As soon as we opened the Jewish Voice Outreach Clinic in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, the skies broke open with a downpour. But heavy rains discouraged none of the hundreds of people waiting in line to see medical professionals. An elderly woman near the front lavishly thanked two Jewish Voice Outreach Partners for being there. Throughout her verbal expressions of appreciation she never stopped kissing their hands.

The woman had come to the Jewish Voice Ministries Clinic for eye treatment. Vision issues are abundant in Debre Birhan, and we were blessed with two additional ophthalmologists on this Outreach team resulting in 3,258 eye treatments! Additionally 255 eye surgeries were completed during the short week. More importantly, we witnessed more than 400 professions of faith in Yeshua (Jesus), despite the prayer room’s off-site location.

The Debre Birhan Outreach team broke records, welcoming the most patients Jewish Voice has ever treated in a five-day Clinic – 15,919! Michael McClellan, JVMI’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, reminded the team that the accomplishment wasn’t about breaking a record.  “It’s about not turning people away,” he said.

Debre Birhan, Ethiopia - 2018

• 15,919 Patients treated, including …
  • 1,157 Dental Patients treated
  • 3,379 Eyeglasses distributed
  • 3,258 Eye treatments completed
  • 255 Eye surgeries completed
  • 114 Successful minor surgeries
• Clean Water Distribution
  • 12,540 Individual LifeStraws distributed
  • 124 Family LifeStraw® units distributed
  • 2 Community LifeStraw® units distributed
• 406 Verbal professions of faith in Yeshua

You touched 15,919 lives in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, with your prayers and financial gifts through Jewish Voice Ministries. That’s an astonishing number of people who received care because of your partnership. Thank you for choosing to make a difference in their lives.

Help us continue to spread hope, healing and the Good News of Yeshua to Jewish people and their neighbors in Ethiopia

At our recent Medical Outreach in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, Jewish Voice distributed an astounding 12,000 LifeStraws®. Thanks to the partnership of people like you, 12,000 men, women and children will enjoy a year or more of clean water.

That’s one year of freedom from the debilitating water-borne illnesses and possible death they would have endured drinking water from polluted rivers and wells. We can’t overstate the importance of what you, our partners, helped us accomplish. 

But we can still do more. There are much more than 12,000 people in Debre Birhan and our other Outreach areas that could benefit from access to LifeStraws. We hope to eventually bring clean water to them all, just as we hope to reach them all with the Good News of Yeshua (Jesus), the true Living Water.

Please consider giving a LifeStraw today to make a critical difference in the life of a Jewish person or their neighbor.

Each LifeStraw costs just $15, or about the same as three cups of premium coffee. For the same amount as three mornings of caffeination, you can improve someone’s life for 365 mornings – and evenings.

More often, we see stretchers made of goat skins stretched between two branches and covered with blankets like the one below.

Last week in Enfranz, Ethiopia, we also saw several people brought in on homemade planks or bench-like pallets.

Friday, May 31, 2018

On Friday, the last day of the Enfranz Medical Clinic, a woman entered the Clinic balancing a large basket on her head. Our Line Management leader was told that, in the bundle, she carried her dead baby. A hushed moment of somber respect passed among those standing at the gate as they watched the woman steadfastly walk in bare feet toward the Triage Department.

In Triage, the brave woman became a priority for care. She put down the basket and opened the blankets. Inside, to everyone’s joy, was a beautiful, living baby girl. The mother had experienced trouble after delivering her baby and knew two things: that she needed help and our Clinic was there.

She had begun walking to us “when the birds started singing” that morning, she explained. According to the sunrise, that would be about 6:00 a.m. She walked approximately eight miles and reached the Clinic at 8:30 a.m. In the OBGYN Department, mother and daughter received care. There in the Clinic, she gave her baby daughter the name Hannah.

The team of doctors and medical professionals on this Outreach treated 6,000 patients in just two days. It is such a remarkable blessing to impact so many lives in Yeshua’s name!

Some of the people receiving care at the Clinic have told us stories of persecution. Because they are Jewish or Jewish Believers in Yeshua (Jesus), they are rejected, beaten and distrusted. A common superstition is that people believe Jewish people have “the evil eye,” abilities to curse or cause bad things to happen. For this reason, many are considered to be liars and are shunned and disbelieved in whatever they say.

Please pray for the Jewish people in the Enfranz, Ethiopia area as well as those they live among. When Jewish Voice brings no-cost medical care to a location, the entire community benefits and the people see that they have received a blessing because of the Jewish people living among them. In this way, we see anti-Semitism in the region begin to dismantle.

Monday, May 28, 2018

The Line Management teams on JVMI Medical Outreaches work to ensure efficient lines. We had so many people in line on Monday that our team had to create an overflow area, shown below. If you look closely in the photo, you can see many people who found shade among the trees.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The nursing station was bustling today as they helped a large number patients. One woman was given fluids for dehydration. The nurses were so busy that our photographer couldn’t even find out about the others he saw there. Meanwhile, thousands of people waited outside the gates, eager for their turn to enter the Clinic and receive medical, dental or eye care.

This afternoon was the first rain the team had seen in Enfranz despite a forecast that had predicted rain every day during the Outreach. It was just a sprinkle at the end of the day, but when the team left the Clinic, a massive storm cloud came through behind the campsite.