Indegenous Sight Enhancement Program
By Steve Saint“Oh, I see” my Mom used to say. That is exactly what I thought when I was told that a visiting optometrist from Rockford, Illinois was going to check my eyes along with most of the rest of the missionaries and missionary kids like me.
“Oh I see all right” I told my Mom. "I don’t need to have my eyes checked."
I always played pick-up basketball after school. If I wasn’t there when sides were chosen cause I was off having my eyes checked, I would have to sit on the side lines all afternoon. I figured I could see as well as the next kid. But Mom said “You are going to have your eyes checked”. Her tone of voice was clear, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…”
So Dr. Daniels checked my eyes. Then came the stunning news. I was going to have to wear glasses… all the time; probably for the rest of my life. I was shocked.
A couple of months later the glasses arrived. I tentatively put the awkward contraptions on. They pulled my already sticky out ears even further into life’s slipstream as they slid down my ski-jump nose.
I thought I would just wear these “eye-braces” until Dr. Daniels went back to the States and my Mom forgot I had them. But something happened when I put those lenses in front of my eyes. The world changed. The trees had individual leaves. All I could see before was a green blur. The Andes Mountains had ridges and valleys. The whole world suddenly had texture and I could see it clearly for the first time.
The morning after getting my first glasses I realized why I had to work harder than my friends to shoot baskets. For the first time in my life I could actually see the rim I was shooting at. “Big fat cheaters”, I thought. Anyone can shoot baskets when you can clearly see what you are shooting at. And, I could actually read what the teacher was writing on the black board. Now I could sit in the back of the class without staying after the others left to copy what the teacher had been writing down for us.
Almost half a century later the last thing I do at night is take my glasses off. And one of the first things I do in the morning is put those lenses back on again. These “Eye Sight Enhancers" changed my life.
The organization I started over a decade ago, Itec, is in the business of re-inventing how things like fixing people’s teeth, curing malaria and snake bite and parasites are done so that people ‘at the end of the road and beyond’ can have a chance to feel good and see well. And, so they will be favorably disposed to hearing that the Creator of the Universe cares about them and has plans for their lives.
For years I have wanted to add a vision component to the unorthodox but extremely practical health care systems we have been re-inventing so that those people referred to as “the least of these” in Matthew 25 can find the physical and spiritual comfort they need but seldom get.
Well, guess what. Chip Parker, the newest Itec board member, is an Optometrist. Not only that but he has over two decades of experience helping people see better in the “third world”. I challenged him to help get our I-See program out of the starting gate. He took the challenge and showed up today with information and ideas that really got my “helping those who can’t help themselves” juices flowing.
Here’s what we came up with. Chip told me that for the next few days another optometrist friend of his is in China. He has done some research and has found a Chinese optical company that would agree to sell us new sets of glasses at the ‘Big Lots’ price without requiring us to order the ‘Big Lots’ quantity. But don’t get the idea that we aren’t still talking lots of glasses – cause we are. Try 10,000 pair on for size. That’s right, 10,000 pair and they consider that a very small order. Here’s the deal. If we place an order while Chip’s friend is in China (no doubt buying a boat load of spectacles for himself) we can buy each complete pair of glasses for less than you can get a small coffee at Starbucks.
Buying the glasses is the easy part. The big question is how are we going to distribute 10,000 pairs of glasses to people who need them in hidden corners of the world? Well, the answer isn’t to drive around frontier areas of the world dropping free glasses from our windows as we speed through villages that have never ever seen or even heard of an optometrist.
Here is the plan we have come up with to help enhance people’s physical and spiritual eyesight.
Jesus told us that if we see someone in need who isn’t in that need because they choose to be or are too lazy to get out, then we should help them. And He said that when we help people that can’t help themselves, He would consider it as though we had done it to Him. I can tell you what now, Jesus needs lots and lots of teeth fixed and he needs lots of Cloroquin to relieve the aches and fever of malaria this year (believe it or not, one million people will die of malaria this year. Most of them and the forty nine million other people who will suffer but survive could be cured with about a dollar of medicine). And Jesus needs childbirth help and wounds closed and He needs lots of antibiotics. And He needs glasses just like I once did.
This is what we decided in our meeting today. We will order 10,000 pairs of glasses while the price is right. Chip and his friend have already come up with a plan of how many kinds of frames we need and what powers we need in this first order (Did you know that some races of people have larger heads than other races of people do? Don’t feel badly if you didn’t, that is why Chip is heading up this project – he does).
