Basic Info about Shevet and What I Will Be Doing There

shevet.org

Shevet Achim is a Christian organization founded in 1994 and is based in the oldest children’s hospital in the Middle East. Shevet Achim (“Brothers Together” if you have trouble with Hebrew) is taken from the Hebrew of Psalm 133, “How good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity...for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forevermore.” To live this out we seek to "go and do likewise" as the Good Samaritan, who crossed lines of division to show that an enemy is in fact a neighbor also loved by God. About one in 200 children are born with congenital heart defects and in recent decades surgical advances have been made which make most of these problems completely fixable. However few places in the Middle East have access to the specialized centers which can perform open heart surgery. With liaisons across the Middle East Shevet Achim seeks out children in the region who need life-saving heart surgery, regardless of their background, and brings them to the advanced medical centers of Israel. Places such as the Gaza Strip, Iraq, and the West Bank which are unstable do not have access to the same medical aid that the Western World takes for granted and without the aid of Shevet Achim and treatment available in Israel they will certainly die. Once in Israel, Israeli doctors and hospitals are willing to rescue these children, and in most cases bear a majority of the expense themselves. Shevet Achim’s role is to find the children, transport them to Israel, and raise financial support as needed. In one of the most hostile regions of the world a Christian organization is working with Jewish doctors to help save the lives of Muslim children, supported by donations from around the world.

While what each worker does at Shevet Achim is always contingent on what the needs are at that period of time, this is my present understanding of what I personally will be doing. I will be one of a couple people that lives on site with the children and families at Shevet Achim who are available 24 hours a day for whatever needs they may have. This can take the form of administering medications, driving kids to and from the hospital, comforting family members during these difficult times, assisting with transporting people to and from the borders of Gaza, the West Bank and Iraq, updating the blogs of the children daily, and certainly many more tasks. For what this ministry does, this role is absolutely key and bears a great deal of responsibility. This position will certainly give me many opportunities to exercise my gifts and strengths, the very same that you my community have been nurturing in me. I am so incredibly excited to be able to jump right in to the heart of what this ministry is about!