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The Nazareth Trust Spring 2019
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY REACH ACROSS OFFERING PRAYER SPIRITUAL CARE
A word from our Chief Executive... It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our latest newsletter featuring stories from across our work in Nazareth. You will see that this issue has a particular focus on volunteers and their impact on our work. We are blessed as an organisation to attract such a great number of people both locally and internationally who give so freely of their time and talents to support our work. Without them our activities could not reach as many patients and visitors as they do. One such activity and a vital part of our Christian ethos and mission here in Nazareth is our chaplaincy and spiritual care ministry. While we are blessed to have a full-time chaplain in Rev. Suheil Bathish, the chaplaincy relies on a team of local volunteers who commit to regular visits to wards and patients during the week. The local team is often helped by SERVE volunteers and at various times of the year by whole teams of international visitors, as during our Health and Healing Weeks. Time and time again we are reminded of the unique position we find ourselves in with our hospital Chaplaincy here in Nazareth. It is an opportunity to reach out to people across denominations, faiths and backgrounds at a point of real spiritual need. As we recognise how important spiritual care is, we are acutely aware that we need to expand our chaplaincy to become a 24/7 service – patients’ needs do not, after all, stop at night or at the weekend.
We want to be able to offer prayer and presence to all patients and their families. To address this need, we are launching a campaign to fund an International Volunteer Chaplaincy at the Nazareth Trust. This will allow us to employ a chaplaincy co-ordinator who will establish partnerships with churches, Christian organisations and colleges to recruit a pool of mature Christians to come to Nazareth for three months or longer as international volunteer chaplains. Among them we hope to attract ministers who are retired, looking to spend a sabbatical in chaplaincy or ministry students. Our aim is to have six volunteer chaplains here in Nazareth at any one time, so that we would not only be able to cover our patients’ needs for spiritual care, but also be able to share skills and experience with our local volunteers. You will see from some of the articles in this newsletter what a positive impact our chaplaincy has. I hope you will join us in our campaign to expand its capacity for giving much-needed and appreciated spiritual care at our hospital.
Richard Mayhew, Chief Executive
Positive impact through our volunteer chaplaincy ministry
Simon, a local volunteer, tells about one of his encounters with patients.
I am grateful to God for the opportunity of serving as part of the pastoral care ministry team at the Nazareth Hospital where my wife and I have been volunteer chaplains for the past five years. This ministry has allowed us to meet and pray with many hundreds of people of all faiths and none. Recently I met a middle-aged patient when I was visiting the wards distributing spiritual materials. After we had spoken for a while about his physical health, I offered to pray with him. At the end of our prayer he asked me whether when he was discharged he would be permitted to take one of the Bibles available to patients home with him. He had started reading it during his time in hospital. I told him that he was welcome to do so. After all, the reason the Bibles had been donated to the hospital by Gideons International was to provide patients and their families with spiritual guidance and support in their time of need. I prayed that reading the Bible
would strengthen and encourage him as he recovered. About a week later I happened to be in a shopping mall in Nazareth Illit when I met this man again. He looked well and told me that he had been reading the Bible every day. He had completed the New Testament which he found very interesting. Reading the Gospels, he was intrigued by the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and had many questions, so he invited me to his home to learn more about the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It was a great privilege for me to visit this former patient in his home, to answer his questions and explain more about God’s plan of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ. Please pray for this man to receive more revelation of God’s mercy and grace as he continues to read the Bible and that the Lord will use him in the future to be a witness of his love and salvation to others.
Pray for all our volunteer chaplains who visit and pray with patients at our hospital, that, strengthened by their own faith, they will continue to have a positive impact on the spiritual lives of the patients they encounter.
Reversal of roles as chaplain becomes a patient at the Nazareth Hospital
The pastoral care offered to patients and their families at the Nazareth Hospital by our Chaplaincy has formed part of its holistic care approach for over thirty years.
