|
School Transformed into Medical Clinic
|
Lavi Matesan Reporting
March 29-30 | |
JVMI has come to Ethiopia, per Romans 1:16, to the Jew first, and also to the nations, to demonstrate God’s love and care. We have come to be the hands and feet of our living Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus). I am here to see life in Ethiopia… and I find it in the details…
I know that God is in the details of this clinic. I see how many hours and how much effort and passion go into the preparations. God has given vision and strategy and provided the workers and their energy so the clinic can operate—that many shall not perish, but have life.
I’ve gathered but a few of the details to show some of the transformations taking place, for I know there are many interested, just as God is, in the process, the journey, and not just the destination or end result.
Take, for example, the school site at which the clinic is taking place. It was up to the school board to decide whether or not the school building could be used for the clinic. While the board was speaking against allowing the school to be used for the proposed medical clinic, Belene, an English teacher at the school who happens to be an Ethiopian Jew and the president of the school board, spoke in favor of the clinic and persuaded the board to allow it to take place at the school. She stressed that this clinic would be a great thing for the school and not something that should be met with opposition. You can check out the video clip of this… and be encouraged, knowing that God orchestrated a time and a place for Belene to speak to the school board, assist in securing the clinic’s site, and have regular school sessions suspended while the clinic was in operation.
The clinic site (used in previous years) was a discussion point when Cheryl Schang, JVMI VP of International Outreach, met with community leaders and city officials, seeking a more suitable site. The school across the street was suggested as an alternative. It could accommodate a clinic capacity of 10,000 people. It is in the preferred location—the Kechene district in Addis Ababa—that is willing to work within the budget of a nonprofit organization. The school cannot charge rent, so repairs and improvements will be made, including fixing windows and doors, painting, and providing eight computers. Children who attend the school will reap the benefits as a result of the clinic being held there.
Those are but two background stories. The school site’s transformation into a medical clinic is definitely the place to see God’s work. It is a sight to behold! Mikel Cary, JVMI Events Director, and Hapte, a local man acting as General Contractor for the clinic’s building projects, have hired local men and women to bring the clinic to its feet on-site.
Tents all along the grounds are set up to provide shade from the sun for those who are waiting in line or waiting to be seen by a medical professional. These are not just any tents—they were custom-made. They measure about 3 or 4 feet wide by 20 to 50 meters long so they will fit between the road and the canal on the side of the road where the people wait in line. And we have tents that are just as big and sound as the three metal and vinyl square tent structures normally found in stores that accommodate large numbers of people, but couldn’t be found in a quantity larger than the three. The tent postholes were dug in the ground using makeshift shovels of long wooden sticks with metal ends to break up the ground. Then a person scoops out the loose dirt with their cupped hands. A step ladder composed of the same wooden posts as the tents and makeshift shovels were used by the tent carpenter, dressed in orange uniform and dress shoes (it is likely that these are the only shoes he owns, which is why he’d wear them while performing physical labor), while he hammered nails into the posts to hold the structure together.
Meanwhile, field structures were constructed to accommodate needs and the school buildings themselves were prepared to meet clinic requirements. Rooms were scrubbed to remove layers of dirt from the floor, even if it meant hauling buckets of water up four flights of stairs. There is no running water at the school. I’ve heard that the first day of the clinic could be challenging without any water, which is normally cut off in the district at certain times of the week to accommodate the government’s conservation efforts. Electricity didn’t exist here before JVMI brought it. An electrician installed wiring for the required electrical instruments. “Porta-Potty” rental would solve the problem of waste disposal, which now takes the form of squatting over a hole. Word has it that Porta-Potties don’t exist in Ethiopia. Good thing Doctor Holley, JVMI’s Medical Director, knows how to not only run a clinic treating thousands, but also knows how to build a temp toilet.
This is but a small sampling of the clinic site prep details. More information on what it took to set up the medical, dental and eye clinic areas remain unknown (I didn’t want to stop the prep work for interviews, so I settled for watching the site’s transformation). We’ll get more on this from the med participants who, like me, are writing, recording and reporting. In less than eight hours, we’ll have stories of how people are treated for conditions they could have otherwise died from. We will learn how someone was prayed for who decided to make a decision for Yeshua (Jesus) as their Lord and Savior. We’ll discover how thousands in desperate need come to stand in line for hours and hours to be seen by a physician, and how a district was a part of making history when a clinic was set up at a school. Thousands of lives will be changed, and the Beta Israel and Beta Avraham Jewish communities will be ministered to… so that they might truly have life.
Over this next week, we will discover what life is really like for those who come to the medical clinic in the Kechene district of Addis Ababa, the city of five million people. It may be that quality of life will improve for thousands because their physical needs were met by eyeglasses or prescribed antibiotics. It may be that they were prayed for and received supernatural healing. We can give thanks to God for modern medicine and His wonderful healing touch. But what followers of Yeshua around the world should pray for the Beta Israel and Beta Avraham of Ethiopia and all of those who come seeking a medically-improved life, is that they be transformed, and have life—life everlasting.
