Friday clinic at Municipal

We had a clinic today at another church in an area called Municipal.  We saw 90 patients today. There were several patients who got very excited because they could finally see well when they received their glasses. Some were excited that they could read the Bible we gave them and some were excited because they see much better at a distance. There were only a couple of patients that we could not help at all no matter how hard we tried but they appreciated what we were doing for them.

Our equipment still ran very well today and we were able to do everything we needed to help everyone. I know that we have encountered some obstacles this week but God brought us through all of them and we were able to minister to His people again this year. This is exciting to be able to do this kind of work since we are not professionals in this area. Someone once told me that God does not always call the equipped - instead He equips those He calls.  I praise Him and thank Him for sending us to Honduras to minister to His people and pray that this ministry will continue.

Today is the last clinic day. Tomorrow we will work a little at the trailer and then visit around La Ceiba. Thank you to all of our prayer warrior/rope holders for all your prayers during this trip. We appreciate all of you.

Total for today:
Total patients - 90
Total prescription glasses - 29
Total readers - 52
Total saved - none today because the pastor said that almost everyone who came through the clinic was already saved

Total for trip:
Total patients - 549 (this is great for just 6 days of clinics)
Total prescription glasses - 189
Total readers - 295
Total saved - 15 (one more for Jesus!)

More pictures below.

A lady who lives in this area who helped us today

A patient who had some vision problems that were

difficult to find the right glasses but we did and she was very happy

Another patient with her daughter

Evangelism station

Mary helping a gentleman find the right readers so he can

read the Bible

Cindy working with a patient to find the right readers

Me and Guf at the autorefractor station as we

are testing this patient

A house that is next to the church we were working

at today

 

 

 

Thursday clinic at Armenia Bonito

We had a wonderful day today. We saw 109 patients! It seems we see more each year. This was great.  We had one gentleman come in who had very bad vision and we were able to get him to 20/40. Very similar to a situation yesterday but it is great to see them so happy that we could help them. There were only a couple of patients that we could not get any glasses for because nothing in our inventory would work for them. That is sad for us but they are always so thankful that we at least tried to help them.

Our printer that prints our pick list for the patients finally started working today. Joe, who is one of our team members, worked on it again this morning and got it to working. We were very excited and praising God. When the printer doesn't work, we have to write down all the details and the list of glasses for each patient and then pull the glasses from the inventory trailer for them. This takes a lot of time. Things went much smoother today with that piece of equipment working.

Tomorrow will be our last clinic day. We will be at another new location called Municipal. Saturday we will be working on our inventory trailer and at the bodega where we keep our supplies. We will be flying home Sunday.

This has been an amazing trip so far. It has been very productive and exciting to see so many people who we were able to help at least in some way. I know we have encountered many problems that seemed overwhelming at times but God showed us that He is with us and won't forsake us. He sent us here to do this work for His people here in Honduras and everything has worked out fine. I praise Him for all He has done for the team and the people in Honduras.

Total patients: 109 (total of 459 so far for this trip)
Total prescription glasses: 46
Total readers: 64
Total saved: Only 2 but that is 2 more for Jesus!!

Pictures below of today's clinic.

Jim at autorefractor

Near vision station with Mary, Becky and Cindy

Rick at autorefractor post test station

Some patients checking in

Our inventory trailer with 3,840 prescription glasses

in the trays on the shelves on each side of the trailer

The church that invited us to come and have our clinic

 

 

 

Tuesday clinic at La Bombo and Wednesday clinic at El Siete

I didn't have a chance to blog last night because we were so busy taking care of replenishing our inventory and finding time for supper. Tuesday we were at La Bomba and had a clinic there all day.  We saw 73 patients and gave out 22 prescription glasses and 43 readers.  The pastor said that there were 5 saved in Evangelism station.

Today we were at a church in El Siete.  We had some really appreciative patients who were helped a lot with their vision problems. One lady came in who was in a wheelchair. Her son brought her in to see us. We tested her vision and found out she had 20/180 vision. We found the right glasses for her and got her down to 20/40.  She was so excited and appreciative. Everyone wanted to give her a hug and let her know how blessed we are that we could help her. Moments like this are a blessing to us that we might make a small difference in someone's life.  We also had a number of other patients who came through who had vision problems that we could help. We saw an amazing 103 patients today and gave out a lot of glasses.  Some who came through were children and their vision was normal so they didn't need any glasses.

Thank you again to all our prayer warrior/rope holders. I asked for prayer Monday for our equipment that has given us some problems that we have never had before. We were able to fix the most important problem by talking to Holland Kendall in Louisville, Kentucky but the other ones are still a problem but not a big one. We have found ways to work around them and we can still use the equipment in the clinic. I know the stupid enemy is trying to stop us from ministering to these sweet people but he has lost. God is bigger than any of these problems and He is in control. Whatever happens, we know God is taking care of it. I praise Him for this and for sending me here to do this amazing and rewarding ministry.

