by Lewis Swann | Sep 23, 2016 | Blog, Rileys |
In August when we visited a village and showed the Jesus film we had forty-eight people give their hearts to Jesus. Thirty-two of them were children.
Clearly God was speaking to us about the NEED for ministering to the children.
They have no ministry available to the children in the villages we have been to. The children go to church but the pastor is speaking to the adults only and not on the children’s level.
Sight.org has been growing in many ways with general medical clinics and now we have started doing children’s ministry!
We began our first children’s ministry this month. It will be challenging in many ways because we don’t have the resources available here but God is showing us ways we can overcome this. We were eagerly welcomed into the villages to do children’s church. We even had teenagers come and participate. These teens will be mentored with hopes that they will take over the ministry one day.
This was our first village and this was our “hut” for children’s ministry.
The children grew from a 36 to over 100 in about 20 minutes!! Of course we had to go outside to do our wiggle/giggle time!
In one village, 139 children came, which was the largest group we have seen.
Even the infants came on their mama’s back because nobody wanted to miss this event! We are learning many things and finding we need to tweak and fine tune our presentation but the message is clear, “LET THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME TO ME” Mark 10:12. We are exhausted after each session, but there is such a JOY in being with these kids and loving them. Our prayer and intent is that seeds of salvation would be planted by the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of the young, and indeed the families of these villagers.
We have been well and enjoying the wonderful “cool” evenings and warm days. We are even wearing long pants during the day and using a light blanket at night. In February, that was impossible to do because it was so HOT. We are getting closer to the end of the rainy season and Wayne will soon be starting their building project. We are looking forward to the work on that project! As always we would LOVE for you to come visit us and see the work for yourself!
We are excited to be a part God’s plan. Thank you for helping us to walk out this dream.
If you should like to help us in prayer or financial support, please go to Sight.org prayer calendar or donate page.
by Lewis Swann | Aug 31, 2016 | Blog, Rileys |
Greetings from beautiful Atakpame, Togo!
We have now been living here for 6 months. Alex just received his visa, so we will be having an empty house available soon. That means friends can come see us! We will have the room to house you! So please consider our invitation!
August just seems to have flown by. We are still loving our little church here. This is the climb uphill each Sunday we make to go to church! What a workout! Motos don’t even try to climb this mountain.
We just returned from our outreach ministry week in Amou-Oblo which is close to Amlame. It is about an hour and a half from Atakpame. A couple weeks prior we did 64 eye surgeries in Amou-Oblo with excellent results!
We are happy to be a small part of this work. As you can see our team was rather large this time as our founder, Lewis Swann, and volunteer Rachel Baber RN joined us.
Our team also did our first non-eye medical ministry. Rachel held several clinics not only here in Atakpame but also in the bush! We prayed over a woman who had epilepsy and had fallen into a fire. She does not have a husband or children. She only has her parents to take care of her. God did a miracle in her life while we were praying over her! You can read more of her amazing story in last week’s blog.
We saw countless children, women and men that had needs. We were able to meet some needs but not all. We had the privilege to pray for these two children. Their parents told us that their limbs need straightening. The girl in white and blue who is 9 years old, crawls on her knees everywhere, so we were able to find crutches for her. The young boy is 4 years old and his right arm is twisted and has pain. There are so many NEEDS here!
Not only were we meeting eye needs but basic health care for the people in these villages. Most are not able to see a doctor and do without, but when “free” medical care comes they come with their needs! It was a tremendous experience. We are so thankful that Rachel Baber came to do this for the people!
We also showed several films highlighting Jesus and were able to give out Bibles and literature.
We found a “person of peace” to leave the audio Bible with and she will be responsible to play the Bible several times a week for all to hear. We not only bring individuals to Christ but also desire to see them grow. We will be checking on these villages to see their growth! We hope to plant churches this way.
Please be in prayer for this small village as we have heard it has many Voodoo “witches” Pray for the gospel to break forth and deliver every single person in that community.
What a blessing to find out that Rachel played the violin too! I played and gave a violin lesson at a school where we held one of our clinics in Amou-Oblo. The children were very curious. I loved it!
We had a prayer tent and a medical tent and I got to spend some time with the children.
We are learning new things about our team members everyday and finding that God has put together some of the most qualified, loving, and committed Christians to work with here. We held our first team building event at our house this month. We did six team building games. We had fun and fellowship and they all got their first taste of Mexican food!
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We are truly blessed to be a part and have a place here in Togo.
If you would like to have a part in this ministry by supporting us, please go here. You can make a monthly donation or a one-time gift! We also covet your prayers and rely on them to effectively reach out to some of these people who have no hope. May God Bless your giving!!!
Written by: Elaine Riley, missionary in Togo
by Lewis Swann | Aug 26, 2016 | Blog, Lewis |
Dear friends,
God is so good.
After performing eye surgeries, we returned to the region to share the gospel and plant house churches. In every village we went to, we found many happy people whose sight has been restored, and we found big smiles and warm hospitality everywhere we went.
In one of these villages, we planted a new house church with 20 to 30 new believers in Christ.
And the coolest part about it? They accepted Christ just a few days before!
After the new Christians accepted Christ, we asked them to meet us the following day. At that time, we got to know the new believers and asked them to identify who we call “The Person of Peace” as described in Luke 10. The person of peace is someone who the group identifies as the respected, trusted and responsible person from the village.