Lavi Mateson reporting…April 1st…Addis Ababa
Greetings from Ethiopia! Besides technology/internet issues, everything is great. The medical outreach is an awesome project to behold from the actual scene and not just from what information is fed back to viewers via video or written content. I’ve been with the media team—Andy and Jeremy—and we’re getting so much great content with video and photo cameras.
As time permitted, we have walked along the streets of Kechene (the district where the medical outreach is taking place) before the clinic started, when we could take in what life is like in this neighborhood. We have captured great shots of the people walking to and fro, and, of course, all the kids, who we can’t seem to lose. We always draw a crowd of children as we walk. After all, we look so different from them, and they recognize that the electronic equipment we carry means they’ll get some attention… and the kids love, love, love attention.
They also love goodies, like candy or birr (Ethiopian currency), and some of them have no trouble asking for it. It’s great having kids come up to you and with their very limited English, say, “Hello,” or “Okay,” or “I love you.” My favorite line has been, “You’re beautiful.” Coming from these absolutely gorgeous people, it’s a high, high compliment to me. With their high cheekbones and chiseled features, slender bodies and smiling faces, truly, they are stunningly beautiful!
If they don’t know English, they speak to you in Amharic, hoping you’ll understand. Many a child or adult has come up to try to ask or tell me something in Amharic, and though I don’t understand and they can see it on my face, they keep trying. Inevitably, an Ethiopian who does speak English will come and translate or strike up a conversation himself. I happen to love people who will speak to me in Amharic even though I don’t understand and can’t speak back. It shows a certain boldness, confidence, an authentic desire to communicate, to share with me who they are and to try to get a sense of who I am.
Ethiopians are very warm, friendly and open people. If you make eye contact with them, they will smile, or do a slow nod/bow with their heads to show more than just acknowledgement…to show respect, to show they value you. If they don’t smile at first, it’s only because they wait to see if you will actually acknowledge them. They wait to be greeted and valued, and rightly so. As visitors, we should indeed show that we have come because we love them and desire good things for these people of Ethiopia.
We’ve come to the Jew first, but we care for and we’re treating all through the clinic, which has been up and running for two days now. The first day was a bit rough in some operational aspects, so I set down my camera and jumped in as a traffic controller to help with the flow of people going from one place to another. I could see how just one extra body could cut down on the chaos, so I’m definitely taking the opportunity to encourage anyone and everyone who has ever considered going on an outreach or a mission trip to volunteer. Just do it and go. Bodies are needed. If not to diagnose illnesses, to direct traffic, or to hold a precious little one’s hand.
It’s so great to see all the pieces of this particular event working together to function as it should so that lives may be saved! Getting the view while in the thick of it is altogether better than just observing it from the sidelines. I am thankful for the experience of having stood at a station, being a hand that could be held out for a little elderly lady to hold as she walked down the hill toward me so that she could make it to the Pharmacy holding area. I am grateful for the experience of playing catch with the boy who was waiting for his mother who was being seen by the physician. I’m happy to see how all the other kids were envious of him having a ball with which to play. I am also thankful for kids who constantly ask me to give them something, like water. It reminds me of what a luxury it is to be able to carry a bottle of water around with me in the States—as I travel in my car to the convenience store to just pick up whatever I need.
While Andy, Jeremy and I were out in streets of Kechene one day, surrounded by a crowd of eager kids, I felt my hair being touched. My back was turned, and I realized that some curious soul (most likely a young lady) had touched my hair out of curiosity. To her, I am something to behold. I assume it’s because there are tangible differences between me (an Anglo-Saxon Romanian girl), and a native Ethiopian. I am reminded of the woman who reached out to touch the hem of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) garment. When something so different—so unlike your everyday—comes into your everyday, things are shaken up. Suddenly, the world is different and you just know that you have to touch it, grab it, lay hold of that awesome, indescribable, eternal something. You see God in a different way.
That’s what Ethiopia is doing for me as much as maybe I am doing for some young Ethiopian girl. I am looking at God when I look at Ethiopia because He has put a characteristic of Himself here that I’m unsure of finding anywhere else. He did this with every nation, and He’s done it with every person He has created—a unique, beautiful entity that is simply a reflection of His infinitely creative self. What a God we have! I see Him on the streets of Kechene on the faces of the people and feel His hand as He grabs me via the hands of a little one who just wants to reach me when words fail and only hands will do as we walk the clinic compound.
And the technology/internet issues that I was going to discuss to give you a better perspective into this developing nation have fled from my mind at the moment…perhaps I should try sending this off to you via email before my thoughts come back.
| | |
|
 |
|
