Dear Friends;

Our time here in Bulawayo is rapidly moving forward. We said goodbye to our daughter, Rebekah, and her family 10 days ago. A couple of days later we welcomed Dr. Faruk Orge who is a well known pediatric ophthalmologist, and who lectures world-wide.

The day after Dr. Orge arrived, we drove him 8 hours to an eye congress in the northeast area of Zimbabwe. The drive was difficult, but the scenery was spectacular in that part of the country. Steve took part in the meeting while Dr. Orge spoke as the keynote speaker of the congress. Sadly, we had to drive the 8 hour trip on bad roads back to Bulawayo the next day because he was scheduled to fly out to speak at another meeting in Whistler, Canada. However, though his visit was short, our Zimbabwe colleagues received brilliant lectures that will enhance their clinical skills and patient management.

We conducted another eye camp at a local church yesterday and saw 85 patients. Among them was a 33 year old lady who is blind with cataracts. Steve examined her to ensure that she is an operative candidate, and she is. This lady has her whole life ahead, and when we perform surgery, she will return to a normal life again. What a privilege it will be to be able to restore the eyesight in this lady!

Please keep Steve in your prayers; tomorrow he will be working collaboratively with a couple of other surgeons to reconstruct the left side of a 20 year old lady’s face and eyelids. She was involved in a terrible bus accident 3 weeks ago, and sustained terrible injuries to her face and arm.

Thank you once again for your prayers as we continue the work here for a few more weeks. We are so appreciative of your thoughts and prayers.

Steve and Jane Beaty