When I signed up for our church’s glasses ministry, I suddenly realized I’d never been on a missions trip before.
Then my husband reminded me we painted an orphanage in Juarez, Mexico once.
I’m not sure that counted since we stayed at an American friend’s house with a shower, and just had to cross the border every day.
This time we headed up the San Juan River in Nicaragua, a different animal all together from Juarez.
We traveled to the capital Managua, shifted to a small 12-seater plane, and flew over Lake Nicaragua.
Once landed in San Carlos at the mouth of the river, we ate lunch, and then caught a two-hour boat ride.
Our destination: Sabalos Lodge where we stayed.
How does the eyeglass clinic work?
Once in Sabalos, we conducted eyeglass clinics for the local populace on four different days. Members of our church, St. Mark Lutheran, have run these clinics for several years.
Our daughter took the trip the year before and helped hand out 1200 pair of glasses and 500 Spanish Bibles. We surpassed that number in 2011.
It’s an important task. People travel for days to come to the clinic. For many, it’s their only opportunity to get a pair of glasses.
A Managua optometrist traveled with us for difficult cases, but for the most part our volunteers used a portable auto-refractor to get a close diagnosis, and then fit glasses to match the unofficial prescription.
(When you have no care at all, close is usually good enough.)
Prior to the trip, I didn’t know cataracts were caused by exposure to the sun.
For a large percentage of people living near the equator, pretty much anyone over 50 has some form cataracts.
By the end of her first trip, my daughter could identify clients with cataracts from across the room.
That’s why everyone who visited us, whether they need reading glasses or not, got a pair of sunglasses. We had pink ones for the teenage girls and sturdy plastic frames for everyone else.
Spanish language Bibles
In addition to meeting their physical needs, we also handed out Spanish language New Testaments.
It’s amazing how quickly the Bibles were picked up–one to a family. Some people wanted the Bibles more than the glasses and when they got both–excitement!
The trip stretched for me.
I don’t like small planes, detest bugs, was afraid of snakes, worried about diseases and having to communicate in Spanish has been for me, literally, a nightmare on too many occasions.
But I took consolation in the Scriptures that reminded me God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness.
He had plenty of opportunities on this trip!
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