I have made seven short term mission trips to India. In those seven years I have tried various ministries such as: Pastor’s conference, evangelistic crusades, children’s vacation Bible school but by far the most effective evangelistic tool I have found is the Eye care clinics. Dr. David Curtis came to Arizona and trained a group of us to do this ministry. We found that the brief training prepared us for our eye care mission trip. Since then we have taught new mission team members in these concepts. Dr. Curtis has been a great coach and mentor to us. Our church has used the eye care clinic for the past three mission trips and we are convinced that it is by far the most effective tool for reaching people for Jesus that we have found. The eye care clinic is a compassionate servanthood evangelism project that draws all people to receive eye exams and free glasses. We have found it to be far less expensive to do the eye care ministry than the evangelistic crusades. It is more personal in the sense that every patient is talked to about Jesus and is prayed for. The indigenous church planters have testified to the effectiveness of our eye care ministry. They tell us that the eye care ministry has opened doors with the community leaders. It has created a bridge of opportunity for the local pastors to been seen as community helpers.
