Mosquitoes and Monkeys and Eye Glasses, Oh My!

I can’t believe it, but I don’t think I’ve ever been on a missionary trip before.

My husband reminds me we helped at an orphanage in Juarez, Mexico once but I’m not sure that counts since we stayed at my friend’s house with a shower and just had to cross the border every day.

This time we’re headed up the San Juan River in Nicaragua, a different animal all together from Juarez.

We fly to Managua, shift to a small 12-seater plane and fly over Lake Nicaragua. We land in San Carlos at the mouth of the river and catch a two-hour boat ride. We’re headed to Sabalos Lodge.

Once in Sabalos, we’ll conduct eyeglass clinics for the local populace on four different days. Members of our church, St. Mark Lutheran in Santa Rosa, have run these clinics for the last five years. Our daughter went on this trip last year and helped hand out 1200 pair of glasses and 500 Spanish Bibles. We’re hoping to at least duplicate that number on this trip.

It’s an important task. People travel for days to come to the clinic. For many, it’s their only opportunity to get a pair of glasses.

A Managuan optometrist travels with us for difficult cases, but for the most part our volunteers use a portable auto-refractor to get a close diagnosis and then hand out glasses. Before my daughter went last year, I had no idea cataracts were caused by exposure to the sun. A large percentage of people living near the equator, pretty much anyone over 50, have some form cataracts. By the end of her first trip, my daughter could pick out cataracts from across the room.

That’s why everyone who visits us, whether they need reading glasses or not, will get a pair of sunglasses. We’ve got pink ones for the teenage girls and sturdy plastic frames for everyone else.

In addition to meeting their physical needs, we’ll also be handing out Spanish language New Testaments. It’s amazing how quickly the Bibles are picked up–one to a family. My daughter said some people wanted the Bibles more than the glasses and when they got both! Excitement!

This trip is a stretch for me. I don’t like small planes, detest bugs, am afraid of snakes, worry about diseases and having to communicate in Spanish has been for me, literally, a nightmare on many occasions. But I take great consolation in the Scriptures that remind me that God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness. He’ll have plenty of opportunities on this trip!

Any of you been on a mission trip? What did you learn and do you have any advice?  I’m going to need it!