We want to thank you for your incredible kindness and basically for coming to our rescue in July! It was a wild adventure, considering we had never done this before and then when we said yes, everything seemed to hinder us moving forward. But you all were WONDERFUL and truly made it all possible for us to fulfill our promises of bringing eye glasses into our areas! I've attached a video and written story for you to get a little glimpse of the success of the vision clinics. We ended up being able to serve 5 of our communities in Guatemala with vision testing and eye glasses. One of the students that you trained, took everything you taught her to heart and truly became the leader of the vision station. It was as if she received a full degree from Eye Doc in a Box!! I was amazed to see the depth of all that she learned and implemented in such a short time. I know that this will be an experience that shapes her education and career forever. This moment with you all will also be the sweet story that we carry forward of how we added eye care to our healthcare development. Thank you for being such an incredible surprise and helpful recourse to our mission and ministry! Going forward, I would love to chat about how we can incorporate your trainings under calmer circumstances. How do you normally handle this with other groups? While bragging about you, I found out that you also know a mutual friend who serves in Nicaragua. She had fantastic things to say about you as well! Again, thank you for everything. Truly, you were a little (big) miracle in our mission and we are beyond grateful for your wisdom, resources, and attention.
I wanted to come back with a few pictures, stories, and thoughts from our Guatemala mission trip and the use of the Eye Doc in a Box system. First, thank you, once again, for your dedication in training us and supporting us throughout the process--including this follow up. We appreciate you! The numbers: Between the two teams, we gave out 238 pairs of glasses (not including sunglasses). The stories: I'll highlight a few stories that were really impactful for us. We had one patient, a man born without legs or arms, who was very near-sighted (he couldn't even make out the figure at the top of the eye chart). We worked the EDIAB system and finally found the right power for him to see with 20/25 vision! The look on his face when he put on his new glasses was indescribable. He had happy tears in his eyes! He was so grateful, he gave us all hugs and asked to take a picture with us. That moment is one we ALL will remember. We had another patient who had suffered a head injury as a child, which caused near-blindness in one eye. The vision in his other eye was pretty poor, too. Previously, he had received glasses to correct that eye's vision, but they had sadly slipped off into a well and he didn't have the opportunity to get a replacement. Though we couldn't fix his damaged eye, we corrected the usable side. Those glasses were like gold for him--you could see him smiling from ear to ear! A really tough case for us involved a teenager who came to be evaluated. Honestly, I don't remember how strong the glasses we gave her were, but in the course of speaking with her, we found out that she was a victim of human trafficking. She was given away by her family and taken from her hometown 5 hours away to work the shop of a local store owner. The situation was incredibly complicated, but you could see the pain and sadness in her eyes. We felt pretty helpless with her and that what we could do was so little. We gave her glasses. We encouraged her as best we knew how. We prayed fiercely over her (and continue to do so). And then she had to go back to work. My heart still aches for her and for the MANY people around the world who are in similar situations. EDIAB Feedback: Truly, the system you have refined is SO accessible and helpful for lay people. The training, the kits, the manual are all incredibly well put together! We were able to adjust the clinic flow based off of our location and the size of our space without any difficulty, and we were able to supplement the eyeglasses with a more comprehensive eye exam by a trained professional. We went at a slower pace, prioritizing the experience over the number of patients we could see, and I think that was helpful for us, especially as first-timers. I want to give a special shout out to the "Power Combinations" page in the manual as that was extremely useful for us as we calculated the flipper combos. I genuinely don't have any negative feedback, or anything I would've changed in regards to the EDIAB system. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for the work you have done and continuing to do. The impact of this system is far-reaching and the ripple effect for the Kingdom of God is priceless. Thank you.
We had a lot of feedback from vision that they were so glad we did another vision trip because they couldn't see out of the bifocals that the optometrist team gave prior to this trip. The stories of the people that could see and how their faces would light up when they hit the right strength. Or how they could finally read the Bible and they would start to cry. It was truly beautiful!
I’ve been trying to find a few moments since our return from Africa to update you on the success of our eye clinics, and I’m thrilled to share that your program worked incredibly well! We were able to conduct two eye clinics in conjunction with both a medical and a veterinary clinic. The glasses were perfectly labeled and organized, and the refractors worked great! We felt very well-trained, and once we got into the rhythm, we were able to quickly and accurately assess prescriptions. We also had a visual aid featuring John 3:16, an image of Calvary, and an empty tomb, all translated into Wolof, which we were able to give to every patient. The greatest victory, however, is that we were able to leave the remaining 1,800 pairs of glasses and 4 refractor kits with the local church planting agency, Mission Inter Senegal. We also trained several of their interpreters on how to use the refractors, enabling them to reach many villages with the Eye Doc in a Box system! Our lead pastor joined us on this trip, and he shared that from now on, every international trip we take will include an eye clinic! Thank you for your ministry, and a special thanks to Dr. Curtis for your thorough training. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the future! God bless you and your ministry!