Congo – Sight for the Blind

 The Navigators

Each day, our team sets up a consultation center outside a rundown but still operational hospital and gives free eye exams. I’m working closely with two optometrists, Jeremie and Dr. Loba. I’ve been able to serve as the eye chart worker, sending patients in to Jeremie and Dr. Loba for a full consultation after checking their distance vision. Some of our patients are recommended for surgery (which we’re prepared to do), but very few of them are able to afford the procedure.

Ever since I arrived, I’d been praying for a chance to use some donation money that didn’t enter into my account for the trip. Around the third day of this consultation work, I started to wonder if I could use the money to pay for an operation. I approached Jeremie with the idea, and we prayed for an open door on the next day of consultations.

It was surely a God-sized prayer, and we went into surgery around 2 o’clock the next day with God’s answer. I was able to serve Jeremie and Dr. Loba as a scrub nurse, which was an incredible experience.

We visited God’s answer to my prayer, Salam, the next morning, and I stood in thankfulness and awe as he passed sight tests with Jeremie—already improving since the day-old surgery. I tried in my best African French to explain that it wasn’t me—it was God who had provided.