The current hospital chaplain, Rev Suheil Bathish, has offered this ministry of presence at the bedside of many hundreds of patients during the thirteen years he has served in this role. The team of volunteer chaplains from local churches and the SERVE Nazareth programme, which he coordinates, have done likewise. Recently however, Pastor Suheil found himself in the reversed role of a patient in the hospital needing pastoral care himself when he was admitted for an operation. It served as a dramatic reminder of the critical importance of this ministry to patients in their time of need. Suheil admitted to feelings of anxiety and apprehension about having to be admitted to hospital for surgery for the first time in his life. He really came to appreciate the importance of the prayer and messages of support he received as he was waiting for his surgery in the operating rooms of the Nazareth Hospital. However, as he was awaiting surgery he missed the physical presence of someone to speak to about his anxiety and to pray with. Similarly, during the disorientation he experienced in the recovery room after his operation he longed for someone to
reassure and encourage him. Sadly, no volunteer chaplains were on duty at the time of his operation and the Spiritual Director was also still recovering from a minor medical procedure on the previous day. Pastor Suheil’s experience highlights the important need for the chaplaincy team to be expanded to cover different times of the day, especially in our acute care departments where patients face particular emotional and spiritual challenges. Pastor Suheil says that his experience has served to increase his empathy for other patients in all departments of the Nazareth Hospital and to appreciate the importance of the pastoral and spiritual care that is offered to them whilst in our care. He is also full of appreciation and admiration for the professional treatment and care he received from all the staff at the hospital - admissions, medical and support staff - who were attentive to his needs as a patient (and those of all the patients around him) which served to ease his pain and anxiety. He expresses his sincere thanks and gratitude to all of them for their contribution to making the Nazareth Hospital such a unique and special health care institution.
Please continue to pray for Pastor Suheil as he recovers from his operation and for the spiritual care ministry at the Nazareth Hospital, which we are seeking to expand through a creative partnership between international and local volunteer chaplains serving alongside each other to offer compassionate and professional spiritual care to all those who require it.
Big changes ahead to welcome our volunteers At the SERVE Nazareth office we are always saying hello and goodbye to people. It is a real privilege to meet so many amazing people from all around the world, to share Nazareth with them, to get to know them and see them grow through their experiences here. A big part of our work is to prepare our volunteers’ accommodation, from assigning room space well ahead of their stay, to making sure rooms are cleaned and beds are made, to putting food in their fridges and making sure they have an appropriately sized SERVE t-shirt. There is always a sense of excitement and pleasure when we prepare a volunteer’s room in a way that feels really welcoming. The main building we use for our volunteer accommodation is the Doctor’s House. It’s a unique, characterful building, but after over 100 years of use, it needs some serious repair. Years of piecemeal maintenance work has kept things working, but it is time to upgrade the building properly to really create a home for our volunteers that is suitable for the environment they come to live in, through both the hot summer and the wet winter months.
The purpose of the Doctor’s House has always been to house both long and short-term visitors, but with the continuing growth of the SERVE programme and the different needs of the many volunteers who come, we need to move quickly to make changes and increase capacity. This is why, by the end of the year, we hope to have begun major refurbishment of the Doctor’s House, not only to deal with the strain of time on such an historic building, but also to create a place suited to our new needs, one that will be able to accommodate more people, with increased flexibility and with infrastructure to support modern necessities, making it a comfortable place to stay year round. Providing the best we can for our amazing volunteers who SERVE here in Nazareth is at the heart of our programme. Christine Farah Director of SERVE Nazareth
We give thanks for the planning by architects and engineers that has happened so far and for funds that are in place to get started on refurbishment work. Please pray that contractors can start on the most essential work – a new roof – soon and that future funding can be found.
Serving at Nazareth Village
Renee Beachy is a long-term volunteer who has been serving with the Nazareth Trust since the middle of October last year. She decided to apply for a one-year internship with SERVE Nazareth after first visiting with her two sisters for a month in 2017 to ‘check-out’ what she would be getting into by volunteering in Nazareth longer-term. Renee so enjoyed her time that she returned a year later, this time serving in the Nazareth Village kitchen, preparing meals and hosting teams of visitors in the dining room to enhance their experience of first-century life in Nazareth at the time of Jesus. She also steps into the role of a villager when needed, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to see the Bible and parables of Jesus presented in a dynamic, living way. Serving in these different roles at Nazareth Village has been an enriching and faithbuilding experience for Renee and has enabled her to forge relationships with other local and international volunteers. Having grown up in a fairly insular Mennonite community in Virginia, USA, Renee says that the most important thing she has learnt while volunteering and living in community with other SERVErs has been meeting and interacting with people from varied backgrounds and cultures who have different values and expressions of the Christian faith to her own.