We are going to order two basic styles of frames that will fit the head sizes of most adults in the world. And, we are going to order glasses from both of those styles in two sizes each. That is four categories so far. Then, we are going to order lenses in ten different powers; five for people who are near sighted and five for people (almost everyone over the age of 40 regardless of race) who are far sighted. That is 2X2X10 different styles, sizes and powers of glasses.
This is how we plan to get these glasses to sight handicapped people. First, we will divide our inventory up into Sight Enhancement (SEE) kits. These kits will include several types of specialty pliers needed to adjust each frame to fit each client’s specific face. The kits will also include the various eye charts needed to determine whether someone needs glasses or not. It will even include a measuring tape to be sure that the charts are placed a proper distance in front of the patient’s eyes.
Each kit will also include a large quantity of new glasses. The ‘get your feet wet’, Level One kit will include twelve dozen pair of glasses in the powers and sizes that we feel will best fit the population of the area to be served. Each kit will also include a non-verbal training video that explains how to determine who needs glasses and what power they need and it will explain how to adjust each frame to fit each patient.
Churches and individuals who are motivated by a desire to care for vision handicapped people with both their sight and heart (spiritual) problems can buy the ‘Level One Kit’ for $995 dollars. The level two – ‘there are a pile of people out where I’m going so give me more glasses’ Level Two kit will include all the tools and eye charts and yes, a tape measure, and will include two dozen, dozen pairs (288) of glasses for $1495. And the ‘I want a pile of glasses at the very best price’ – Level Three kit will include everything and the tape measure and three and a half dozen pairs of glasses (504) for $1995.
Here is what makes the I-See program so visionary. You don’t just go to some far off land and fit a bunch of glasses and leave. No, the idea is that we will not only teach you how to determine who needs glasses – people who will otherwise go on struggling with bad eyes – but we will also teach you to teach a local God Follower who lives where you are going, to continue doing what you started - after you leave. Sustainability is the key here.
We teach you the I-See program and then you teach an Indigenous God Follower to do it (See one, Do one, Teach one). You (or your church or group) buy the kit. You take it with you on that short term missions trip you were going to go on (we’ll lead you through the planning and preparations) and you help needy people while you disciple a local believer to take over from you when you return home. You leave the glasses you have not used from your kit with the local ‘Vision Enhancement Technician’.
This is a very, very easy and straightforward plan. In most places your biggest problem is going to be to pick your successor. Lots of people will want to take your place, but you don’t know who will faithfully carry on what you have started. That is why we will recommend that you work through an indigenous church. They know who is faithful and who is capable of keeping the I-See program going and who will use it as a door opener for sharing the Gospel and starting or building up a local church.
Best of all, in many places the person that takes over from you will be able to support themselves by offering the ‘Sight Enhancement’ services you taught them. This is how that could work.
You turn the I-See kit over to them when you leave, at no cost. But you ask them and the local church to set a fee that the local population can afford – five to eight dollars per pair of glasses or so. The I-See technician agrees to set two dollars per pair of glasses aside to buy new inventory. The rest of the proceeds form a sustaining salary that allows him or her to spend full time distributing glasses and the Gospel Good News.
We will work with you to replace their inventory at the lowest possible cost by buying in bulk, and then assembling the specific inventory each I-See technician needs to fill the vision needs in their particular area. If they set two dollars (this amount will probably increase slowly over time but will remain affordable) aside from each pair of glasses distributed. That should be enough to replace their inventory (they will only rarely need to replace pliers, charts etc.)
In as little as one week and for as little as one to two thousand dollars we can make it possible for Indigenous God Followers to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of people who can’t meet this need for themselves.
There are other ways to meet vision needs in places where there is no Eye Doctor, but this is program is easy, and it is respectful. And, it is self sustainable. That is a clear Scriptural concept. Jesus' Great Commission is that we should “go out and make disciples of all the nations, teaching those disciples to do everything that Jesus taught His disciples to do.” It is clear from the multiple records of Jesus life that He made a regular practice of meeting people’s physical needs as a door opener to meeting their spiritual needs.
It’s your turn now. We can show you how.
