Christian Medial Fellowship
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ss CMF news - spring 2004,  New Opportunities

New Opportunities

Doctors are no strangers to crisis, whether it confronts us in the emergency room, in our administrative work, or in our personal lives. Crisis may provoke fear, panic and feelings of inadequacy, but it also prompts us into appropriate action and reliance on God. The Chinese character for ‘crisis’ is made up of two other characters – those for ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’; and in the midst of a crisis of our own at CMF we have been feeling the pain, whilst being hugely encouraged at the opportunities before us. Through it all we have been reminded time and again of God’s sovereignty, compassion and bountiful generosity.

As 2004 dawned we were making plans to merge with MMA Healthserve and move into the new offices vacated by the ACC on the fifth floor of Partnership House. Less than a fortnight later we were reeling from the sudden death of John Alford, our Office Manager, on 21 January. The same week we learned that WMA, the owners of Partnership House, had accepted a rival offer, subject to contract, for all the new space we had been hoping to occupy after the merger. This came on top of a backlog in accounts, a major attack by the My Doom computer virus and a hugely problematic database upgrade, creating a large amount of extra stress for the staff. It seemed that all our plans were coming to nought. What was God doing?

The CMF Executive met on 7 February to consider options and after much prayer decided to put in a rival offer for the entire fifth floor of Partnership House; three times the space we then occupied. A period of tense negotiation ensued but in early March we learnt that our offer, which was substantially below current market rates, had been accepted in an expression of Christian partnership by WMA. This left us with ample space for the merger, and the opportunity to invite like-minded Christian organisations to move in alongside us. It is a wonderful testimony to God’s grace and providence that had the rival bid not come in when it did, we would never have gone for the whole floor nor got it at such a low price. The outcome was beyond our wildest dreams just three months ago.

We moved into our new offices on 5-8 April. CMF and MMA Healthserve are now one (p2) and discussions are already underway with partner organisations to share some of our abundant space.

There is still some way to go, but beyond the near future things look very bright. The annual students’ conference at Swanwick on 13-15 February (p4) was a fantastic success and about when you receive this our national doctors’ conference will be taking place on 23-25 April. We are delighted to have Charles Otim on board as our new accountant and since 9 February he has been making good progress in clearing our backlog in accounts. Steve Fouch and Laura Risdale have joined us from MMA Healthserve bringing with them expertise and resources that will greatly boost our ability to mobilise and support healthcare mission. Kevin Vaughan started as Associate General Secretary on 19 April. Read all about Kevin, Steve, Laura and Charles later in this edition of CMF News (p2-3).

The Saline Solution Roadshow, our new day conference on integrating faith and practice, will be visiting eight venues around the country in May/June (p5). Five more media training days are also being held this year, along with a dozen CMF specialty breakfasts and then, in the autumn, seven further regional day and weekend conferences.

Over 600 doctors and medical students from Western and Eastern Europe and the former USSR are expected to attend the 6th ICMDA European Conference near Hanover, Germany on 8-12 September (p8). This will be preceded at the same venue by simultaneous conferences for students and juniors, and for those involved in training doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on 5-8 September. What a wonderful opportunity to advance God’s Kingdom in medicine throughout Europe and the CIS. Full publicity is included with this mailing. Can I encourage you to come? Please book now – or at very least make it possible for doctors from poorer countries to come through giving to the scholarship fund (see p7).

Let’s press on together as we take hold of what God has in store for us.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.(2 Corinthians 4:17)

Peter Saunders CMF General Secretary
Christian Medical Fellowship:
uniting & equipping Christian doctors & nurses
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