Hello Eyecare Friends,

Greetings from hot Columbus, GA!  Our Sunday departure for Zimbabwe is fast approaching. This will be an exciting 5 weeks for us. We feel so fortunate that our kids, Rebekah and her husband Robby, Rachel and her boyfriend Thomas, Russell, and my older sister Jennifer will be with us for the first 2 weeks. It will be a special time to work and serve the people in and around the Bulawayo area with our entire family.

After our family departs Zimbabwe, we will welcome again Dr. Erick Bothun, his wife Cara, and their 14-year-old son, Dane. They reside in Minnesota but for the last several years have taken time away from the states and his busy practice as associate professor, Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, to travel to different mission venues to use his ophthalmic skills to assist in eye care needs. We feel so blessed to have them return for their second year. There will also be 2 additional pediatric ophthalmologists who are friends of Erick’s that will be joining us in Bulawayo. Erick and Steve will be working alongside Christian Blind Ministry, based out of Germany and building a pediatric unit at one of the government hospitals. They are providing teaching skills to the local doctors in preparing them to work with pediatric patients.

Following our stay in Bulawayo, we will fly to Capetown to attend a medical eye conference in which both Steve and Erick will be guest speakers.  We plan to arrive back into the states on Sunday, August 23rd.

We are claiming Isaiah 58:11 for this trip:

“And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places.
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

We will do our best to provide updates and pictures of our ministry time during these next 5 weeks. We do appreciate your prayers to the Lord on our behalf.

Blessings to each of you!