Today's clinic:
Total patients - 103
Total prescription glasses - 32
Total readers - 57
Total saved - 5 (yeah! One more for Jesus)

Total so far:
Total patients - 350
Total prescription glasses - 114
Total readers - 179
Total saved - 13 (one more for Jesus!!)

The dates showing on the pics are one day off. I need to try to fix that.

Getting patients signed up.

Triage with Joe

A patient getting sunglasses after he has gone through the stations.

Near vision station with Mary and Becky

Post test station for the prescription glasses. This is the sweet lady who

we were able to help improve her vision from 20/200 to 20/40

Evangelism station

Joe doing near vision pre-testing

Emily and Jim doing far vision testing

 

 

Monday clinic at the church in Cacao

Today we had a clinic at an open air church in Cacao.  We saw a lot more patients than we have ever seen but many of them were children who fortunately didn't need any glasses. We did give out 29 prescription glasses and 41 readers so we were able to help a number of people have better vision which hopefully will help them in their every day lives. Quite a few people left the clinic with very happy faces because of the glasses they received.  Several of the children from Casa Cielo Orphanage were with us today and they helped out with getting glasses out of the inventory trailer, working some of the stations and also with interpreting.  They were definitely a blessing to us.

We also went by the home of a family that Papa and Mama Jones at Casa Cielo are trying to help. These children have a very sad situation and are in need of a new home and having other needs provided for.  Please pray for these children that they will get the help they need as well as a responsible adult to care for them.

We have had a strange problem with our laptop that we use with the Retinomax autorefractor that we use to read patients' vision to see if we have any glasses in inventory that will help them. Saturday and today we had a problem with the inventory program but Holland Kendall (who wrote the program and lives in Louisville, Kentucky) was able to help us. We called him and he talked us through the process.  Please pray that God will take care of this and we won't have any more issues with it.  If we can't use the program on the laptop, we won't be able to give anyone the prescription glasses that may make their lives more productive.  We don't want to miss this opportunity to help them so please pray that everything will work like it should with no more problems.

I want to say thank you again to all our prayer warrior/rope holders for praying for this team and for the people we are able to help.  We know you are there for us and we appreciate you so much.

I have a few pictures below of today's clinic.

Today's totals are:

Total prescription glasses: 29
Total patients: 109
Total saved: 7 - one more for Jesus!

 

 

Saturday clinic at Corozal

Today we had our first clinic day at a school at Corozal.  We saw 65 patients and we were able to help most of them with some glasses - either readers or prescription glasses.  As always, they were very grateful for the chance to have better vision.  We also gave them a Bible when they go to the evangelism station.  We had some of the children from Leonard and Marie's children's home who worked with us. They helped out a great deal in running to get the glasses from the trailer and also translating.  We will be attending a local church tomorrow and then having another clinic in a different location Monday.  Today was a little busy so I didn't take any pictures. I hope to take some Monday to share on the blog. Thank you again to all our prayer warrior/rope holders back home for holding us up in prayer. We know you are with us.

Prayer Calendar for 2018

It’s A God Thing Team 2018

June 8 – June 17

“It’s A God Thing” team travels to Honduras each year under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Jim Sims is our team leader.  Our team has one primary goal: to spread the Word of God to the uttermost parts of the world.

Our team this year is made up of an eye team and evangelism team.  We will be flying down on Friday, June 8. We will have a clinic on Saturday and work on preparing our inventory trailer and other supplies to go to other clinics the next week.  We will attend a local church on Sunday and then we will have clinics in different locations around La Ceiba through Friday. Saturday, we will replenish our inventory if needed and get everything ready for next year. We will fly back home on Sunday, June 17.

This year’s team:

Jim Sims

Emilie Sims

Lynn Giedinghagen

Hugh Guffey

Mary Guffey

Rick Townson

Joe Hastings

Cindy Hastings

San Jose’ Duarte

Ginger King

Rebecca Scott

For our prayer warriors:

Matthew 28: 19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

We are asking urgent and daily prayer for the following from our amazing prayer warrior/rope holders:

1.  Pray that the eye team will be able to correct the vision of everyone who comes to the clinic with a vision problem and that we will be able to dispense eyeglasses to correct their near and/or far vision as close as possible.

2.  Pray that the evangelism team will be able to share the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to everyone who comes to the clinics and that many will get saved.

3.  Pray that those patients who don’t get saved will remember what was shared with them about how Jesus died on the cross for them and that they will, at a later time, ask Him into their hearts as their Lord and Savior.

4.  Pray that those who get saved will then go out and share the love of Jesus with others in their family and community and that many others will get saved.

5. Pray that the salvation cards we will be giving out will be passed around to others in their families and community and others will get saved.

6.  Pray for the safety of the team.

7. Pray for Jim, our team leader, that he will be able to lead the team in everything God wants us to do in serving the people of Honduras.

8.    Pray that the team will come home with a renewed vision of what God wants to do in each of our lives both in serving Him in missions here at home and in foreign missions.