Engaging with people from cultures she was not familiar with has taught Renee the importance of listening and learning from people whose life and faith experiences differ significantly from her own. Despite these challenges, she has felt loved and supported by the strong Christian community that SERVE Nazareth has provided, enabling her to connect with others in friendship and service. As one of our long-term volunteers, Renee has also helped to provide continuity, welcoming new arrivals whilst sadly having to say goodbye to newly made friends and fellow SERVErs. Renee says she is by nature someone who prefers to make long-term friends. Yet she has learnt to appreciate the importance of giving and receiving love and friendship in the present moment while in Nazareth, and entrusting her plans to God by surrendering her future to the Lord.
We are grateful for the many volunteers who help us get through the busy tourist season. They also allow us to offer tours in as many a 13 languages. Please pray that volunteers with varied language skills will come forward to help us continue to bring the words of Jesus to life in the heart languages of our visitors.
Miracles do still happen – a story of a modern-day Lazarus of Nazareth A 64-year-old man was recently brought back to life after suffering a serious heart attack and collapsing right outside the entrance to the Emergency Room (ER) of the Nazareth Hospital, due to the excellent team effort by staff from the ER, Heart Catheterisation and Intensive Care Departments. The man, a father and grandfather from Nazareth, had been suffering from chest pain, shortness of breath and dizziness for a few days prior to driving himself to the ER as his symptoms became more acute. He dropped off his wife outside the ER as she is disabled, parked his car and walked up the hill to the entrance where he suddenly collapsed to the ground as he suffered a major heart attack. After diagnosing the critical nature of the cardiac event, the ER staff immediately attended to him and began to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in a prolonged and vigorous effort to resuscitate and stabilise the patient. During this time, his wife and family were very distraught and anxious and continued to seek clarity about the condition of their husband and father from the ER staff. One of the cardiologists from the Catheterisation Laboratory was called to explain to them what was being done to help him.
After close to 50 minutes of advanced CPR the patient was taken to the Catheterisation Unit where an emergency procedure was carried out. It revealed a blocked right coronary artery which was opened and a pacemaker implanted to support his heart function. Therapeutic hypothermia was then initiated to achieve a body temperature of around 33 degrees Celsius to minimise neurological complications, and the patient was transferred to the hopital’s Intensive Care Department where he was monitored continually. After two days his body temperature was raised and to the astonishment of the staff, he regained consciousness and began talking about the football lottery. He was told not to worry about winning the lottery as he had gained the most precious prize there is – his life. His overjoyed wife knew he was on the road to recovery when he started asking her for some of his favourite food.foods.
The patient suffered no neurological complications thanks to the determined, compassionate and professional treatment and care he received at our hospital. After six days he was discharged and is undergoing follow-up monitoring as is normal for patients who have suffered a cardiac event of this magnitude. Commenting on this case, Dr Fahed Hakim, Medical Director of the Nazareth Hospital EMMS, said: “This case demonstrates the amazing team-work and professional conduct of our staff in the Emergency, Cardiology and Intensive Care Departments who went above and beyond in their attempts to resuscitate, stabilise and treat this patient and we thank God for the positive outcome of their efforts. I extend my thanks and appreciation
to all those involved in this case for their professional, compassionate and determined effort to restore this patient back to his family at this Easter season when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with joy and thanksgiving!” The patient’s wife and family have publicly expressed their heartfelt thanks to all the staff who helped save their husband and father. We are proud to be part of this wonderful institution that continues to offer healing in the name of Jesus to the people of Nazareth and beyond in such a compassionate and professional manner. We extend our best wishes for continuing health and recovery and God’s blessings to this ‘Lazarus of Nazareth’ and his family.
Nazareth Academic School of Nursing continues to make headlines The Nazareth Academic School of Nursing (NASN) continues to make headlines as the only Arab School of Nursing in Israel. Recently its Director Dr Amal Khazin and two of her students were interviewed on a local Arab TV station about the changes taking place in the nursing profession and how the NASN was reflecting these changes. Key topics of this interview were the academic developments introduced by the Ministry of Health to the nursing profession and how the NASN reflects these in its revised curriculum. The added value of the Christian and ethical focus of the school were also addressed. This focus is reflected in the personalised approach to learning
offered to students and the social and spiritual activities arranged by the school. Recently, a group of Swedish students with the charity Operation Mobilisation visited the school, volunteering as part of the SERVE Nazareth programme. They engaged with the local nursing students and taught them one of their worship songs in Swedish.
