Local missions is that element of FCO, International concerned with helping optometrists and other eye care workers witness effectively in the workplace and among associates and co-workers. For this purpose, vision-related gospel tracts, brochures, and other ministry tools have been developed and made available. A description and cost of these items can be obtained by emailing fcoint@comcast.net.

FCO maintains a center for the logistical support of eye care missions, where opthalmic instruments, equipment, and supplies are stored for use on the mission field. Monetary contributions to FCO eye care mission projects are welcome. For information about this area of ministry, contact Dr. Joe Claudy at Jmjclaudy@embarqmail.com or at (317)535-9140.

FCO is an affiliate of MedSend. Graduating optometry students who wish to work full time in the Christian eye care mission field through FCO, but are hindered by student loans, can apply for help through MedSend. If approved, during the time when the health-care provider is working full time on the mission field, student loan payments will be paid for through a MedSend grant.

FCO is a resource of mission-minded optometrists, many of whom are able to participate in overseas eye care mission projects. There is no shortage of opportunities for optometrists to become involved in mission work. FCO frequently receives requests for people to go to foreign countries for this purpose, some for as little as a week and others for weeks or even months. One of the challenges for FCO is to help meet the tremendous need for optometric eyecare services around the world.

The following section contains information about current mission projects for optometrists, optometry students, and others in the ophthalmic professions. To have mission service opportunities included in this page, contact fcoint@comcast.net.

Visit the web site of Our Eyes, International.

Visit the web site of Trevor and Valerie Colby, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Visit the web site of Christian Vision Eyecare Services to Haiti.

Visit the web site of www.MissionaryHealth.net, a Christian organization providing affordable international health and life insurance to missionaries and mission teams traveling or living overseas.

Visit the web site of Medical Ministry International.

Kendall Optometry Ministries is a non-profit company providing techniques, training material, advanced computerized tools (glasses data collection and inventory), and interfacing to optometry equipment. These tools and techniques (when combined with readily available used prescription glasses) are utilized by both professional and non-professional volunteers to operate highly productive and well organized optical mission teams.

Please visit the web site of HealthCare Ministries. HealthCare Ministries is the medical outreach arm of the Assemblies of God. Our task is simple: to bring the hope that heals to the nations. We do this by sending medical evangelism teams around the world in response to requests from A/G missionaries and national church leaders. If you are a medical person, we encourage you to prayerfully consider a life-changing endeavor: take a trip with us! It will change your life forever.

A christian eyeglass recycling center for christian ministry and missions is seeking eyeglass collections. They clean, sort, and neutralize glasses. Glasses of all types can be used on the mission field to take christ to others. For more information please contact Amber optichic3@yahoo.com.

NOTE: FCO is not affiliated with nor does it endorse any company, but makes this information available as an example of one type of mission trip insurance.

The mission opportunities shown below are not necessarily sponsored by FCO, International, but are listed at the request of the sponsoring organizations or agencies. Listing here does not constitute an endorsement of the listing agency, its purpose or goals. Persons responding to these opportunities should inform themselves about the nature and qualifications of the organizations or agencies involved.

I am writing regarding the Rafiki Foundation Inc., headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Rafiki is a Christian mission organization with orphanages [villages] in ten countries on the continent of Africa. Villages are located in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia. All are countries where the needs of orphan children are great due to HIV/AIDS, Malaria, poverty, war, famine, a lack of healthcare and of education.

In each village, we provide help in three principal areas.

1. Childcare: The sheltering, feeding, clothing and loving of orphan children in a Godly environment. Currently, we have approximately 400 children under the age of nine living in our villages with more coming each month.
   
   Our mission is to raise and educate the children God has entrusted to us, to be Godly leaders in their own country. We do not place our children for adoption.
    
2. Education: Our program provides a classical preprimary, primary [grades 1-6] and secondary [grades 7-9 and 10-12] education. Our school curriculum, designed by Rafiki, meets all educational standards and requirements of the host country. An education is provided to each child living in the village and is also offered to teenage boys and girls living in the surrounding communities at no charge.
    
3. Medical: Daily health care is provided to the children and to the national staff. Quarterly, at six of our villages, we conduct a 10-day community medical clinic for those living in the surrounding communities who do not have access to health care. During a clinic, the medical team will often see 1,000 patients or more. Medical personnel come from the US to assist.
   
   This year, we've added oral health clinics to our village healthcare program.

We are interested in having Christian optometrists, or a Christian optometry missions organization with the ability to examine our kids and provide eye glasses where needed; to volunteer in some of our villages in Africa short-term, one to two weeks, in 2008.

Joe Baucom
Rafiki Area Representative
401 College Avenue
Winona Lake, IN 47690
574-370-2699
joebauc@aol.com
www.rafiki-foundation.org

My name is Ian Squire and in response to the call of God I set up a charity four years ago called Mission for Vision. (Registered as Pro Vision Third World). The object is to use optometry as a platform on which to introduce people to Jesus in the deprived regions of the developing world. We have carried out three trips so far to Africa, two to Uganda and one to Ghana. The teams are made up of a combination of optical professionals and evangelists and the work includes refraction, dispensing of spectacles, medical treatment and when possible cataract surgery. During the clinic the evangelists minister to the waiting crowds. So far nearly 1500 people have responded to the gospel in just three weeks of missions.

