A couple of months ago the BC Government fired more than 4,000 nurses in BC because they failed to disclose their vaccination status. Not only has this created a health care crisis in the province but it has also cost many BC families their incomes. With so many capable health workers out of a job and such a high demand for health care in the province, what have the nurses been up to?
Christina Mets has been a Registered Nurse for 40 years and clinical practice leader. During Mets’ career, she developed education for nurses, orientation, policy and procedures, and accreditation. She also spent many years as an ER nurse. She is one of the 4,000+ terminated nurses. She is now the lead facilitator in a health care movement called Ark that provides private health care to British Columbians in need. Mets explains a creative solution to the health care crisis and how many nurses have not stopped caring for British Columbians but have continued to serve BC’s sick and vulnerable by ensuring they still have access to quality health care when needed.
She explains the background story of the fired nurses and the deep Christian faith of many of them which led to a new movement of care for people. “Some were put on unpaid leave of absence,” she remarks, “and some were blatantly fired because they refused to disclose their vaccine status… so they labeled them ‘not vaccinated’ because they didn’t disclose. What we are finding is that the majority of them are committed Christians, and it’s not just nurses, it’s other frontline workers as well.” Mets says that all are people with “strong values around our freedoms and rights as Canadians.”
After Mets’ employment was terminated, she started working with the Canadian Frontline Nurses in Ontario and they supported her to work with the Freedom Organization in Vancouver where she started to inform the public about what was going on. Over time, one thing led to another and the vision for Ark was developed. Now, her and many more nurses can provide private medical care to British Columbians in need.
While she was in the process envisioning Ark, she was contacted by a retired police officer named David. He was the head of a prayer team in Abbotsford. They had been praying for the health care in Abbotsford for decades. Mets and David joined alliances and began discussing what they could do. David was well connected, gathered the people, and together they started the Abbotsford Nurses Support Group. More and more members joined in, and the nurses began sharing their very personal stories about how they got fired. Mets explains that people were sharing and crying and there were tears. She then encouraged the nurses, “Can you not envision something differently? We can do this. We just have to take the next couple of steps forward.” After that, the nurses set up a call line and started getting phone calls from people who were in need in the community.
Mets remarks about the beautiful stories they’ve had. She says, “It’s unbelievable what has been going on. We saved a group of three people in Chilliwack: a mother, her son, and the grandmother. They were weeks away from perishing. They couldn’t navigate the health care system and they had mental health issues. Our team went in and they got people from the community coming with their trucks, cleaned the house up, got their water going, their heat going, fed them, found clothes, changed the beds. They were sleeping on the floor.”
According to Mets there are many more beautiful stories like this. She says there has been a change too for the nurses. “The nurses have this light in their eyes now. They feel like they’ve been reborn. They’re truly able to really nurse the way they’ve always wanted to nurse. We used to nurse that way 30 years ago. And now they can pray with their patients. They ask them. They can touch their patients. They are putting their healing hands on them. They get so much better so quickly. We’ve kept people out of the hospital. Our little meagre pot of money has stayed the same because it has been reimbursed.” She says they can buy equipment and supplies and they even have a handful of doctors who will help them.
When asked about the future, Mets says, “We’re letting God lead us. We’re working and we’re hoping we will be the template across Canada for our new healthcare model. We hope we will be those pair of hands that will hold our patients and communities. It’s not just about nursing in the community; it’s about building a sustainable community. We are including local farmers, agriculture, education, social services, community, and ministry. God is the director and there must be immense amount of prayer and prayer teams to make this happen. The only way we’re going to make this is with the prayer team and the ethics. We’re mostly in Abbotsford and Chilliwack. We have a lot of nurses in Langley, in Vancouver, Coquitlam, Victoria and we’re picking up nurses all across Canada right now. The Fraser Valley has been instrumental in making this happen, I believe because it’s the Bible belt. In history it was the churches that ran the hospitals.”
If people are interested in developing an Ark group in their community, contact Mets at christinamets@protonmail.com. You can also support the nurses by donations. Most of all, please keep our nurses in prayer.
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