Another year is slipping by never to return again. Another New Year will dawn with its promises and hopes, new resolutions and excitement. This transition of old to the new has been occurring over centuries with such clockwork regularity that it makes me wonder whether our response to this event is just a ritual , or is there more meaning to it. If we were to stroke a finger up along the thread of a large spring coil, we will reach the same point every time we complete a loop, but always one rung higher. Life, I imagine, is like this coil. Every time we ring in a new year we find ourselves one rung higher. We are one year older, one year wiser, with a better view of life hitherto. The gradient may have been difficult to negotiate, but with God’s help, we are here.

As the clock strikes twelve on the midnight of 31st December we can look back at the year with thanks and praise for the wondrous things God has done. We must recall that we began this year with uncertainty over our admissions. We came across hurdles of different heights, some easy to cross, some not so. There were challenges posed by huge clinical demands against limited resources of personnel, finances and infrastructure. Looking back, there are only blessings to count, very few things to complain. In our hurdle, experiences, we have found the Red Sea parting and doors being opened. We met well-wishers in unexpected places volunteering to help us out. God has been faithful. Thank you God our Father, for being there.

At the watch night chapel service we will usher in the New Year clutching a lighted candle. The light and the warmth of that burning candle symbolizes our mission ? to bring hope and comfort to many more who need it. Though we will be lighting our candles in tandem indicating the passing of Aunt Ida?s legacy, one to another, year after year, we will be holding them together in God’s presence, symbolizing our togetherness in the journey forward. Choral praise will fill the well of the chapel like the spirit of God . The silence of that moment broken only by the gong of the chapel bell will remind us that we are travellers in time and must keep moving.

We must consider ourselves privileged to be part of a great story; a story that began on the 1st of January 1900 in a small one bed clinic. That story of love and caring has been commemorated a hundred and thirteen times during every watch night service in college chapel till now . You and I are part of the hundred and fourteenth chapter of the same story. Although on a bigger stage of 2500 beds and 8500 staff we still hold on to the refrain ?not to be served but to serve?.

Be you a student, staff, alumnus, parent or patient, my prayer is that the CMC story will impact you enough to draw you to centre stage to continue the story that aunt Ida authored many years ago. Let a renewed spirit of enthusiasm fuel your talents to make the best of the opportunities that lie ahead.

Let the New Year be one of immense blessings for you and your family.

Sunil Chandy