Next year in early April I am hoping to work with a clinic in Guatemala run be Missionary Ventures USA and would be interested to see if there are any Christian American optometrists who would like to be involved.

It is essential that this work is kept totally Christ centred and I need to expand my contacts within the world wide Christian community.

Please contact me by email (ian@isopticians.co.uk) if you are interested in using your skills for the glory of the Lord on short term missions whether it be Guatemala next year or any other trips in the future.

Ian Squire. FBDO. Shepperton, Middlesex, United Kingdom.

I am an Optometrist and president of Team Healthcare (www.teamhealthcare.org), a group of Christian MD's, DDS, OD's, nurses, and evangelists who go to third-world countries and give medical aide to some of God's most needy. We go to Africa, Peru, and Jamaica. Other missionaries have requested us to come to Brazil and China. The need for Optometrists on the mission field is great. If you feel God's calling to serve on a short term mission trip (7 to 10 days-depending on distance) , I ask you to pray about it, check our website, and get in touch with me via e-mail at sandyemtd@juno.com.

God bless,
Bob Purnell

The Association of Baptist Churches of Rwanda needs an optometrist to provide qualified eye care. The eye clinic in Kigali has been equipped by the generosity of Baptists in New Jersey and trained Rwandans are in place to run the equipment to make the glasses. All that is needed is YOU!

For more information, email BIMvolunteers@abc-usa.org, call us at 1-800-222-3872 ext 2366, or write Volunteers in Global Mission, PO Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482

For more details, click here!

If you would like to learn more about International Ministries, you can visit our website at www.internationalministries.org

OR if you want to go straight to the volunteer section, click on this link: www.internationalministries.org/opportunities/Volunteers/index.htm

Healing Hands has an permanent clinic that offers medical care on an almost daily basis. The clinic has a room equipped with a refracting lane including a chair & stand along with slit lamp etc. This is a beginning ministry and is available for teams or individuals to provide eye care to the poor and under served in Mexicali, Mexico.

The administrator Bruce Lacey is grateful for any volunteer eye care ministry. The clinic is part of the Christian outreach of Healing Hands. Bruce welcomes your inquiries and he can be contacted at:

Bruce Lacey
351 E. Bradley Ave. Space #3
El Cajon, California 92021

(619) 596-5460

Autorefractor needed for a trip to India. If you are able to loan this piece of equipment, please contact Aaron Lech at the following, or see his website for more information:

Aaron Lech, OD, FAAO
ClearVue Eye Care
Office 916.786.2212
Fax 916.786.2393
www.clearvue.org

Eye Care From the Heart, Inc. is looking for Christian optometrists who would be interested in working in Ukraine by donating one or more weeks of their time performing free eye exams and providing free eye glasses. For more information, please log on to www.eyecare-heart.org. If interested, please contact Dr. Carter L. Murphy at eyecare-heart@cox.net. Optometry students who have not yet graduated and who are interested in a mission opportunity, please contact Dr. Murphy at 757-229-8660 (office) or 757-220-1394 (home).

Baptist Medical Dental Mission International currently sends 27 teams to villages in Honduras and 17 teams to villages in Nicaragua on 1 week short team mission trips. These teams of from 40-60 people consist of Christian doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, vetinarians, opticians, optometrists, and many other volunteers. From 20 to 30 translators are also provided. Using the technology developed by Kendall Optometry Ministry, Inc, a Nikon Retinomax 2 is used to measure the eyes and match the prescription in an inventory of up to 8000 pairs of used prescription glasses. Reading charts are used for selection of reading glasses. The teams are able to provide all the eyeglasses necessary, but since few optometrists participate in these teams, not the expertise frequently required. BMDMI is therefore requesting that FCO members contact Team Activities Assistant: Katrina Smith (Katrina@bmdmi.org) for assistance in being assigned to a team.

To review the list of Honduran teams click here.
To review the list of Nicaragua teams click here.

My name is Rick Haynes and I am the president of China Harvest Ministries. My home office is in Broken Arrow, Ok and I have a branch office in Dalian, China where I live. We are located in N.E. China in the Liaoning province close to the North Korean Border. We have an orphanage there and also host Christian Medical Teams and take them to the remote places in our province. We hosted two dental teams from the states last year in the remote villages of our province. We also hosted an eye clinic and a week long seminar on elderly care. I would like to offer your organization an invitation to bring a medical team to our area. We will make all the arrangements inside of China. The clinics usually last from 5 to 7 days. There will also be time for sight seeing in Beijing and Dalian if the team wishes to do so. The approximate cost is $800 inside of China depending on accommodations and how much sight seeing the team wants to do. This does not include airfare to and from the states. It is not our intention to make a dime off of your medical team. We only charge for the amount of the expenses including my expenses of the clinic. We only want to see the people helped and for them to except Christ as their savior. You may visit our website www.chinaharvest.org (Note: The website does not mention that we are a Christian organization as the Chinese can view it also. Please prayerfully consider this invitation.)

