Dear Friends and Supporters,

We have been making preparations for our next trip back to Zimbabwe. Steve is flying out this week and Jane will follow a week later due to commitments.

Much has transpired since our last communication with you – we sent over two shipments of supplies to augment the capabilities of the eye services in southern Zimbabwe. Contained in these crates are an operating microscope, rolling operating room bed, several very delicate diagnostic machines and surgical supplies and glasses to give out at eye camps. We are grateful to Alcon Corporation, AmeriCares, Johnson and Johnson and several surgical facilities who have been so generous in their donations. Many needy patients in Zimbabwe will receive much needed medical and surgical care as a result. 

We will be hosting a team from First Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia during this trip. They will be leading faith-based teaching in a number of schools, basketball clinics and will be ministering at a home for abused girls. We will also work together in eye camps, examining and helping hundreds of patients with their eye needs. We look forward to the time of ministry together.

The expansion project at Mater Dei Hospital is progressing, and the eye center wing will be completed hopefully by the end of the year. We plan on developing a center of excellence to care for the tertiary needs of the population of southern Zimbabwe. Our deficiency is in the area of surgical treatment for retinal diseases. We are hoping and praying for the resources to both equip and train a couple of doctors in this highly specialized area of ophthalmic medicine.

We are always thankful and excited to bring you news of our latest endeavors in Zimbabwe and southern Africa as we strive to continue to assist and empower our colleagues and coworkers in raising the level of care to such a needy population. Thank you once again for your support and prayers for us as we open a new chapter in our work in a land to which we are called and led.

Steve and Jane Beaty