Dear Friends and supporters,

As always, time has flown by, and we are almost halfway through our time of work and ministry here in Zimbabwe. The first week here was taken up with helping a team of 10 people from the Columbus, Georgia area who accompanied us. Dr. Butch Wolf, general surgeon, and his son, Dr. Luke Wolf, an orthopedic surgeon, spent time in the hospitals here with their counterparts, Drs’ Magara and Musasenure. They had a rewarding clinical experience and friendships were strengthened.

The group of three teachers (Mrs. Cindy Sparks, Mrs. Katherine Trotter and Mr. David Houser) and four high school students, all from Brookstone School in Columbus, Georgia, had memorable interactions with Petra, their sister school in Zimbabwe. The cultural and educational exchange between the visitors and their Zimbabwe hosts resulted in new friendships and continued strengthening of ties between schools. We hope that this relationship will grow and build to bring a wider dimension in world views and understanding to all involved.

We were scheduled to conduct an eye camp with the team from Georgia in a rural village, but upon arriving at the office of the local district administrator, we were told that we would have to reschedule the outreach ‘because an eye nurse was not present’. Well, we realized that in Africa, things don’t always go as planned. (We have rescheduled the eye camp for next week).

After the team from Columbus left, we travelled to Harare, the capital, with Tristan Cairns, a professional photographer who also accompanied us to Africa. We had a very rewarding experience at the University of Zimbabwe ophthalmology training program. Steve delivered 3 hours of lecture on cataract surgery and then taught the training doctors in a wet lab using pig eyes. He performed live surgery teaching on patients at the large government hospital in Harare on the next day.

We are now focused on continuing the cataract training here in Bulawayo that we started in August of last year. We see progress being made, even though the techniques that we are teaching are very difficult to master. Two days ago we conducted a rural eye cam and were honored to see the joy on many patients as they received treatment and glasses. Many were able to see clearly for the first time in their lives.

Please keep us in your prayers that God will give us the strength and wisdom to use the remaining time here to help as many of these needy people as we can.

Thank you so much for your support.
Steve and Jane Beaty