Our first day of ministry - Vision clinic near Gituamba

It felt good today to be going on our first day of actual ministry work. The travel logistics take so much time on the arrival end of the trip that it often seems like we'll never actually get to do the work we came for. So the first day is always exciting but a little bit challenging. 

We started off our day with breakfast at 8:00, with most getting at least a start at getting a decent night's sleep. A great bunch of the SWOK university students joined us for our prayer circle before loading up in the vans and heading out. Our destination was the Faith Homes of Kenya Churches, Kitur Branch, which is about a 45 minute drive and it is not far from the Gituamba community where we have had such a great investment of our construction efforts since 2013. Most of the young people who came to our clinic today were brought to us from the school. 



The church had two buildings, the sanctuary and an education classroom, where we were able to set up shop.  We are using a new system for producing eyeglasses for those who need them. In the past, we used new unused donated glasses of random prescription selected by computer program to get the best match for a patient. This new system from Global Vision 2020 allows our staff to help the patient use a "Falling E" eye chart and a self-adjust apparatus to determine their best vision. Based on the results of the test, numeric values are obtained that allow us to make a pair of prescription glasses for them on the spot. There are different sizes and colors of frames so the patient can choose their desired frame color and size. This allowed us to provide glasses specifically made for the patient, which was a weakness under the previous system where we were searching an inventory for the best match to a prescription, and we had a very limited selection of children's sizes. 

We set up our vision testing in the classroom and set up to test, fit and dispense readers and sunglasses in the sanctuary. We also set up an area in the sanctuary where our Team member ophthalmologist, Dr. Chris Williams, could examine and evaluate patients with issues beyond just the need for glasses. He has the opportunity to evaluate the hard cases where patients have serious complications.  As we've found in the four previous years when we conducted vision clinics, nearly 20% of our patients are blind in one or sometimes both eyes. Chris gives the best thorough assessment that can be done with the equipment we bring with us and establishes what further treatment and/or surgery can be recommended for those patients where it would be beneficial. This is one of the areas where the surplus funds raised over and above our trip costs are used. We will now evaluate those cases with our local medical contacts and determine what help we can provide.

It was a blessing to have all the SWOK youth working with us today as co-workers and invaluable translators. They are hardworking and compassionate and invaluable members of our Team. And the Team members had a great day "getting their feet wet" and had the joy of serving a first day as we came to "be the hands and feet of Jesus" to our Kenyan brothers and sisters.

We are looking forward to doing our first water filter training and distribution tomorrow in the same general geographic area.