‘Intense excitement’ is how I remember leaving the Congo to head to Togo, West Africa. There I planned to join Believe and See for a life changing mission. Upon arrival, there were six blind children waiting for me. These little ones needed to be assessed for surgery. A surgery that would change their lives forever.
Two weeks later my adventure began. Sam, team photographer, Ramon, local translator, and I, traveled to a remote village. It was a long, harrowing journey on bumpy, dusty country roads. Anticipation was mounting. I had no idea what was in store.
It was a daunting experience. I met a surgeon who talked about children’s eye problems that could not be treated. Restoring eyesight is highly risky. Babies are so fragile and harder to cure. Anxiety gripped my mind and heart. So many lives with a desperate hope for a better chance of survival.
>>I prayed fervently “God give me the words to tell a parent that surgery will not help and their child will never see this world. Words of comfort.” My heart ached to plant seeds of hope not thorns of despair.
We set off to visit local villages. Suddenly, as we drove over each crater in the road, God flooded my mind with beautiful words. I tried to scribble out the words for Sam to translate to Ramon. Communication was really tough. My French is rubbish. Sam speaks English and French. Ramon speaks only French and local Togolese languages, so it takes a team of three to deliver one message!
Finally we were blessed with a message of hope, “We have come from Sight.org with a mission to restore sight, but we must remember that God did not just create us to have only physical eyes but he also created us to have spiritual eyes of our heart that we may see Him.
Sometimes God creates a special child that will never have physical eyes. This is because this child is too special to witness all the suffering in the physical world. He creates this child with only spiritual eyes to see His heavenly world. If you have a special child, listen and teach how to open their spiritual eyes of their heart to see God’s world. Teach them music so you will be able to hear God through your child.”
It was time to assess the children. The little girl was 5. Two of the boys were 7 and a sweet baby, GuiyGuiy, only 8 months old. The older children where much easier to examine. I was looking for signs of a bad condition but none of the children had these.
Then it was time to examine this fragile baby. The cataracts covered his whole eye. I was feeling a wave of desperate sadness wash over me. Then I noticed that when I shined my flashlight into GuiyGuiy’s eyes, he gave the biggest giggle. Now I knew this meant he could see light! My excitement was not shared with the baby’s young mother. She held her baby with an expression of deep sadness. I felt her hopelessness. She blamed herself telling me she must have done something wrong to cause this. She explained that she noticed the color of his eyes changing to a ghost-like whiteness. This was a place for God to shine into the mother’s heart.
When we returned to the local town, the surgeon agreed to do the surgery for the baby. So now the real work began without the usual equipment we needed to save this baby’s sight. So needless to say I began to manually calculate the figures needed for the surgery.
The surgery was a success! GuiyGuiy and his mother are both smiling again. Hallelujah!!!! God worked through the Sight.org mission to bring sight to precious children and soften their parents hearts bringing hope to receive God’s love.
A scripture to pray on:
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:1-4
In Him,
Laurie Nelson, Sight.org Medical Director