March 13, 2012 Sorting Hundreds Of Used Eyeglasses

I know this looks like a modern art mosaic using eyeglass frames!

But it is not!

This hodgepodge of eyeglasses represents VISION for about 400 poor Hondurans.

My friend and fellow missionary, Janet Reeger Hines invited me out to dinner at her place and while sitting there minding my own business enjoying the country view replete with country sounds and the feeling of peace, her sister Mary Reeger Masterson says to me, "I have several hundred pairs of eyeglasses, do you need them?"

Asking me if I need eyeglasses is like asking a chocoholic if he needs a slice of Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake.  Of course I need eyeglasses!  Some years we have as many as 36 eye brigades in small villages or in poor communities of Tegucigalpa.

This year I have only 18 days of eye teams scheduled, but I am positive that number will increase as the year goes on.  It always does.

People in the United States buy new eyeglasses and deposit their old ones into boxes at the optometrist's office and then people bring them down to me.  We share them with a group from Vida Abundante Church here in Tegucigalpa which has a clinic called ZOE.  They and their volunteers sort, read and package the eyeglasses for us to take out to rural village eye brigades.

Thanks to Mary Reeger Masterson and to whoever donated the eyeglasses to her, around 400 poorest of the poor will have the opportunity to see clearly and to read.  My childhood friend Linda Bell from Little Rock, Arkansas also emailed me last week and says she has another1,00 pair of eyeglasses from her Lion's Club to donate. Her club has helped SMART Medical Teams in Honduras for years.