City Harvest’s newly set up Healthcare Fellowship organized a medical relief-cum-mission trip to North Jakarta, bringing much-needed medical treatment to patients from two mobile clinics.
PHOTOS: Gareth Day.
When members of Gekari Damai Sejahtera, a local church in Jakarta, Indonesia found out about a car accident victim languishing away in his home from untreated wounds on his hands and legs, he had already been lying in the same position in his living room for a week; not only had he suffered physical injuries, the accident dealt to him such a traumatic blow that it rendered him depressed and hopeless.
Conveying his situation to City Harvest’s Healthcare Fellowship team which was there on a medical relief trip from March 7 to 10, the locals brought them on a path winding through thick vegetation and narrow lanes in the slum area of North Jakarta to his house. Getting to him in itself was a challenge—the inaccessibility was exacerbated by floods which had struck the area in January.
When they turned up at his home, they treated and bandaged his wounds, and spoke encouraging words to him. With renewed hope to overcome this sudden setback, he was gradually motivated to get back on his feet and return to a normal life.
His was one of the more serious cases the 15-member team the Healthcare Fellowship members treated on that trip. In two days, 958 patients were treated from two mobile clinics, according to Kenneth Sim, a City Harvest pastor who heads the Healthcare Fellowship.
The patients received free treatment for various ailments including the common cold and cough as well as headaches, a service most Singaporeans take for granted but almost a luxury for underprivileged locals with limited access and means to the most basic of medical healthcare.
Established in January this year, the Healthcare Fellowship aims to provide a support network to healthcare professionals at CHC—given the long and irregular shifts doctors and nurses have to clock, they are often unable to attend the usual cell group meetings or weekend services.
The Healthcare Fellowship thus allows these individuals to draw spiritual encouragement and support from one another. Additionally, it empowers church members who are healthcare professionals to make an impact beyond the four walls of the church, serving as a platform for doctors and nurses to use their skills in ministry and missions—not only do they provide free consultation and medical treatment, the attending doctors and nurses would offer to pray for the patients being treated.
Besides organizing mobile clinics, the team conducted cell group meetings and shared at the main, youth and children’s church services at Gekari Damai Sejahtera.
Fruitful and fulfilled—these were the words Sim offered when asked to summarize the trip. In the pipeline are three other medical-mission trips later this year; the team intends to return to North Jakarta in June, Cambodia in July and Myanmar in November.
For more information on the Healthcare Fellowship or if you are interested to join, contact Isaiah Kuan at +65 6349 1564 or email healthcarefellowship@chc.org.sg.