Thank you for considering being a ministry franchisee with us in “I-See”. As my good friend Mincaye has said over and over as we have traveled together; “Once I could see the Creator’s very good trail, I wanted to walk His trail, not mine. And going everywhere I say to others, won’t you come walk God’s Trail with me?
I always played pick-up basketball after school. If I wasn’t there when sides were chosen cause I was off having my eyes checked, I would have to sit on the side lines all afternoon. I figured I could see as well as the next kid. But Mom said “You are going to have your eyes checked”. Her tone of voice was clear, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…”
So Dr. Daniels checked my eyes. Then came the stunning news. I was going to have to wear glasses… all the time; probably for the rest of my life. I was shocked.
A couple of months later the glasses arrived. I tentatively put the awkward contraptions on. They pulled my already sticky out ears even further into life’s slipstream as they slid down my ski-jump nose.
I thought I would just wear these “eye-braces” until Dr. Daniels went back to the States and my Mom forgot I had them. But something happened when I put those lenses in front of my eyes. The world changed. The trees had individual leaves. All I could see before was a green blur. The Andes Mountains had ridges and valleys. The whole world suddenly had texture and I could see it clearly for the first time.
The morning after getting my first glasses I realized why I had to work harder than my friends to shoot baskets. For the first time in my life I could actually see the rim I was shooting at. “Big fat cheaters”, I thought. Anyone can shoot baskets when you can clearly see what you are shooting at. And, I could actually read what the teacher was writing on the black board. Now I could sit in the back of the class without staying after the others left to copy what the teacher had been writing down for us.
Almost half a century later the last thing I do at night is take my glasses off. And one of the first things I do in the morning is put those lenses back on again. These “Eye Sight Enhancers" changed my life.
The organization I started over a decade ago, Itec, is in the business of re-inventing how things like fixing people’s teeth, curing malaria and snake bite and parasites are done so that people ‘at the end of the road and beyond’ can have a chance to feel good and see well. And, so they will be favorably disposed to hearing that the Creator of the Universe cares about them and has plans for their lives.
For years I have wanted to add a vision component to the unorthodox but extremely practical health care systems we have been re-inventing so that those people referred to as “the least of these” in Matthew 25 can find the physical and spiritual comfort they need but seldom get.
Well, guess what. Chip Parker, the newest Itec board member, is an Optometrist. Not only that but he has over two decades of experience helping people see better in the “third world”. I challenged him to help get our I-See program out of the starting gate. He took the challenge and showed up today with information and ideas that really got my “helping those who can’t help themselves” juices flowing.
Here’s what we came up with. Chip told me that for the next few days another optometrist friend of his is in China. He has done some research and has found a Chinese optical company that would agree to sell us new sets of glasses at the ‘Big Lots’ price without requiring us to order the ‘Big Lots’ quantity. But don’t get the idea that we aren’t still talking lots of glasses – cause we are. Try 10,000 pair on for size. That’s right, 10,000 pair and they consider that a very small order. Here’s the deal. If we place an order while Chip’s friend is in China (no doubt buying a boat load of spectacles for himself) we can buy each complete pair of glasses for less than you can get a small coffee at Starbucks.
Buying the glasses is the easy part. The big question is how are we going to distribute 10,000 pairs of glasses to people who need them in hidden corners of the world? Well, the answer isn’t to drive around frontier areas of the world dropping free glasses from our windows as we speed through villages that have never ever seen or even heard of an optometrist.
Here is the plan we have come up with to help enhance people’s physical and spiritual eyesight.
Jesus told us that if we see someone in need who isn’t in that need because they choose to be or are too lazy to get out, then we should help them. And He said that when we help people that can’t help themselves, He would consider it as though we had done it to Him. I can tell you what now, Jesus needs lots and lots of teeth fixed and he needs lots of Cloroquin to relieve the aches and fever of malaria this year (believe it or not, one million people will die of malaria this year. Most of them and the forty nine million other people who will suffer but survive could be cured with about a dollar of medicine). And Jesus needs childbirth help and wounds closed and He needs lots of antibiotics. And He needs glasses just like I once did.
This is what we decided in our meeting today. We will order 10,000 pairs of glasses while the price is right. Chip and his friend have already come up with a plan of how many kinds of frames we need and what powers we need in this first order (Did you know that some races of people have larger heads than other races of people do? Don’t feel badly if you didn’t, that is why Chip is heading up this project – he does).
