This year we’re celebrating the 160th anniversary of our mission in Nazareth.
What started as a four-bed clinic is now one of the largest Christian organisations in Israel. More than 180,000 patients visit the hospital each year.
We couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who has made these 160 years possible: staff, volunteers and supporters; people from all walks of life who worked hard to help the Nazareth Trust go forward and look after the community in Nazareth.
From the beginning, we focused on providing healthcare but also spiritual healing since Christian values are a crucial part of our identity. Today, the Nazareth Trust is more than a hospital and consists of four ministries that work closely together:
Nazareth Hospital EMMS
That small clinic gradually evolved into the Nazareth hospital EMMS, the main trauma centre offering acute care for the people of Nazareth and its surroundings. In a Ministry of Health Patient Quality and Satisfaction survey, the hospital received an outstanding 92% mark!
Nazareth Academic School of Nursing
Founded in 1924, the school is the only Arab nursing school in the State of Israel. Each year, up to 400 students sign up for our educational programmes. Since 2019, the Nancy Martin Memorial Scholarship Fund has offered financial support to students. In 2020, all our students passed their final exams!
SERVE Nazareth
Set up in 2010, SERVE is the largest Christian volunteering programme in Northern Israel. During the last four years, a total of 556 volunteers have travelled to Nazareth to get involved in different tasks, such as helping the Pastoral Care Team or assisting in the hospital wards. Unfortunately, SERVE had to close in March 2020 due to COVID-19 temporarily, but we can’t wait to welcome new volunteers as soon as restrictions allow it.
Nazareth Village
Nazareth Village is an open-air museum where visitors experience biblical teachings and re-enactments of village life in the time of Jesus. Since its official opening in 2000, the Nazareth Village has welcomed more than one million visitors. Nazareth Village is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Potter’s House, which has been recently completed, will enhance the visitor’s experience once we can open its doors again.
The year 2020 has been a challenging time for our staff, students, patients, and families, but we also have a lot to be grateful for.
We’re 160 years old, but our journey doesn’t stop here. There’s so much more we can do within the Nazareth community. One of the projects we’re working on which will help us build for the future is the expansion of our ER department.
If you want to learn more about it, visit https://nazarethtrust.org/leave-a-legacy-2021/appeal/
Dear Friends,
As you are fully aware, these past few weeks have been particularly challenging for those who live in this land. The strife, the divisions, the suffering – all are around us daily. However, we are encouraged by so many messages of support and commitments to pray from our supporters around the world for our staff and the ministry of the Nazareth Trust. Thank you for standing by us.
A public statement from the Nazareth Hospital in the light of the recent tensions reads as follows:
With strife sweeping through our cities and casualties of the violent events coming to our hospital wards, we choose to stay together. In our emergency room or on the operating bed under the blinding lights, the patient sometimes has no idea of who is taking care of them, bandaging their wounds, or saying those comforting words. In moments like those, there is no ‘Arab’ or ‘Jew’: just human. Some would think it is ironic. We see it as hope for the future.
During this past year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been able to reach new areas of coexistence and solidarity. We worked together. We fought together in the midst of what seemed to be a hopeless and impossible task. And many times, when a patient was taking their last breath, far from their loved ones, those who stood by them were members of a different faith.
Here at the Nazareth Trust, we feel the pain of our different communities over the past few weeks. Despite all that is happening, we want to be that beacon of hope, peace, and unity in our community.
Let’s all pray the prayer of Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.” Let’s pray for peace in this land and peace between communities. Let’s also pray for our hospital staff, for their safety as they drive to work on a daily basis, and for continued unity as they care for people of all faiths and backgrounds. And let’s continue to pray for the many thousands of people who continue to need our services every day.
Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.
Blessings,
The Nazareth Trust
As we come to celebrate another Holy Week and Easter in Nazareth, we give thanks to God for his loving-kindness and faithfulness to the staff and families of different entities of the Nazareth Trust through this most challenging of years! He has indeed been our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, and there is much to be grateful for in terms of God’s protection, provision, and presence with us over the past twelve months.
The Easter season coincides with our emergence from the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in Israel. The rapid roll-out of the Coronavirus vaccinations has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of new infections with the closure of some Corona wards in hospitals in the country’s center. This is cause for cautious optimism amid the despair and anxiety still gripping many parts of the world. Our ultimate hope is not in vaccination against the Coronavirus. However, in the redemption we have through the suffering, death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, which we celebrate at this time!
This is the basis of our hope against the darkness of sin and death. If there is one thing that the past year has taught us, it is that we are mortal beings who, despite the great advances of technology and medical science, remain vulnerable and fearful in the face of death. We thank God that this final enemy will also be destroyed by the risen Christ who is alive and reigns until he has put all enemies under his feet. We pray that as we follow the example of his patience and humility, we may also be made partakers of his resurrection!
In early Spring, the Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Akka, Nazareth, and Galilee, Archbishop Sayedna Yousef Matta, visited the Hospital’s COVID ward.
The Archbishop spent six weeks as a patient in the COVID ward. After recovering well from the virus, he asked to come back and express his sincere thanks and appreciation to the medical staff who cared for him during his time on the ward.
During his speech to the team, he said, ‘I come to give thanks to this wonderful medical institution and to thank the dedicated staff who provided me with the best care and treatment which enabled me to recover from this terrible virus.’
At the end of March, the Hospital held an event to celebrate our staff’s outstanding achievements and to thank them for their sacrificial service. We wanted to recognise the collective effort over this past year of our doctors, nurses, support staff, technicians, maintenance, administration, cleaning, laundry, pastoral care team. All hospital departments have worked so hard, often at a high cost to themselves and their families. As Martin Luther King, Jr once said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
Without a doubt, our staff, from whatever part of the organisation, are the heroes of this generation. They are the heart and soul in the fight against COVID.
