Deep in the lush northeast tropical forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo is Centre Médical Evangélique Nyankunde Hospital. It has a long association with EMAS Canada, dating back to 1948/49, when the Evangelical Medical Missionary Aid Society (EMMAS) sent hospital supplies to a young missionary doctor who had freshly graduated from the University of Toronto.
Nyankunde Hospital continues to get support from EMAS Canada, through a partnership led by two Canadian physicians whose four plus decades medical careers in Africa are founded on the relationship started in 1948.
Today EMAS Canada supports residency training, postgraduate specialist training including PhD studies for healthcare workers some of whom have been and will be serving at Nyankunde and other hospitals in the D R Congo.
Similar stories are told about mission hospitals in India, Kenya, and Tanzania. I owe most of my post-graduate medical training to mentorship at one such hospital.
Along the bank of the Grande-Rivière in northern Haiti is the one-year-old Gambade Medical clinic, another EMAS Canada supported healthcare facility.
Gambade Medical Clinic is more than a curative centre for the diseased. It has a service that supplies nutrients to undernourished children, and perhaps even more importantly it is investing in the spiritual care and development of local youth based on Christian biblical teaching.
So much of what we hear from Haiti these days suggests an urgent need for a next generation of leaders who aspire to live and be like Jesus among their people. This journey for Haiti in which there are many other contributors may take another seventy years, God willing EMAS Canada will stay alongside.
EMAS Canada is forging ahead to lay foundations for many generations by investing in centers of medical excellence and training. These institutions are at various stages of development and offer wide scope for Canadian benevolence. Among them are Gutu Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe and the yet to be built hospital in Songdin, Burkina Faso.
We are confident that God will make these initiatives productive for generations to come.
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All Scripture references are taken from the New International Version (NIV)
Title comes from a bible reference: God promised His people that if they related to Him through practical benevolence as opposed to religious observances only, they would raise up “the foundations of many generations” Isaiah 58 ESV
Feature image: Dr. Stephens and EMAS Team Leaders, from Right to Left, Sylver Stephens, S. Wang, Dr. Stephens, and V. Wang.