We are going to order two basic styles of frames that will fit the head sizes of most adults in the world. And, we are going to order glasses from both of those styles in two sizes each. That is four categories so far. Then, we are going to order lenses in ten different powers; five for people who are near sighted and five for people (almost everyone over the age of 40 regardless of race) who are far sighted. That is 2X2X10 different styles, sizes and powers of glasses.
This is how we plan to get these glasses to sight handicapped people. First, we will divide our inventory up into Sight Enhancement (SEE) kits. These kits will include several types of specialty pliers needed to adjust each frame to fit each client’s specific face. The kits will also include the various eye charts needed to determine whether someone needs glasses or not. It will even include a measuring tape to be sure that the charts are placed a proper distance in front of the patient’s eyes.
Each kit will also include a large quantity of new glasses. The ‘get your feet wet’, Level One kit will include twelve dozen pair of glasses in the powers and sizes that we feel will best fit the population of the area to be served. Each kit will also include a non-verbal training video that explains how to determine who needs glasses and what power they need and it will explain how to adjust each frame to fit each patient.
Churches and individuals who are motivated by a desire to care for vision handicapped people with both their sight and heart (spiritual) problems can buy the ‘Level One Kit’ for $995 dollars. The level two – ‘there are a pile of people out where I’m going so give me more glasses’ Level Two kit will include all the tools and eye charts and yes, a tape measure, and will include two dozen, dozen pairs (288) of glasses for $1495. And the ‘I want a pile of glasses at the very best price’ – Level Three kit will include everything and the tape measure and three and a half dozen pairs of glasses (504) for $1995.
Here is what makes the I-See program so visionary. You don’t just go to some far off land and fit a bunch of glasses and leave. No, the idea is that we will not only teach you how to determine who needs glasses – people who will otherwise go on struggling with bad eyes – but we will also teach you to teach a local God Follower who lives where you are going, to continue doing what you started - after you leave. Sustainability is the key here.
We teach you the I-See program and then you teach an Indigenous God Follower to do it (See one, Do one, Teach one). You (or your church or group) buy the kit. You take it with you on that short term missions trip you were going to go on (we’ll lead you through the planning and preparations) and you help needy people while you disciple a local believer to take over from you when you return home. You leave the glasses you have not used from your kit with the local ‘Vision Enhancement Technician’.
This is a very, very easy and straightforward plan. In most places your biggest problem is going to be to pick your successor. Lots of people will want to take your place, but you don’t know who will faithfully carry on what you have started. That is why we will recommend that you work through an indigenous church. They know who is faithful and who is capable of keeping the I-See program going and who will use it as a door opener for sharing the Gospel and starting or building up a local church.
Best of all, in many places the person that takes over from you will be able to support themselves by offering the ‘Sight Enhancement’ services you taught them. This is how that could work.
You turn the I-See kit over to them when you leave, at no cost. But you ask them and the local church to set a fee that the local population can afford – five to eight dollars per pair of glasses or so. The I-See technician agrees to set two dollars per pair of glasses aside to buy new inventory. The rest of the proceeds form a sustaining salary that allows him or her to spend full time distributing glasses and the Gospel Good News.
We will work with you to replace their inventory at the lowest possible cost by buying in bulk, and then assembling the specific inventory each I-See technician needs to fill the vision needs in their particular area. If they set two dollars (this amount will probably increase slowly over time but will remain affordable) aside from each pair of glasses distributed. That should be enough to replace their inventory (they will only rarely need to replace pliers, charts etc.)
In as little as one week and for as little as one to two thousand dollars we can make it possible for Indigenous God Followers to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of people who can’t meet this need for themselves.
There are other ways to meet vision needs in places where there is no Eye Doctor, but this is program is easy, and it is respectful. And, it is self sustainable. That is a clear Scriptural concept. Jesus' Great Commission is that we should “go out and make disciples of all the nations, teaching those disciples to do everything that Jesus taught His disciples to do.” It is clear from the multiple records of Jesus life that He made a regular practice of meeting people’s physical needs as a door opener to meeting their spiritual needs.
It’s your turn now. We can show you how.
Thank you for considering being a ministry franchisee with us in “I-See”. As my good friend Mincaye has said over and over as we have traveled together; “Once I could see the Creator’s very good trail, I wanted to walk His trail, not mine. And going everywhere I say to others, won’t you come walk God’s Trail with me?
