Marhabaan! Which is Hello in Arabic. Even though most of Israel speaks Hebrew, the city of Nazareth speaks primarily Arabic! My team and I arrived in Israel about 5 days ago and we live in an apartment flat on the hospital campus of which we are volunteering at. The hospital is called The EMMS Nazareth Hospital. There are 9 other girls on my team and we are all World Race alumni and live in varies parts of the America! The ministry looks different for each person but my ministry involves serving in the Nazareth Village and working in the Maternity Ward at the Hospital, which I expressed STRONG interest in due to my love for babies and nursing!! As you can assume, Israel is in the desert so it can get VERY hot and the past few days have been nothing but just that!
The EMMS Nazareth Hospital is the general hospital in Nazareth and stands for Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. It was founded by a Christian missionary doctor named Dr. Karloost Vartan in 1861. It has grown enormously over the past years and has many services and departments such as childbirth and gynecology, orthopedic and general surgery, urology, plastics and emergency medicine! It also has a School of Nursing, which is primarily attended by Muslim students and is the only Arab nursing school in the country! This school educates students and incorporates faith and a biblical standpoint to their studies, much like Messiah College does. A student can receive their RN in 2 years and their BSN in 3 years! Fortunately, we got to meet the principle of the school and some of the students! I’m very excited to be serving along side of the nurses here in Nazareth and cannot wait to learn from them!
Serving in the maternity ward looks a lot like being a nurse aid. I get to change, feed and wash the babies as they come from the delivery rooms! We make sure they are ready for the doctors to come and look at them and for the mothers to take them home as well. The maternity department is very busy at EMMS Nazareth Hospital and I have already had my fair share of holding really CUTE babies. God really loves me.
Living in Israel has already been so sweet. Every day here I wake up to a dream. The Lord has been preparing my heart for this time and the more time I spend here, the more my Creator intertwines my heart with His. Being in the hometown of Jesus and loving on the same people Jesus did is such a humbling and sanctifying feeling. What a privilege. Every morning I have my devotions and my cup of coffee (coffee lovers… you won’t be impressed with the coffee here sadly) on our balcony that overlooks the city of Nazareth. And every morning I pray for Him to heal this land and the hearts of these chosen people.
In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses is speaking to all of Israel and says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all of the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possessions.”
Please be praying for my team and I as we build relationships with the locals here and as we serve along side in the various ministries here at the hospital and out in the village. Please also be praying for our safety here and as we travel to different parts of Israel later this month! And lastly but definitely not least, please be praying for the people of this country- for peace and protection only the Lord can provide and for the hearts of the believers in Israel to be strengthened and filled with God’s promises.
