USA #4, 2023

We had a free glasses clinic at our church, Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky on October 6th.  Consider having a free glasses clinic in your town.

There was an optometrist helping us in the clinic.  To the left are pictures of people to whom we gave the glasses.  Look at picture 1.  This lady mainly spoke Spanish but her shirt says:

                                                  TRUST GOD

                                                CLEAN HOUSE

                                                HELP OTHERS.

We had many people who only spoke Spanish but we had a translator program on the laptop that we used.  

Patient number 4 screamed "I can see" the minute we put the glasses on her.  She was very happy.  We serviced 142 people in this clinic.  We started at 9AM and shut down at 8:30 PM.  Many of these people were homeless or were staying in a drug addiction house.  All of them could never possibly afford glasses.  Being able to see will allow them to find a job and support their family.

Here is what the optometrist said after the clinic.

"Many patients needed additional medical care, at least 20% of patients had elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) and are at risk of developing glaucoma, one patient had an active uveitis (inflammation in their eye ) , and another had a new vein occlusion (blocked blood vessel) in their eye causing them not to see . By identifying these issues as early as possible they can hopefully get the proper treatment and preserve their sight .

Many kids were identified to have reduced vision and were referred for proper glasses prescriptions to ensure their eyes develop properly , preventing them from getting amblyopia (lazy eye). By fully correcting their vision now , before they reach the age of 9 , we can make sure they have good vision for the rest of their life."

It was so important having an optometrist present as we know that glasses don't fix all vision problems.