Dear Westport Family, I have just returned from a great medical mission trip to Egypt. Our leader, Hany Assad, is an Egyptian Christian who now lives in America. He saw how effective the eye clinic was on a mission trip to Peru that I missed due to malaria. He asked me to go with him to Egypt to introduce Eye doc in a box to Egypt. He was very nervous about how the government and the Muslim patients would respond to the counseling. Thankfully, it all went well with no government interference, and the Muslim patients were willing to talk to the counselors and be prayed with. Each patient talked to a counselor, was prayed with and was given the opportunity to accept Christ. About two dozen patients prayed to receive Christ. Our leader was thrilled with the response. On the first day I did an Eye Doc Iin a Box seminar for several Egyptian Christians in the morning and an eye clinic in the afternoon. I am hopeful that eyecare will be used as a ministry tool in Egypt going forward. We did three more clinics with the Egyptian students doing eye exams and treated a total of 738 patients. Egypt was a Coptic Christian nation until it was conquered by a Muslim army in 641. The Christians were given three choices – convert to Islam, be killed, or become a second-class citizen – pay a heavy tax, be branded so they could be identified and discriminated against and be barred from certain schools and jobs. Today the tax and branding are gone but the government is still very antichristian. The Mosques are tax funded and beautiful and the churches are run down because the Christians cannot maintain them. Pastors are not allowed to have outside jobs, and the Christians cannot afford to pay them a decent salary. You must have a government permit to make a minor repair in a church. A computer database was created to list all the patient’s contact information. The pastors committed to do follow up on the patients we treated. Our leader announced that an eye clinic would be done on all future mission trips. Today many Christians get a small tattoo of a cross on their wrist to honor their ancestors who were forced to be branded with a cross on their wrist to remain faithful to their faith. Overall, it was an excellent trip. I am excited that Eye Doc in a Box has been launched in Egypt. Thank you for your help with the trip.
This year you have helped us train 59 volunteers to lead our vision clinics in Guatemala. It has been a wonderful growing branch of our healthcare outreach! We have served 21 communities across the country so far! One very sweet story is of a man we affectionally referred to as "hot dog guy." During one of our mobile clinics, several of our students noticed the hot dog vendor in the street nearby. As the day unfolded, they stepped over a few times to say HI and get to know him. As they shared our team's purposes in being there that day, the man revealed that he could not see clearly. Our students invited him to come and get an eye exam, but he told them he wasn't allowed to leave his cart during work hours. Not taking no for an answer, they spoke to the boss and asked for permission for him to leave for 5 minutes and they promised a very quick eye exam! Our new friend was given permission and we kept our promise to deliver a very fast evaluation. The results - NEW GLASSES!! Within minutes, he was back at the cart handing out hotdogs AND seeing life with a whole new perspective! As we often see stories become intertwined, it turns out that our new relationship led to us purchasing 120 hot dogs for a youth retreat a few weeks later directly from "hot dog guy" and his boss! Thank you for everything that you and Eye Doc in a Box are helping us accomplish! Each evaluation provides hope. Every lens creates opportunity. All interactions strengthen community connections. We love this division of our healthcare development!
We had a fabulous trip to Guatemala. We had a medical clinic and VBS children's ministry as well as the Vision testing clinic each day. We were in 4 different locations, so flexibility was key. In the Vision clinic we saw about 185 patients over the 4 days, giving away over 200 pairs of glasses, hats and sunglasses. I trained a few team members when we arrived since team members came from several states and we hadn't met before. I had high school, college students, as well as doctors and nurses go through the training. Outlook Mountain Mission and Mission Serve leadership was very impressed with your materials. They will be referring others to your ministry. Many Guatemalans came to a saving knowledge of Christ during the week. Thank you again for your ministry.
During the week in the remote Lenca villages…we had 239 visit the eye glass clinic. We were able to help all that needed eyeglasses and gave antibiotics to those with eye infections. There were eight commitments to Christ during the week. One was especially noteworthy ….. a respected man in the area known as a “witch”. He had been witnessed to on several occasions….was vocally anti Christian. The missionaries were excited that his conversion would affect many in a positive way. God is good!