Missions International invites you to send short term mission teams to Trinidad and Tobago and The Caribbean. You may visit their website at www.missions-international.com. They are a non-denominational mission based in the Caribbean. Email: Dr Brian Lushington

Short term mission opportunity to work for 3-5 days in a clinic, New Vision Home is located on top of the mountains located on the grounds of an orphange. There are groups of medical and dental personnel going every 2-3 months. We desparately need opthalmic professionals. You will see about 200-300 patients in that period. You can stay longer if you like. The only cost is transportation there. This is an ASAP plea. Having just returned from the clinic the patients plea was please send an eye doctor I can't read my Bible any longer. You will be blessed extraordinarily. Susan Milner: (336)768-6126 or milners@triad.rr.com

One week mission opportunity for one or two Christian optometrists to come to Oaxaca, Mexico to participate in a medical/eye care outreach. Carl and Verlaine Brown, coordinators for the Alliance for the Americas, will be your hosts. The optometrists will join a Mexican Christian Medical Brigade to minister in unreached indigenous villages. The purpose of the outreach is to provide much needed medical and eye care services, and at the same time share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The optometrists would have to bring eyeglasses and their own eye care equipment with them. The dates for this mission project are flexible and could be arranged as needed. Contact the Browns by e-mail at carver@spersaoaxaca.com.mx.

Here at Munich International School we run a Tanzania Project which aims to educate our students about life in the developing world through practical involvement. We do fund raising, take a team of students and staff to Tanzania each year to visit the schools, street children, orphans, Heifer Project and hospitals we support, and include Tanzania issues in our curriculum.

One of the projects we currently support is the Eye Department at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Zanzibar. Here, the one opthalmologist for 900,000 people is Dr Sheha, who is already past retirement age. There are no opthalmologists in training to replace him when he finally retires. We heard this week that Dr Sheha himself is now in need of eye treatment which is unavailable in Tanzania, and will have to go abroad temporarily, leaving the eye department with no qualified opthalmologist. We have been asked to contact any organisation that might be prepared to send a young opthalmologist to Zanzibar as a temporary replacement for Dr. Sheha. The local salary for this position would be very low indeed, possibly about US$ 90 per month, as this is a Government Hospital. The appeal of this work would lie in the experience of tropical medicine in a developing country.

If there is any possibility that you might be able to provide such a service, please contact Nadine Slavinski and Mrs Penny Kent at nadine.slavinski@mis-munich.de.

Visit the website of Christian Vision, Eye Care Services to Haiti.

The Lighthouse for Christ Eye Centre in Mombasa, Kenya needs optometrists for both short-term and long-term service. The Eye Centre is part of The Lighthouse for Christ Mission, an independent, evangelical, non-denominational mission established in 1968. It is a modern eye clinic and surgery staffed by an ophthalmologist, optometrist, and administrator, with over twenty national technicians and staff. For more information, contact:

     Volunteer Coordinator: barbshamb@aol.com
     Mission office: 1424 East Front Street, Tyler, Texas 75702
     Phone: 903-593-2157

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

My wife and I are British/German missionaries working in Guatemala for the past twelve years in a small town near Antigua. This town is incredibly poor and we have been disheartened by people dying due to not being able to afford medical treatment. These lovely people die from such things as flu and minor stomach troubles and just cannot afford seeing a doctor let alone buying medicine. Spectacles are just unheard of, hence many cannot even read the Bible because of sight problems.

We do all we can for them spiritually and also when we have funds but it is hard going. Groups from our countries of England and Germany just do not seem to want to travel so far. In twelve years we have had 2 Germans join us for a month.

We are desperate! Please pray about sending a team out here in some future date.

You can read all about our ministry on www.finalharvestministries.com. Our covering is Globe Europe Missions www.globeeurope.de

Blessings in Jesus' precious Name
Jeff Mills
www.finalharvestministries.com

Final Harvest Ministries
Apartado 10
03901 Antigua
Guatemala
Central America

The purpose of this section is to assist those who might be seeking optometrists for either short or long-term eyecare mission trips or projects. If you would like to have your name and/or e-mail address posted on this site, submit that information to fcoint@comcast.net. By doing this, you will be indicating your interest in participating in eyecare missions and your willingness to be contacted by those seeking Christian optometrists for this purpose. You may also describe briefly any particular interest you might have regarding mission service. The information will be maintained on this web page for up to one year unless you request to have it removed sooner. All exchange of information resulting from this page will take place directly between the parties involved. FCO does not maintain information about individuals whose names are listed here, nor does it endorse or attest to the qualifications of any particular individual for mission service.

Seeking a one week opthalmic mission trip for a pediatric ophthalmologist and oph tech with 27 yrs. experience. We are not specifying a specific location, but will consider opportunities that might be available. Please contact Sherry Jorgensen at sjorgens@cnmc.org or call 202-884-3590.

This information is updated frequently. Please visit again. To submit projects for inclusion on this page, please email fcoint@comcast.net.

 
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