For the past eight summers a mission team from Kentucky has traveled to Ecuador to work in the province of Imbabura. On several of those trips the team has taken sunglasses, reading glasses, and a few prescription glasses that had been donated. The prescription glasses were divided into strong, medium, and weak and the people desiring glasses would try a pair until they found something suitable. It was very time consuming and people waited in long lines, sometimes for more than a block, to try to find a pair that would help them.

This year we had the opportunity to attend the training offered by Kendall Optometry Ministry and were introduced to the technology provided to volunteer mission teams. We were excited about the opportunity this would provide us to devote more attention to, and be more effective in, the ministry of helping others achieve a greater measure of sight.

We had many rewarding experiences this summer. When fitting people with distance glasses I would often ask them to stand and to look at something outside. I asked a man in his forties, before giving him the glasses, to look up on a hill at a cow. He squinted, but said he could see it. I asked him to put on the glasses we had chosen for him and look again. He was so jubilant when he saw with clarity at a distance for what was maybe the first time in his life. At another ministry location I asked an elderly woman to look at a tree. She indicated that she could see it. I asked her to try on a pair of glasses that matched her prescription, and she started naming the different kinds of trees. She, too, was very excited. Another man needed bifocals. We helped him find a pair and I gave him my English/Spanish New Testament to read from. He was very pleased with how the glasses improved his vision, and then asked me if he could have my Bible. I said, “Of course”. I saw him reading it later that day. His ability to see also served a practical purpose for the mission team. For the past two days, he had been driving several of our mission team members in his truck on some very narrow, curvy, mountainous roads. I’m sure God’s angels were as glad as we that he could now see so much better!