ALWAYS BE JOYFUL!

The third annual Medical Mission Trip with OM Ecuador kicked off on Saturday the 24th of March with 10 visitors from the USA, 1 Finnish girl, 2 South Africans, a Chilean and lots of Ecuadorians!  We went to the incredible town of Cadeate on the coast of Ecuador.   During this week I had the joy of translating for Bryan Kaiser with God's Eyes Ministries during his eye exams.  Our phrase for the week was "Always be joyful" from the verse in 1 Thess. 5:16.  We would quote it when we were happy, when we were gritting our teeth with annoyance or when we wanted to cry from frustration.  It helped to remember why we were doing what we were doing.  So remember ALWAYS BE JOYFUL!

As a translator this year instead of the coordinator, I found myself amazingly relaxed with few responsibilities.  I also got to truly experience the work of a translator day after day.  It is hard work and more draining than coodinating. I am very impressed with those who do this type of work full time.  I can say that I only messed up once this week when translating a phrase from Bryan, I turned to the lady and said "Did that work for...." then I stopped abruptly and both she and I burst out laughing.  Bryan just looked at me confused and I finally got my breath to say "you didn't realized that I just spoke to her in English too?" This usually happens more than once on a long week of translating.  Bryan was also practicing his spanish phrases and I think he added this one to his list "Mira la nariz" - "Look at the nose".   Which was the phrase that we would say to the people just before he shined the light into their eyes as they typically shut their eye or rolled it back into their head so he couldn't see the whole thing.  I would typically say "Look at the doctor's nose, no, not your nose, the DOCTOR's" as for some reason their first response was to cross their eyes and look at their own nose.   In general I really enjoyed my work with Bryan and helping someone who many times had never owned glasses get to see the world.  There were hard parts too, like when you had to tell someone that they would not ever get to see, or that they had lost the use of their eye or that only a surgery that we all knew was way out of their budget would get their sight back.  I remember one case very clearly.  There was a young man, about 33 years old, who had horrible sight.  After Bryan examined his eyes he told me to explain to the young man that because he didn't get the opportunity to wear glasses about 20 years ago the vision in his left eye had been so bad that it would never see again.  He looked at me so hopefully when Bryan was talking to me in English.  Have you ever seen hope die right in front of you?  I think I saw it in this man.  But thankfully we were able to help him see almost perfectly out of his right eye. 

We got to help a family with glasses.  The mother didn't have her right eye, it just never had grown.  We were able to give her glasses to help her see out of her left eye.  We also prayed that God would preform a miracle on the eye that never grew.  We didn't see it grow right there but I believe that it can!  Her oldest daughter was a special needs child about 13 years old.  She didn't smile, ever.  Her mom explained that she couldn't see anything and to eat she would pull her head down to about three inches away from the food with the good eye directed towards it just to eat.  We pulled out a super powerful pair of glasses and put them on her.  I think that was the first time I saw her really smile.  Then one of the volunteers from the USA started making funny movements about 10 feet away and she died laughing because she could see it!   She stood quietly during her younger sisters exam with her eyes fixed on the rest of the church and the people moving around to the different medical stations with a smile.  Imagine seeing for the first time something more than blurs.  Another young lady of 16 came with her mom to get glasses.  The mom needed very strong glasses.  She told us that the daughter also needed glasses as whenever the daughter wanted to see something the mom would take her old glasses off (the wrong prescription of course) and loan them to the daughter just so she could look at something.  16 years old and she never had a pair of glasses.  When we made her glasses we began to talk to her.  I was able to share the gospel with her and she prayed with me.  It was excited to see how not just her physical eyes were opened but also her spiritual eyes.  I showed her where to start reading in the bible that we gave to her.  

There are stories after stories like this.  I am in awe of what God has been able to do through this incredible ministry.  I know that the medical clinic side also saw lots of people, helped families, and saw healing.   It was an extraordinary week.  Only an extraordinary God could do something like this.  If you want to see more about God's Eyes Ministries you can look at it at God's Eyes.   I was blessed to have this opportunity!