Britain Conference. She currently serves as nurse administrator at Rwanda’s Kibogora Hospital and is involved with some small community outreach groups. Kibogora serves approximately 135,000 people and is a clinical training site for an affiliated nursing and laboratory science school. The hospital’s reputation draws patients from neighboring Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.
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