Dear Friends of Eyecare To The Needy,

Greetings from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe! We trust you all are doing well. It is amazing to think that I (Jane) have already been in country for 3 weeks and tomorrow will be 2 weeks for Steve.

This year, a group of 4 guys, all high school seniors from Columbus, GA, joined our team with Jeri Stewart (her 7th time coming to Zimbabwe) and her daughter, Christina.  We spent the first 9 days participating in tennis camps in several schools around the Bulawayo area. The team even drove an hour outside of the city to a rural boarding school and did our first ever tennis camp on 2 courts without fencing!  This tennis team of young guys also had 2 opportunities to serve in one of the orphanages helping to build a chicken coup and providing various ‘labor’ work around the orphanage.

Steve arrived on Sunday, July 24th and 2 days later, he was out in the bush performing our first eye camp. The tennis team was able to join as well.  The guys were able to learn a lot and spent the day performing vision screenings and assisting the patients into the schoolroom area to see the doctor. Jeri and Christina worked with me dispensing eyeglasses. Although Steve was definitely jet-lagged, God gave him the strength to see 135 patients and we gave out approximately 75 pairs of glasses! We can always use more glasses if you have them!

We have been privileged to have with us Dr. Faruk Orge,  a pediatric ophthalmologist from Case Western University. He and Steve were guest lecturers at this year’s Zimbabwe Eye Congress which met for 2 days in Mutare (about 7 hours from Bulawayo).

After a very long day in driving, a total of 11 hours taking Dr. Orge from the city of Mutare to the Harare airport , we headed south again and are now back in Bulawayo. On the way, we encountered a total of 33 police road blocks.  We are thankful for your prayers, asking God for protection over us.

On Sunday (August 7th), Steve led the Bulawayo low vision support group. This support group has been successful in meeting monthly now for 1 year.

This past week,  Steve consulted,  worked alongside and mentored the residents who are in the ophthalmology program at UBH.  We also had one rural eye camp on Tuesday and would so appreciate your continued prayers for travel and the people we will be seeing.

Thank you again for your support. We are grateful and honored to serve here in Zimbabwe.

Steve and Jane Beaty