In one accord, the entire group pointed to one lady. This lady accepted the responsibility of managing an audio Bible that we gifted to the group. She will coordinate weekly meetings to listen to the audio Bible followed by open discussion. From now on, pastors and ministers from Sight.org will return to that village to continue in discipleship.
And one day, we hope and pray that they will grow to a point that they are prompted to reach out to the surrounding villages to further the gospel and start more house churches. Honestly, watching a new church come together like this is the most beautiful thing ever. I would love to do it every week of the year, and I don’t think I would ever get sick of it. It’s simply too amazing to describe.
We saw amazing restoration in many people, and one of my favorite stories of restoration was in one of our new sisters in Christ. With our volunteer nurse, Rachel, this ministry week began with offering basic medical care for those in need.
During that time, many came with very sad conditions. One lady suffered from epilepsy, and one of her episodes led her to fall into a fire where she severely burned her face. Sadly, this is very common for people with epilepsy in Africa, and such people are often treated as outcasts. In her own words, she had no one.
Deep hurt and shame was plainly seen in her eyes. People like this often hear people say bad things to them. She hears that she is cursed, a nobody, and much worse. I asked some of our team to pray over her with me. We began, and the tears ran down her face. It’s hard to describe, and I have only seen it a few times with this level of clarity, but it was very clear to everyone praying that God was bringing major restoration in her life. To the point of convulsion, she wept throughout the five minutes we prayed over her. Then, when it was all over, joy was all over her face. At that moment, she had received Christ.
The next day, she came to our first church service. She was in the back corner, looking up and praising God. Before, she was drenched in shame, and now, she is restored. One of our pastors went to talk to her, and she explained that something happened during our prayer, and that she knows that her life is forever changed. It’s so clear to see a life restored by God. As I looked into her eyes, it was like I was looking at a totally different person. God is so good.
God is so good.
Written by: Lewis Swann, Founder and President of Sight.org
by Lewis Swann | Aug 18, 2016 | Blog, Lewis |
Dear friends,
I am writing you this letter while on the mission field in Togo, Africa.
When I arrived on August 10th, I traveled directly to our team. They were already prepared and ready to perform cataract surgeries the following day. As the surgeries began, I found myself as a spectator observing a well oiled machine. Everyone on the team had become masters of their individual positions, and they performed 62 surgeries in three days.
We have a beautiful video of a daughter watching her father as he reads the eye chart. Our missionaries said she was WEEPING with JOY, praising God that her father could see again!
I am so impressed with this team. Even though they serve the blind throughout the year, they serve with as much compassion as they had when they first began.
After surgery, the team danced and rejoiced with the patients who had their sight restored. Then they wept as people praised God and shared their testimonies of freedom and restoration. You can seen a video of this rejoicing during our “Celebration of Sight.”
Today, we did eye screenings and were able to schedule 54 surgeries for next month. God continues to bring a constant flow of needs to us and we plan to serve until they stop coming.
As I am writing this, I’m watching our team and our volunteer nurse, Rachel, serve the people in the community around our headquarters. Rachel is offering consultation to villagers who have never seen a doctor, while performing minor treatments as we are able.
We are even finding cases that we believe is likely syphilis. This is a terrible disease, but with modern medicine, it is easily treatable. We sometimes find families that have passed this disease down three generations, and sadly, they don’t even know they have it. We will be taking the patients we are seeing today to a Catholic hospital tomorrow for syphilis testing and treatment.
Next week, we will be going out for a ministry outreach in the same villages where we performed eye surgeries a week ago. While performing ministry activities, we will also perform minor medical treatments and consultation like we are today.
I have to say, eye surgeries are much easier for me to handle than the type of health care we are offering today. For our eye surgery program, we are either able to perform the surgeries or not. But when offering to help in other areas, it’s not always so easy.
Just moments ago, I had to pause while writing this letter to join the team to pray for a lady with advanced cancer. I wish there was a program here that we could refer her to, but we know that it doesn’t exist here. At times, we are able to cure a disease like syphilis, and at other times, we can only offer our love and prayer.
Regardless of what we are able to offer, we are very grateful to God and our supporters who enable us to stand before these people today. It is extremely sobering when we are confronted by such need. It makes us feel very small in a big world of suffering.
We are so grateful for our supporters. What you do is very important.
Extending Christ’s healing hand,
Lewis, Founder and President of Sight.org
by Lewis Swann | Aug 4, 2016 | Beth, Blog |
Next week Lewis, our founder, and Rachel, a nurse from Tyler, will be traveling to Togo.
Rachel first heard about Sight.org when Lewis spoke to a group of UT Tyler nursing students. Ever since then, Rachel couldn’t get Sight.org off her mind. She is now a nurse at ETMC and will be using her skills for two weeks in Togo with our team. We are very excited that Rachel is joining us because she has a big heart for missions, is very outgoing, loves helping people, has already been on several mission trips around the world, and is actually excited about roughing it in the bush of Togo.
Please pray for them each day as they do what the Lord has for them.
Prayer points:
- Pray that they and the team would have the armor of God on each day to combat spiritual attacks
- Pray that Lewis will have wisdom as he does continuous team building and training.
- Pray for the 50 surgeries scheduled. Pray for healing of the patients. Pray that they will see Jesus through our team.
- Pray for Rachel as she follows the ministry team into the villages with medical supplies. She will be doing evangelism while also attending to any medical needs they come across.
- Pray for unity among the team as they work and live together.
- Pray for God to move in a mighty way during surgeries and ministry times.
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