ChosenIMA
Seeking The One

The first oath any medical professional takes is to do no harm. Likewise, the greatest commandments for any follower of Christ are to love God and love thy neighbor. As a Christian medical mission organization seeking to lovingly safeguard the wellbeing of its neighbors, ChosenIMA (in partnership with FMSL) is making the difficult decision to cancel all mission trips through March and April. As the recently declared pandemic of COVID-19 requires decisiveness and prudence, combined with constantly changing figures and information, ChosenIMA will make this decision now to prevent a wider spread of the virus into vulnerable populations and will reevaluate its position and issue another statement on Monday, May 04, 2020. 

Our decision is not to coalesce with the sensation of panic as countries in the eastern hemisphere and cities around the United States take varied measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. The epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, China has seen decreases in the number of cases over the last three weeks and has now closed all 16 of its temporary hospitals. Equally, be informed that Yucatan, Mexico, our most frequent destination, thankfully could report that as of Tuesday, March 10, the state had had zero confirmed cases and in the whole of Mexico only 7 confirmed cases with no declared deaths. In fact, the government’s spokesman for the virus, José Luis Alomía Zegarra, reported the first three detected cases have completed their 14-day medical surveillance as of March 10 and have been declared healthy, discharged, and returned to their daily activities. 

While airlines have reported they have had to scale back flight schedules due to a decrease in demand, airlines such as Delta, who garnered experience from H1N1 and Ebola, utilize advanced HEPA filters for circulating clean and fresh air and stringent cleaning processes to thoroughly sterilize their aircrafts for each flight. There is no reason as of today, March 12, to believe air travel places you at a heightened risk of contraction.

ChosenIMA has made the decision to cancel trips into (but not through) May to allow for the collection of more information, to prevent transmission from the United States to Mexico, and to unify with our Mexico-based, partner ministry, FMSL’s decision.  

You can find more information about the coronavirus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which is updated frequently. ChosenIMA will continue to cooperate with federal recommendations. We advise if you are advanced in age or have an existing, underlying condition with a compromised immune system, that you highly consider avoiding international or domestic travel and avoid crowds as much as possible. 

Basic recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus:

1. Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water.
2. Cough or sneeze with your elbow and not your hands.
3. Clean surfaces frequently as well as frequently touched items (such as cell phones)
4. Stay home from work or school if you are feeling sick.

ChosenIMA has also implemented the following procedures at our facility:

1. Only one person should enter the building at a time. 
2. Any items being dropped off should be left in the entrance of the open bay door so that they can be properly sanitized and stored.
3. Any individuals picking up reserved items should wait in their car and call the main office at 814-833-3023. All reserved items will be brought out to you. 

* All items donated to ChosenIMA are left in a quarantined area and handled with gloved until thoroughly cleaned, sanitized, and placed in your possession. 

We pray peace, patience, and prudence for this global situation. May God be with the government officials as they make difficult decisions, healthcare workers as they serve in the face of risk, and the individuals and their families whose health has been impacted during this time.