The NASN is currently publicising and recruiting students for its third BA nursing degree course, which is due to commence in October this year. The school is hoping to enrol 50 new students in addition to the 300 students who are currently studying one of the three programmes the school offers – Registered Nurse (RN), BA conversion to Nursing, and BA Nursing. This will lead to a total student population of over 350 students. Consequently, plans for expansion by building an additional floor on the top of the current building are well advanced to accommodate the anticipated increase in the number of nursing students as well as teaching staff, who currently number 16. Despite this expansion, the NASN continues to provide a sense of community and a positive learning
environment where students feel personally valued and cared for, and where students who have been rejected by other academic institutions for behavioural problems have found an environment where they are personally mentored and enabled to thrive. On 16th May the NASN hosted the Chief Nurse of Israel for the celebration of Nurses Day when various activities took place surrounding stories of nursing excellence at the Nazareth Hospital. Nurses in the Emergency Room recently went beyond the call of duty to resuscitate and stabilise a patient who had collapsed at the entrance to the ER from a heart attack by continuing to administer CPR for nearly 50 minutes. The remarkable story of this patient’s recovery from his near death experience is recorded elsewhere in this newsletter.
Please continue to pray for the required number of suitable students to enrol for the third intake of the BA Nursing Programme which commences in October and for the right person to be found to replace Dr Amal Khazin as the Director of the NASN following her retirement later this year.
Helping Hands A reflection by one of our walkers on the 2019 Jesus Trail hike from Nazareth to Capernaum There were a number of memorable events along the Jesus Trail sponsored walk which was hiked together by the 24 participants from abroad and local staff and volunteers as part of the Nazareth Challenge this year. These include: the abundance and colourful array of flowers in the fields and lush green vegetation along the way; the good fun and fellowship enjoyed with the participants as we journeyed together; the great food provided by various departments of the Nazareth Hospital for lunch each day; and, of course, the silent and spoken reflections on the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth in whose footsteps we were walking from Nazareth to Capernaum. However, perhaps the most memorable of these events took place on the morning of the fourth day of our hike when we had to descend from the top of the Arbel escarpment to Wadi Hamam in inclement weather and then traverse through the valley because the more direct route down the Arbel cliff face was closed due to the wet weather. Having slipped and slid our way down the path to the valley floor, we were confronted with a water obstacle, as the usually small stream which trickles through the valley had become a
wide pond of water in places, following the copious winter rains which Israel has experienced this winter. The path through the valley required us to cross this stream no fewer than 10 times which was accomplished by hopping across rather slippery boulders. This provided both a challenge and a great opportunity for teamwork to ensure that everyone was able to cross safely and with relatively dry boots and socks. We formed a human chain and provided helping hands to stabilise and support each person across the stream. These crossings reminded me of the wonderful verse in Isaiah where God says “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.� (Isaiah 41:10)
The helping hands provided by Itamar, our local guide, Laurie, our event manager from the UK office, and other people in the group enabled us to navigate all of these water obstacles safely and we were able to hike on to Magdala where a glorious lunch provided by the hospital-in-charge nurses led by Hanan Marjieh awaited us! Not only did the Lord’s hand sustain us through
the valley, but He also provided a table of good things for us in the presence of our friends who warmly welcomed and fed us. May this reflection of God’s protection and provision through the helping hands of others sustain us as we continue the walk of Christian discipleship!
You can read more about our 2019 Nazareth Challenge bike ride in the next newsletter. Applications for our 2020 events are already open. Please visit our website or get in touch with Laurie on +44 (0)131 225 9957 or events@nazarethtrust.org for more information.
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The Nazareth Trust is a registered Scottish charity no. SC032510 and a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland no. SC225661 The Nazareth Trust is dedicated to empowering the people of Nazareth and beyond, to advance well-being across all communities and borders, irrespective of faith, political persuasion or tradition.